A team from Sunamp and The Edinburgh University School of Chemistry won this year’s ‘Industry-Academia Collaboration Award’ from the world’s oldest chemical society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, for our thermal batteries containing phase change materials (PCMs).
The research that Sunamp undertook in collaboration with Professor Colin Pulham, Professor of High-Pressure Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, helped provide the evidence that paved the way for Plentigrade PCM, the breakthrough controllable and commercially viable phase change material used in Sunamp thermal batteries today.
The team won the prize in the Research and Innovation category. The Royal Society of Chemistry stated the award was for:
“The creation of a successful partnership that has led to the development and commercialisation of heat-storage technology using novel formulations of phase-change materials.”
Commenting on the importance of the win, Sunamp’s materials development manager Dr David Oliver said:
“We are going from the lab into homes and having a measurable impact on the decarbonisation of heat while being accessible to those who need it most, which is those in fuel poverty. It is particularly exciting because of the global reach of our work and we are now global leaders in the field of thermal energy storage.
“This research is the core of potentially every household’s thermal requirement across the world.”
Plentigrade PCMs are now used at commercial scale. The technology is inside Sunamp’s thermal batteries that are making hot water for over 10,000 homes around the UK.
Founded in 1841, the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry is the oldest chemical society in the world. Their prizes recognise individuals, collaborations and teams for exceptional achievements in advancing the chemical sciences.
Read the more about the award on the Royal Society of Chemistry’s website.
Published: 16 June 2022
