Sunamp designs and manufactures space-saving thermal energy storage solutions using high performance phase change materials.Sunamp Thermino heat batteries are a compact, energy-efficient alternative to hot water cylinders. Energy is stored in a patented energy-dense phase change material to deliver hot water reliably, safely and efficiently. Despite having sold over 30,000 times already, the technology is still to be considered as relatively new in the space and water heating market in the UK, where bulky cylinders using water as the thermal storage medium are the norm. Today, most policies, norms, standards and calculation methods used by installers, planners, policy makers and investors are based on the incumbent technology, with latent heat batteries not finding adequate representation. This project will help to address the barriers against the adoption of our technology by helping to include them in the future version of the UK's Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) - the Home Energy Model (HEM) - a key instrument for ensuring that buildings and their energy systems are compliant with UK energy efficiency and carbon reductino targets and laws. Not being include in SAP and/or the future HEM is a barrier to further market adoption of the technology as it is a pre-requisite for large-scale adoption in the new build sector as well as in retrofit programs such as ECO4 or others. In order to address this issue Sunamp is working with policymakers and modellers to ensure that the HEM will include latent and other types of heat batteries. This project will contribute to this goal by providind key support in developing and refining the test method and generating the data required to validate the model to be included in HEM.

Sunamp was founded to respond to the need for low to zero-carbon thermal energy storage and management in the automotive and building environments. Sunamp develops, manufactures, and distributes a novel, high-efficiency thermal energy storage and processing technology: the Heat Battery. This is a packaged store of heat energy which internally uses Phase Change Material (PCM) to store multiple times more heat than an equal sized water tank. During a 'phase change', such as a transition from liquid to solid, a lot of heat is stored or released. Sunamp has perfected the mechanical design that makes a Heat Battery long lasting and easy to integrate: modular, scalable and easy to connect into heating systems. Heat Batteries can be integrated with various energy sources e.g. heat pumps and chillers. This delivers extremely efficient systems for recovering waste heat and generating renewable heat/coolth. The concept is now being explored in sectors as diverse as heating/cooling buildings at lower cost, industrial hot and cold processing and automotive design. Sunamp's ultimate goals is deployment of its technology in innovative products that reduce fuel poverty, reduce energy consumption, and reduce carbon intensity of cars, vans, trucks, buses and buildings by harnessing free or low-cost renewable heat. Nowadays, the number of electric vehicles used in fleets to deliver chilled and frozen goods is low due to: 1) limited daily mileage as compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles; and 2) extreme discrepancies between summer and winter range as the electrical batteries have to provide energy for traction, cabin conditioning, and refrigeration of the container. In this project, Sunamp aims to improve a technology developed in a recently concluded Innovate UK IDP12 project. The improvements will significantly increase the adoption of electric chilled and refrigerated vehicles for short delivery of frozen goods, by integrating compact thermal stores to decouple the energy required for traction (from electric batteries) from that required for thermal loads (from thermal batteries), i.e. cabin heating and chill/refrigeration of the container. Major benefits are: 1) significant reduction of local CO2 emissions and other pollutants by removing thousands of commercial ICE vehicles in cities; 2) increase of night deliveries because of low vehicle noise.

Sunamp pioneered and patented the Heat Store and Processor (HSP) architecture which combines Phase Change Material (PCM) for thermal storage and heat upgrading. In the HESPER project (Heat Store & Processor for Emissions Reduction) developed in the IDP8 framework Sunamp Ltd, Zytek Automotive Ltd and University of Edinburgh intend to demonstrate via tests of HSP at the vehicle sub-system and system levels that: 1.CO2 emission from internal combustion engine (ICE) used in conventional, start/stop, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles can be drastically reduced by thermal pre-conditioning of the cylinder head and catalytic converter; 2. range extension and homogeneity (specifically in variable weather conditions) for electrified vehicles (HEVs, PHEVs, BEVs) can be achieved, avoiding electric battery oversizing; 3. fuel cells startup in cold climate can be facilitated and stresses on electrochemical components reduced; 4. the overall system related to thermal management can be drastically simplified; 5. materials at the core of the technology are safe in automotive environments; 6. the technology can achieve Technology Readiness Level 5 for automotive applications.

Sunamp pioneered and patented the Heat Store and Processor (HSP) architecture which combines Heat Pumping and Phase Change Material (PCM) Heat Storage. Originally developed for static applications such as solar thermal, this project investigates the benefits HSP can deliver in two critical automotive applications: 1. Reduction of emissions and enhanced fuel efficiency for Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles 2. Range extension (specifically in variable weather conditions) for Electric Vehicles (EVs) Known HSP characteristics are mapped against these challenges to calculate potential performance. Sunamp is expecting to partner in the automotive space to take the technology to market.

Sunamp designs, develops and manufactures phase change material (PCM) based thermal energy storage devices that can store heat and coolth for many days. We call these devices heat batteries. They have been successfully deployed on residential and commercial housing schemes for more than five years and are now being used to address thermal management challenges on vehicles. Battery electric (BEV) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV - in electric mode) range is comprised in cold conditions, up to 50% in temperatures down to -30ºC. Typical best in class HEVs (cars and vans) only achieve between 29-35 miles (NEDC), winter will significantly impact that range. This application looks at the challenge of maintaining HEV cabin heating when the engine is off. Doing so will extend range but also reduce emissions in this mode, as the IC engine is off, and the cabin heating is only powered by the HV battery, quickly depleting the limited stored energy. When this happens and the IC engine has cooled off below the stop start threshold, the IC engine restarts, giving an emissions spike as it slowly warms up. The emissions are less the quicker the engine gets back to optimal temperature, and this was proven in two NVN funded projects completed in 2017 and 2019\. Both these projects showed that we could significantly reduce hybrid electric double decker bus cold start emissions (around 50%) and maintain engine temperature and cabin heating throughout the TfL low emission bus test cycle. Waste heat was captured from the engine coolant, in this feasibility study we will investigate the improvement by capturing high grade heat from the engine exhaust gas stream. Sunamp has teamed up with IAV, a leading automotive engineering consultancy, to stabilise the high temperature PCM needed for this application; simulate the impact of adding heat battery sub system into the vehicle cabin heating system; designing a concept that could feature in a future R&D programmes and develop the business model to best maximise the market opportunity.