Published on 3 - August - 2009

FRPERC sets up new home at Grimsby Institute

THE Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre (FRPERC) has moved to the Grimsby Institute after its original base at the University of Bristol was shut on July 31.

FRPERC director Steve James

FRPERC staff Stephen James, Chris James and Graham Purnell have re-established FRPERC at the acr training provider the Grimsby Institute, effective from August 1, 2009.

Other FRPERC staff Tim Brown, Alan Foster and Judith Evans have opted to form a new company called Refrigeration Developments and Testing Ltd (RD&T). Food process engineering research has been carried out by FRPERC at Bristol University's Langford site for last 42 years. Judith Evans, RD&T's managing director said the RD&T staff will be based at the university's Langford site for the next few years at least.

RD&T's services include:

Retail and commercial cabinet testing, development and optimisation

Design and optimisation of prototype refrigeration systems

Heat and mass transfer modelling including CFD

Energy reduction and optimisation of refrigeration facilities and systems

Optimisation of food chilling and freezing processes

Test packages for refrigerated cabinet testing

In a statement, RD&T said: "We believe that RD&T offers a unique service that transfers research knowledge into industrial projects that are delivered under commercial constraints and timescales. We are keen to expand the services we already offered as part of FRPERC and to continue our collaborations with our customers".

In 2008, the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bristol decided that food process engineering was 'not at the heart of the future of engineering at the university. It decided FRPERC, which was based at the university should stop work as part of the University of Bristol.

Following FRPERC's move to the Grimsby Institute, Graham Purnell and Christian James became senior research fellows at the Grimsby Institute on August 1. Steve James continues his role as FRPERC director.

Steve James said: "We have been overwhelmed by the level of support in the food and refrigeration areas offered by the Grimsby Institute. With this level of support and enthusiasm we see a rapid expansion of FRPERC activities at Grimsby".

Former FRPERC workers Wendy Larder, Mark Swain and Veronica Swain have retired.

For more details about FRPERC visit its new website at FRPERC.com

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