Proof of Market: Japan

The Dearman Engine Company (DEC) is a UK based technology developer. The Dearman
Engine is an innovative heat engine that converts ambient or waste heat into shaft power using
liquid air or nirtrogen as a working fluid. The technology is the subject of multiple
collaborative research and development projects financed through various combinations of
government and private investment exploring its application to transport refrigeration, waste
heat recovery and zero-emission vehicles.
Up to 20% of diesel consumed by a refrigerated truck is used for cooling. Along with the
direct fuel cost, CO2 emissions are ~50 tonnes per year per truck from cooling. The Dearman
Engine can be used in transport refrigeration applications by extracting “coolth” from the low
temperature working fluid (liquid air), which boils at -196’C and using the resulting shaft
power to drive a refrigeration cycle.
A consortium of DEC, MIRA, Air Products and Loughborough University is currently 6
months into a TSB IDP8 project to build and test a Dearman engine refrigeration system fitted
in a commercial vehicle for demonstration in 2014. The technology will move to field trials in
2015 and low volume manufacture by 2016. Other projects are underway to develop waste
heat recovery applications.
This proof of market project seeks to explore the opportunity for developing an additional
exploitation path for the technology in the Japanese market. Japan is the world’s third largest
economy and invests $3.9bn a year in energy technology R&D. It has an extensive cold chain
that generates more than $1.6bn a year in revenue that operates in a manner that is distinct
from European models utilising different vehicles and distribution models creating the
potential for further innovation. Japan also offers the opportunity of being the base for a
further exploitation route into the rest of the Asia pacific region.