Dynamic Air Cooling

Cooling is one of the key technologies of the 21st century. It provides comfort, preserves food, drugs, and vaccines, and keeps the internet up and running. By 2060, we will be using more energy for cooling than for heating, and there will be 14 billion AC units in the world.

Current cooling technology has a negative impact on the environment - by the middle of the century, it will generate 27% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Mainly for two reasons: First, cooling uses a lot of electricity. Second, it uses hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which are 4,000 times more harmful than CO2.

DAC focuses on the reduction of food waste by offering the world's most effective refrigeration solution based on novel cooling technology – The Dynamic Air Cooling (DAC).  Our technology allows to decrease the global environmental impact of cooling, also by cutting down waste of valuable resources (water, land, labor and energy).  

• DAC can cool air by -90°C within seconds from the start of operation.
• DAC is ecological – no HFCs are used.
• DAC is more reliable.
• DAC is up to 50% more energy-efficient, reducing carbon footprint.
• DAC can upgrade existing AC/refrigeration systems.

DAC innovation is the creation of a freon-free environment allowing higher flexibility of food storage, reducing food waste throughout the supply chain, and decreasing the global environmental impact of cooling, also by cutting down waste of valuable resources (water, land, labour and energy).

DAC uses a unique combination of gas-dynamic principles, allowing to recuperate part of the thermal energy of the air and convert it into electricity, benefits include:

• Immediate air cooling by 90°C (potentially up to 172°C) with a Tornado-like jet stream.
• Air as a cooling agent replacing HFCs.
• Low-pressure cooling (0,6-3 bar) = safer and lower-cost devices (by 30%).
• Smaller & more efficient (uses 50% less electricity) compared to conventional HFC systems.
• More affordable (30% less cost) and easy to install.
• Wide application of DAC will cut valuable waste by up to 5% vs conventional cooling.

DAC is a fundamentally new cooling technology based on a principle of adiabatic expansion. Dynamic Air Cooling (DAC)—a new patented AC/refrigeration technology that cools down warm air by decreasing its internal energy. Compared with the traditional vapor compression technology: 

• It is very energy efficient (uses 50% less electricity) and cost efficient (30% less OPEX). In all cooling applications, energy is removed from the air that is being cooled. In traditional cooling units, this energy is then wasted as the heat is disseminated into the atmosphere further boosting global warming. In DAC, the energy extracted from the cooled air is not emitted as a heat into the atmosphere – instead it is turned into electricity. This electricity is used to contribute towards powering up our units, hence it is up to 50% more energy efficient compared with traditional compression AC/refrigeration systems. This means that they are much cheaper to run.
• It is environmentally friendly (reduces up to 50% of cooling related CO2 emissions). In addition to energy efficiency, DAC does not use any harmful HFC chemicals. It uses air instead of hydrofluorocarbons to transfer energy, eliminating this source of pollution. 
• It is affordable, compact, reliable and versatile. Due to much simpler design and smaller size, manufacturing costs of our devices are 30% lower. As there is no HFC to leak, our system is more reliable. DAC technology can be used in any type of cooling application: consumer and industrial refrigeration, residential and industrial air conditioning, automotive AC, refrigerated trucks and shipping containers and many more. DAC can cool any air (regardless of its humidity under very low pressure. 

Summary: 30% cost reduction, 50% energy savings, 2x faster cooling, easy install, reliable.

Product demo video:

Our primary customers are enterprise users of cooling. Priority customer groups: 

a) Food storage 

b) Farmers 

c) Food production facilities

d) Food transportation companies 

The global cold chain market was valued at $210B in 2020, will reach $628B by 2028, a CAGR of 14.8% over that period. Intensive international trade, government efforts to reduce food waste, and retail chains expansion boosts the industry. In developing economies, the refrigerated storage market is driven by a shift from carbohydrate-rich to protein-rich foods. Increasing demand for perishable products and fast delivery requirements of the e-commerce-based food delivery market created a significant boost in cold chain operations. The rising trend of purchasing perishable products online has led to new opportunities: the need for last-mile delivery, automated warehouses and low-cost environmentally friendly cooling devices for fresh food products.

Target customer groups have the same pains: 

1. High running cost: with increased temperatures more electricity is needed for cooling. The cost of electricity is growing. Hence, customers spend more money on cooling. 

2. Current cooling systems are expensive to maintain or replace. In case of freon leaks there is a risk of goods spoilage. 

3. High environmental toll - customers feel pressure to reduce carbon footprint, but current cooling technology does not allow this.

4. High CAPEX makes difficult to obtain new/replace old systems. E.g.: Over 27% of US refrigeration systems are older than 20 years. It leads to constant repairs, freon leaks, food spoilage, and increased electricity consumption.

Summary:

DAC can cool air by -90°C within seconds from the start of operation. 

DAC is ecological – no HFCs are used. 

DAC is more reliable. 

DAC is up to 30% more energy-efficient, reducing carbon footprint. 

DAC can upgrade existing AC/refrigeration systems.

In order to understand our customers’ needs, we have conducted 60+ customer discovery interviews. Customers complained about losses associated with technical issues (freon leaks/system malfunctioning), increased cost of freons, increasing cost of electricity. Customer discovery clearly validated the DAC economic value proposition. 6 corporate customers wish to test the DAC system, (incl. DeLaval, Trane Technologies, LG, Maersk, RealSA, Wielton, etc). Also, larger companies and organic farmers place a higher value on the environmental benefits.

