COMPANY NEWS
Rubitherm opens office in Egypt
Berlin-based Rubitherm Technologies is expanding to the Middle East.
The company launched a subsidiary, Rubitherm LLC, in 2021 and opened an office in Cairo, Egypt.
„We had the idea in autumn 2020, and the company was officially registered in May 2021,“ said Esther Kieseritzky, general manager at Rubitherm Technologies. „Now most of the official follow-up paperwork necessary in Egypt is done and we can focus on production and sales.“
Kieseritzky visited Cairo in January to get a firsthand look at the new office, meet new colleagues and check on product development. The Cairo team has grown to five employees. The new headquarters comprises 100 square meters of office space and 300 square meters of manufacturing space.
Rubitherm is introducing products for retail customers in the region under the brand name “RighTemp,” for which newly designed ice packs and cooling bags are produced locally. The first products will be available in late spring 2022.
“The focus in Cairo,” explained Karim Taha, Rubitherm LLC’s CEO, “is to offer solutions for the
transportation of temperature-sensitive goods, for both industrial entities and retail customers.”
PATENTS
Head covering device providing filtered air and climate control
U.S. patent application 20220000209 (applicant Hall Labs LLC, Provo, Utah:
„A head covering device comprising a rigid component comprising a transparent face shield, a fabric component, wherein the face shield and fabric combine to cover an entire head of a user and form a seal around the user’s neck, an intake port with an inlet filter, an exhaust port with an exhaust filter, an air mover causing filtered air to enter the intake port and exhaust air to exit the exhaust port, and an environmental control component to condition air within the device. … [The] environmental control component comprises a phase-change material to adjust the temperature by reversibly storing and releasing heat when pre-defined temperature ranges are reached inside the device.“
Wind turbine rotor blade
U.S. patent application 20220025848 (applicant Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Brande, Denmark:
„Provided is a method of manufacturing a rotor blade of a wind turbine, the method including: placing fiber material on a shape forming surface; arranging phase change material being in a first state at at least one predetermined first region and/or arranging phase change material being in a second state at at least one predetermined second region; soaking the fiber material) with resin to be in thermal contact with the phase change material at the first region and/or second region; during a crosslinking reaction for crosslinking the resin: absorbing heat generated within the resin by the phase change material at the first region); and/or releasing heat from the phase change material toward the resin at the second region.“
Spiral heat exchanger
U.S. patent application 20220026155 (applicant Hamilton Sundstrand Corp., Charlotte, N.C.):
„A heat exchanger and a method of assembling the heat exchanger involve a monolithic main body extending along an axis from a first end to a second end. The heat exchanger includes a plurality of flow channels to channel a first material from an inlet to an outlet. Each of the plurality of flow channels traverse a spiral flow path from the inlet at a center of the main body to the outlet at an exterior surface of the main body, and the plurality of flow paths are aligned along the axis. The heat exchanger also includes a plurality of passages to hold a second material, each passage extending along the axis from the first end to the second end. A first side and a second side, opposite the first side, of each of the passages is defined by the spiral flow path of the plurality of flow channels.“
More U.S. patent applications:
Composite PCMs (Rogers Corp., Chandler, Ariz.) | Active biological sample processing and thermal management devices (Sandstone Diagnostics Inc., Pleasanton, Calif.) | Bone distraction devices (Small Bone Lengthening LLC, West Palm Beach, Fla.) | Upholstery device (Wolfgang Bauer, Radolfzell, Germany) | Finger brace and cold pack (Carlos Gaston, Seattle, Wash.) | Heating and cooling devices (Gentherm Inc., Northville, Mich.) | Phase change pressure packing apparatus (Korvata Inc., Seattle, Wash.) | Integrated battery unit (Freudenberg-NOK General Partnership, Plymouth, Mich.) | Battery module having structure capable of rapid preheating (LG Chem Ltd., Seoul, South Korea)
IN BRIEF
• Registration is open for the second edition of the School on Latent Thermal Energy Storage. It will be held Sept. 5-9, 2022, at the Lucerne School of Engineering and Architecture in Switzerland. The school, produced in collaboration with Italy’s University of Padova and the InPath TES Network, aims to provide „young scientists and engineers both from Academia and Industry with the unique opportunity to learn from leading international experts advances in Latent Thermal Energy Storage.“
• Research scientist Michael Brütting, right, has been promoted to deputy head of the advanced thermal management group at ZAE Bayern, Würzburg, Germany.
• Switzerland’s NTN Innovation Booster Energy Lab is looking for innovative projects to increase energy efficiency and decarbonization. Successful applicants will be eligible for 20,000 Swiss francs per project and expert support from the NTN community.
• PCM maker PLUSS Advanced Technologies was one of four Indian companies honored at the 9th Climate Solver India awards in December. The winners were selected from more than 70 applicants, based on „their unique technology and business model, strong potential in emission reduction and scale-up, as well as social and environmental co-benefits.“
• Croda Europe Ltd. has an opening for a lead applications scientist in the battery additives innovation program at the company’s research and technology site in Gouda, Netherlands.
