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News: Thermofluidics demonstrates its NIFTE pumping technology to 1,100 litres per hour with a NIFTE circulator pump embedded within a 19 kilowatt domestic boiler. |
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Thermofluidics is a recent spin-off of Cambridge University Engineering Department. Our expertise is in theoretical and experimental thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid mechanics, and our specialism is in low temperature difference heat (thermally powered) engines: machines that use small temperature differences to produce useful work in a variety of applications. Our current product is the intellectual property and technical know-how associated with low temperature difference heat engines, constructed from thermofluidic oscillators: fluid systems in which oscillations are driven by heat flows. Thermofluidics is currently developing a device known as a 'Non-Inertive-Feedback Thermofluidic Engine' (NIFTE) for pumping fluids, liquids and/or gases. The NIFTE is a class of thermofluidic oscillator that does not depend fundamentally on inertia to generate or sustain oscillations. This means that it can sustain much greater pressure amplitudes than its predecessors and can be much more powerful for a given size. The NIFTE is also more efficient than any known predecessor. This makes NIFTE pumps economically feasible in application areas where thermally powered pumps are not currently viable. The NIFTE has no mechanical moving parts other than two non-return (or one-way, or check) valves. It requires a temperature difference of down to 30 degrees Celsius between a hot and a cold source, and no other power sources or control to operate. It can be tuned during operation to match different hot and cold sources to different pumping requirements. It can simultaneously heat or cool the fluid that it pumps, and it starts and stops automatically, simply by applying a temperature difference, or by taking it away. It can be applied to thermally powered pumping and mixing/stirring, and heat pumping applications on a far wider range of scales than before, using a variety of different heat sources. The NIFTE can be constructed from low cost materials, such as common plastics, using low cost techniques, such as extrusion and moulding. NIFTE devices can provide a cost effective solution to many heat and fluid transfer problems, particularly to improve energy efficiency, and to provide pumping power when heat is available, and other energy sources (e.g. electricity) are scarce. For general information about Thermofluidics and the NIFTE technology, please download the Thermofluidics-NIFTE data sheet in Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf). To follow our progress with the development of the NIFTE pump in our two core applications, please right-click on this link and save the image file. Thermofluidics also undertakes engineering consultancy projects in its areas of expertise: thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, and fluid mechanics. We investigate problems through theoretical, experimental and modelling approaches and provide solutions that can be used to understand and improve the performance of various technologies or products, and their associated development and manufacture. Thermofluidics is supported by:
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For General Information Contact: Thermofluidics Ltd.
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