Starting Fresh: A Clean-sheet Design
In the late 1990s, unfettered by industry conventions and recognizing the opportunity, a small company with a visionary intellectual property portfolio, WhiteMoss, Inc., initiated a “clean sheet” approach with a series of R744 compressor designs. Armed with a body of intellectual property in high-pressure piston pump design and prototyping competencies, the WhiteMoss team was well positioned for the task of developing a revolutionary compressor.
The U.S. Army also recognized the potential of carbon dioxide refrigerant by forming the CO2 Cooling Development Team. Their mission was to spearhead development of R744 heating and cooling systems (environmental control units, or ECUs) to replace FC units in the field. Recognizing the promise of the unique WhiteMoss designs, in the period 2003-2006 the Army supported development efforts with two separate SBIR contract awards ($843,000), focusing on Army compressor ECU requirements.
After reviewing the successful Army SBIR results, the Illinois Technology Development Alliance (ITDA) awarded an additional $71,000 development grant. This grant was successfully completed in 2007, yielding critical refinements that further demonstrate and validate the compressor technology.
The results of the above development efforts are an advanced compressor prototype and an expanded portfolio of mechanical technologies that reveal solutions to, or circumvent entirely, prevalent technological hurdles precluding large scale deployment of CO2 heating and cooling technology.
The prototype compressor, the RWH model, is a robust and durable second generation engineering prototype embodying multiple tested part iterations. Testing with this compressor revealed superior operating characteristics and when incorporated with enhanced, identified design improvements will yield a world class compressor unequalled in today’s market.
With the formation of EcoThermics Corporation to commercialize the technology, the next milestone development will be an advanced alloy version of the compressor ready to enter a pre-manufacturing phase of product development with an OEM licensee. A variable compressor of this capacity (~1.5 to ~7 tons) is in great demand for ongoing development by academia, private industry, and the military, as a component for heating and cooling systems such as air-conditioners and heat pumps.
In addition to its clear economic and environmental benefits, EcoThermics’ technology offers even further system advantages of clear benefit to consumers:
- Cooler or colder, faster, demand balanced cooling or refrigeration, air or hydronic
- Warmer or Hotter, faster, demand-balanced heating, air or hydronic
- Reduced size and weight
- Traditional distributed zone hydronic and geothermal/solar system flexibility
- Non-toxic and non-flammable refrigerant gas, exterior to the structure