• C-Therm Technologies Ltd., Canada, will hold two free webinars in February: „Method Selection in Thermal Conductivity Testing,“ 1 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 3, and „Analyzing Thermal Properties of Biomaterials,“ 1 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 17.
• The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office is seeking input on a building energy storage roadmap, „spanning next-generation technologies, controls, integration, and deployment support needs for thermal energy storage and electrical energy storage systems in residential and commercial buildings.“ The department is holding two virtual workshops on the roadmap: electrical energy storage, 2-4:30pm EST Feb. 10; and
thermal energy storage, 3-5:30pm EST Feb. 14.
• The Scottish government, SP Energy Networks and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks have joined forces to accelerate the decarbonization of heating through Project Re-Heat. The program will examine how electricity networks can respond to the increased demand created by decarbonizing heat. As part of the $6.7 million project, 150 Daikin heat pumps will be installed in domestic homes in the participating networks. The heat pumps will be connected to Sunamp Ltd. thermal batteries, allowing customers flexibility in their demand for heat.
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
From Journal of Energy Storage:
• Optimization of an innovative hybrid thermal energy storage with phase change material (PCM) wall insulator utilizing Taguchi method
• Technical assessment of phase change material thermal expansion for passive solar tracking in residential thermal energy storage applications
• A comparative study of various fatty acids as phase change material to enhance the freshwater productivity of solar still
• Xylitol used as phase change material: Nucleation mechanisms of the supercooling rupture by stirring
• Biomass-based shape-stable phase change materials supported by garlic peel-derived porous carbon for thermal energy storage
From Materials Today: Proceedings:
From Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry :
From Energy:
• Emerging phase change cold storage materials derived from sodium sulfate decahydrate
From Chemical Thermodynamics and Thermal Analysis:
From Environmental Science and Pollution Research International:
• Performance analysis of a novel thermal energy storage integrated solar dryer for drying of coconuts
From Composites Science and Technology:
From Journal of Building Engineering:
From Case Studies in Thermal Engineering:
• Energy harvesting in diesel engines to avoid cold start-up using phase change materials
From Transportation Research Record:
• Environmentally Tuning Asphalt Pavements Using Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials
From Applied Thermal Engineering:
• Self-powered solar desalination using solar still enhanced by external solar collector and phase change material
• Design and experimental evaluation of phase change material based cooling ceiling system
From Journal of Cleaner Production:
• Building energy efficiency and load flexibility optimization using phase change materials under futuristic grid scenario
• Life-cycle assessment of phase-change materials in buildings: A review
From Applied Energy:
• Towards idealized thermal stratification in a novel phase change emulsion storage tank
From Heat Transfer Research:
From International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering:
From International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management:
• Size and Shape Design Requirements for
Lower Limb Prosthetic Cooling System: A Literature Review [pdf]
From Sustainable Cities and Society:
From Energy and Buildings:
From Thermal Science and Engineering Progress:
• Influence of Shrinkage on Phase Change Material-based Thermal Rectifiers
From Construction and Building Materials:
From Energy Storage Materials:
From Composites Communications:
From Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments:
From Solar Energy:
NETWORKING
Connect with PCM experts and industry leaders on LinkedIn
More than 1,700 people have joined a LinkedIn group devoted to the discussion of phase change material and thermal energy storage. You are invited to join the Phase Change Matters group and connect with PCM and TES experts from around the world.
This month we welcome Cheng-Wei Hung, assistant professor at Dahan Institute of Technology, Taiwan; Himanshu Pachori, Ph.D. researcher in solar thermal and energy storage technology at Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India; Masih Alavy, instructor at Seneca College, Toronto, Canada; Nirmal Singh, Ph.D. researcher at Thapar University, Patiala, India; Diwakar Janghel, Ph.D. in thermal energy storage and phase change materials at Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India; Gideon Visser, West Coast territory manager for The International Group Inc., Martinez, Calif.; Lutz Klinkner, managing director at Alutrim Europe GmbH and Rubitherm Technologies GmbH, Berlin, Germany; and Michele Santovito, cofounder of i-TES srl and president of Associazione Esperti Gestione dell’Energia, Turin, Italy.
NEWS TIPS
Does your company, agency or university have a job opening, new research, new product or other news to share? Please contact newsletter editor Ben Welter at benedict.welter@gmail.com.
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR
This newsletter is made possible through the generous support of the RAL Quality Association PCM and the members listed below. To learn more about the association, including membership benefits, please contact Stefan Thomann, executive director, at info@pcm-ral.de.
Axiotherm GmbH | Croda Europe Ltd. | ISU Chemical Co. Ltd. | RuhrTech | Microtek Laboratories | PCM Technology | PLUSS Advanced Technologies | PureTemp LLC | Rubitherm Technologies GmbH | Sasol Germany GmbH | S.Lab Asia Inc. | Sunamp Ltd. | va-Q-tec AG
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: PureTemp LLC | Minneapolis, Minnesota
PureTemp specializes in biobased phase change material. Eighteen PureTemp products, with melting points ranging from 4 degrees C to 68 degrees C, have been designated as 100 percent biobased by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s BioPreferred Program. Contact PureTemp for more information on these products.