A team of researchers from the United Kingdom and China, led by an academic from The University of Nottingham Ningbo China’s (UNNC) Department of Architecture and Built Environment, has won a prestigious Chinese-European innovation award.
Led by Dr Xingxing Zhang, the team won second place in the Dragon-STAR Innovation Award, which recognises distinguished scientific and technological collaboration between the European Union and China.
The team was recognised for their development of a cost-effective and energy-efficient technology that has great global market potential in solar thermal and power systems. Their development of a novel loop heat pipe (LHP) could also be widely used in heat exchangers, heat recovery systems, air conditioning and ventilation systems, cooling of electronics and lighting, as well as in the aerospace industry.
The team includes researchers from UNNC, the University of Hull (UK), The University of Nottingham (UK), De Montfort University (UK), Shanghai Pacific Energy Centre (China), the University of Science and Technology of China (China) and Shanghai Solar Energy Research Centre (China).
Dr Zhang joined the Department of Architecture and Built Environment this year as an assistant professor. His research interests include solar energy engineering, green-building design and consultancy, simulation and monitoring of building energy performance, big energy data analysis, energy-efficient techniques, heat pipes and building economic model.
Dr Llewellyn Tang, Head of Department, said: “This new technology can be used with solar photovoltaic and thermal panels that collect the sun’s energy to generate electricity, heat water and heating/cooling in a low-carbon building.”
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