NANOHEX · Enhanced Nano-fluid Heat Exchange

Henix will translate promising laboratory based nanotechnology results into pilot lines for the production of nanofluid coolants. This project, conceived and led by its European industrial partners, is designed to improve the competitiveness of European industry by developing new and more efficient cooling technologies and processes; specifically a new, state of the art, nanofluid coolant with a significantly enhanced technological capabilities that will transform the design and performance of thermal management systems. Nanofluid coolants represent a new exploitation of nanotechnology that has only become possible as a result of recent advances in nanoparticle production and dispersion technology. The beneficial adoption of nanofluid coolants usually requires re-design of the whole system including heat exchangers, pumps, pipe work and operating points. The gains come from a subtle re-balancing of the pump power, heat losses, plant cost and thermal efficiency. Flow regimes and the geometry of cooling channels play a key role. Understanding how to design systems to realise these benefits is a bottleneck to industrial adoption of nanofluids coolants. The mechanism of how heat transfer is facilitated by nanoparticles in carrier fluids is not clearly understood by the global research community. Analytical Models as yet do not fully explain and predict the thermal performance of nanofluid coolants. The advancement of this knowledge will enable engineers to readily design heat systems using nanofluid coolants. The most promising application opportunities for nanofluid coolants reside in large information data centres containing computer servers and racks, power electronics and power electronics for electric drives. The project will stimulate and accelerate the industrial take-up of nanofluid coolants used to innovate next generation heat exchangers to more effectively cool equipment and machinery, significantly reducing energy consumption and costs by up to 50%.