Collaboration and Innovation

Through its collaboration across seven partners and the integration of heat pumps, heat networks, thermal energy storage and Demand Side Management, the BEN project, led by ICAX, has a solution to two of the most pressing problems now facing engineers:

• how to reduce carbon emissions (to nil) for heating
• how to reduce NO₂ emissions (to nil) from heating in city centres.

The BEN project has successfully demonstrated the path that can now be taken to aclean energy future.

Collaborate to Innovate Award Winner

The ENGINEER has announced that The BEN Project has been shortlisted for the Engineer 'Collaborate to Innovate' Awards 2018 in the Energy and Environment section – and won the award.

The event provides a fascinating snapshot of some of the trends and technologies that are defining modern engineering and also highlights the degree to which industry and academia are collaborating to solve fundamental problems across a variety of sectors.

From the biggest and boldest infrastructure projects to the most fundamental technology breakthroughs, effective collaboration is the lifeblood of engineering innovation, and The Engineer aims to uncover and celebrate some of the UK???s most inspiring, innovative and effective collaborative technology projects.

Shortlisted in the Energy and Environment section:

• Agile Power Management Systems for Marine Vessels
  Babcock with WMG, The University of Warwick, Potenza Technology Ltd
   
• Bristol STW - A renewable energy ecosystem
  GENeco, with Wessex Engineering and Construction (WECS)
   
• Elephants to Ants: Innovation in Integration
  Createc with RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) a business unit of UKAEA, RED Engineering, REACT Engineering, OC Robotics and Structure Vision
   
• OTHELLO
  Photon Engineers Ltd with Polysolar Ltd, Swansea University, Exeter University, Absotherm Ltd
   
• Balanced Energy Network (BEN)
  ICAX Ltd with London South Bank University, Upside Energy, Mixergy, TFGI, Origen Power, Cranfield University
  A Fifth Generation District Heat Network based on ambient water distribution with a heat pump in each building to extract heat for heating, or reject heat for cooling, balanced by thermal energy storage and Demand Side Management.
   
• Quiet Aerofoils of the Next Generation
  Brunel University of London with Vestas Wind System, Airbus, University of Southampton, University of Nottingham, City University London
   

The Engineer 'Collaborate to Innovate' Winners' Awards Party was held at St Bart's Brewery, Smithfield, London EC1 on 6 November 2018 and the winner was announced as the Balanced Energy Network.

Follow on Projects

Following on from the Balanced Energy Network success, ICAX is engaged to design decarbonised heating for three community heating housing projects for the London Borough of Southwark and to provide high temperature heat pumps. Like the BEN project, heat is being drawn from the London Chalk Aquifer by means of an abstraction well, with the water being returned to the aquifer via a second rejection well in each of the three community heating projects: Community Heating Southwark.

 

See Ground Source Heating       See Ground Source Cooling    See Ground Source Energy