ACR Journal

April | May 2020 Heat pumps in the spotlight as industry pays tribute to outstanding contributions. Leading by example Volume 6 No.3 IOR AWARDS 26 Low carbon heating pioneer Dave Pearson completed a unique family hat-trick when he received the J & E Hall Gold Medal at the Institute of Refrigeration Annual Dinner. He followed in the footsteps of his father, Forbes, who won the award in 1991 and brother, Andy, who was presented with the medal in 2006. Dave said: “My focus for the past 12 years has been the development of industrial scale heat pumps and their place in the market. I’m not smart enough to be developing new refrigerants or the re-adoption of CO2, for example. I’ve just been plugging away at raising awareness of how well heat pumps can support our sustainable heating goals. The award is most welcome.’’ Sponsored by J & E Hall for more than 40 years, the medal recognises the most noteworthy practical contribution in the field of refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps. Since 2008 Dave, Director of Star Renewable Energy, has worked to promote heat pump technology at an industrial level and this has included systems running typically on ammonia. He has spearheaded the deployment of water-based technology in this area and led the team responsible for the installation of the world’s largest water- sourced 90°C heat pump system at Drammen in Norway. “The key di˜erence with large heat pumps is the temperature that they can get to which will make projects like this viable,” he explained. “It’s only recently that we’ve been able to get ešciencies to a level that can make a di˜erence on this scale. We’ve adopted ammonia as a working fluid because of the high temperatures that can be reached and a saving of around 25% electrical demand compared to synthetic working fluids.” The Drammen district heating project takes energy from a fjord to provide the town with 85% of its heating needs. The project delivers a Coešcient of Performance (COP) of 3.05 at 90°C from sea water at 8°C, an achievement still unmatched anywhere, nine years after the system went into operation. He said: “By developing heat pump technology on this scale we are tackling two problems – climate change by cutting CO2 emissions and poor air quality which has been a major cause of pollution through the use of fossil fuels. By doing so we are putting heat pumps at the forefront of government policy to develop a low carbon economy and they are viable now. “There’s a very bright future for heat pumps. We have no ready alternative if we are to develop a low carbon heating society. Ten years ago they had hardly a mention – this has now changed. Our challenge in the next 25 years is to have 100% decarbonisation of heating. Heat pumps can play the major role in this.” Two of the other awards also went to people involved in the heat pump sector. Qi Xu of the University of Nottingham was awarded the Ted Perry Student Research Award, sponsored by Hawco, for her research on an innovative heat pump “the EcoPump”. She has been working on the project with several industry partners and judges commented that the low energy system is a novel and exciting project that could have a far-reaching and significant impact on the domestic mass market for air conditioning. The Lightfoot Medal, presented in association with Lightfoot Defence, is given to the best IOR talk and paper as voted by members. This year, it was awarded jointly to Andrew Gigiel and Chris Jessop for their presentation on “Why don’t people install heat pumps?’’ Andrew Gigiel Research winner Qi Xu Dave Pearson is the third member of his family to win the J & E Hall Gold Medal