Clean cold technology company Dearman has been awarded a Smart Grant by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to further explore the use of ‘waste cold’ from liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to provide sustainable power and cooling.

The funding will support studies in the UK, India, Singapore and Spain, focusing on the potential to recycle ‘wasted cold’ given off at LNG terminals, and to use it to make low-cost, low-carbon liquid air, which in turn can provide both cold and power.

Liquefied natural gas is energy packaged in cold. When it is re-gasified at import terminals, this cold ‘packaging’ is literally thrown away; in the UK less than 20% is used in co-located processes. However, it is possible to capture the cold and recycle it to assist in the production of liquid air.

Dearman technology harnesses liquid air to produce zero-emission power and cooling for use in a number of applications, including urban transport, the built environment and refrigerated transportation. Building on work done to date in India and other markets, the company will lead detailed, in-country studies into how capturing waste cold can support a clean ‘cold economy’, harnessing waste cold to replace the use of diesel. Producing cold in this way decreases the cost of cooling and lessens its environmental impact.

Dearman’s group managing director, Michael Ayres, said: 'This project will further our understanding of how Dearman technology can enable a shift towards cleaner, more efficient provision of cold and power, using resources that already exist but are currently wasted. Recycling wasted cold from LNG is a huge opportunity that is currently almost completely untapped.'

He continued: 'Rethinking the way we use cold is vital if we are going to meet the growing need for cooling, driven by a rising global population, the desire to eradicate food waste and the need for new digital communications infrastructure. This latest piece of funding is further recognition that liquid air technologies present an economically viable, environmentally sustainable alternative to traditional, polluting fossil-fuel systems.'

This Smart Grant funding follows the announcement earlier this month that a Dearman-led consortium has been awarded almost £850,000 by Innovate UK to develop a zero-emission auxiliary engine running on liquid air that will dramatically reduce the emissions from refrigerated trucks and air-conditioned buses. Dearman’s first application, a zero-emission transport refrigeration unit, is currently in test at MIRA.