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Department of Engineering |
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Department spin off company awarded £70K DTI grant
23 August 2006
Christos Markides demonstrates the NIFTE
heat pump with no moving parts
Thermofluidics Ltd, a recent spin-off company from the Department of Engineering at Cambridge, have just been awarded a £70,000 DTI funded research grant by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA). The company are developing 'Non-Inertive Feedback Thermofluidic Engine' (NIFTE) devices that do not require electricity to run and have no dynamic seals or bearings, giving them clear advantages over mechanical heat engines. Apart from unprecedented reliability and low maintenance, NIFTE devices can be manufactured from very low cost materials, using cheap and well established production techniques. This makes NIFTE pumps economically feasible in application areas where heat pumps are not currently viable.
Thermofluidics Ltd was co-founded by Dr. Tom Smith and Dr. Christos Markides, two recent graduates of the Department. Tom Smith said: "We are delighted with this grant, as it will help us to develop our NIFTE pumping technology to a stage where we can demonstrate required levels of performance in our two first stage applications: solar-thermally powered water pumping and domestic hot water circulation using waste heat. We will aim to demonstrate flow rates of up to 1000L/hr and pumping heads of up to 40m of water. We plan to demonstrate prototype units embedded into these applications over the next 18 months."
For further information please contact:
Dr. Tom Smith email: t.smith@thermofluidics.com or Dr. Christos Markides email: c.markides@thermofluidics.com.