DAC system was successfully validated at a food storage facility Piast, Poland, Q1-2022.

Trials were conducted in line with the BRIdge Alfa program of National Center for R&D with the goal to cool down a food storage (volume of 1100m3), previously using 80kW freon cooling unit.

Our 18kW prototype successfully lowered the temperature inside the chamber from +10 to +1,5°C within 45 minutes of operation (comparable to 4x larger freon unit).

• Further technical due diligence was conducted as a part of EIC Accelerator (European Innovation Council) by the Engineering department of the University of Ferrara, Italy (Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Ferrara), which resulted in signing a receiving a grant in June 2022
• Technical due diligence was conducted by Bialystok University Of Technology, Poland a for a VC investor.
• Further testing will include a refrigerated trailer, underground storage and retail food chain.

We have also conducted all necessary theoretical and computer simulation steps proving that DAC technology can provide air cooling with temperature delta up to -190°C. This makes our technology a prime solution for ultra-low (temperature range -90 °C …-150 °C) applications. 

DAC super cold generators can be applied for buildings cooling, transportation and storage of food, vaccines, medical supplies etc. 

DAC is a diverse team of highly-qualified experts, experienced in research, tech development, and supply chain leading to many successful product launches. The team has over 120 years of relevant cumulative experience with R&D, 100+ publications, 25 patents and successful growth businesses. The team started first works on the technology in 2015 as an independent research group.

We already have a highly qualified team which has all the required competencies. Our team has several engineers with strong network connections that allow us to recruit new skilled engineers with the very specific knowledge that we need.

Our CEO and co-founder Pavel Panasjuk has solid experience (over 20 years) in business development and management. He established & successfully launched several hardware companies in Eastern Europe with total annual revenues of €12m+. He has experience managing international teams of up to 40 employees in 5 countries.

Our CTO, co-founder Oleksander Razumzev obtained the PhD title of Doctoral Academy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is the author of 25 scientific papers and 6 patents on membrane technology for the separation of liquid hydrocarbon compounds as well as Dynamic Air Cooling technology.

Our team shares a common passion and vision to establish DAC technology as the leading sustainable AC/refrigeration technology as part of the global effort to fight against climate change.

GrowNY - MVP: In 2021 team has completed a fully functional 18kW prototype (TRL6), which can cool down 10m3 of air/min by -90°C –enough to cool down a food storage size of 2x shipping containers in under 30 minutes – twice as fast as state of the art HFC freon devices. We successfully tested it with an important customer (fruit storage facility PIAST, Poland).

Through customer discovery, we identified significant pain points and translated it into the value proposition. We are getting to test our solution in production, and performance validation with customers, and plan to co-produce our cold generators with existing manufacturers. Our beachhead market is refrigerated storage.

13 people

There are few barriers we hope to overcome with the help of Solve:

1. Technological barrier - long timelines to industrialize a new technology.

2. Business barrier - complicated process to establish a reliable supply chain.

3. Business barrier - reluctance to partner with a new player on the market.

Market Barriers / Risks:

1. Technological risks. Limitations of the off-the-shelf centrifugal compressors may limit performance of our cooling units. Existing centrifugal compressors typically provide limited air flow & insufficiently stable pressure for our purposes. Their reliability is also a risk.
2. Financial risks. There is a long lead time for us to enter the market. We are about 2-3 years away from the start of mass production. There is a risk of us not being able to fund our operations.
3. Commercial risks. Supply chain volatility endangers production. To carry out initial sales to our target market we will have to build our own small-scale production line & create our own reliable supply chain
4. Reverse engineering risks. IP is compromised. There has been a lot of research in environmentally clean cooling technologies globally, yet with no commercially viable results achieved.

We believe that partnership with Solve will help us to:

• Get access to potential investors, receive funding in the form of grants or/and investments.
• Find partnership with other companies. Having a strong technology partner could help us to get to the market faster, however this is not something we will be pursuing until our IP is fully protected.
• Get access to strategic and legal advice from experts in the Solve network
• Gain exposure in the media and at conferences

DAC is a one-of-a-kind company on the market, because no other company has a technology with the same characteristics (most notably energy efficiency and no requirement for HFCs). The business of our competitors, multibillion cooling equipment companies, is built around the old vapor compression technology. However, with our technology we will be able to disrupt this market. 50% energy efficiency is a very lucrative offering for potential customers, so we will be able to compete, once our technology is proven in an operational environment.

What makes our solution innovative:

• Cost efficiency:
  • Our units are up to 50% more energy-efficient, hence the running costs are lower. Due to simpler construction and fewer complex parts OPEX and CAPEX cost will be lower by 30-40%.
• Environmental friendliness
  • DAC systems do not use HFC refrigerants that contribute to the greenhouse effect or destroy the ozone layer, do not use water & typically require less electric energy to operate (depending on the scenario when compared to state-of-the-art vapor compression AC/refrigeration solutions). Based on estimations DAC reduces 50% less GHGs.
• Zero leakages
  • DAC does not use any liquid coolants, therefore there is no risk of depressurization or evaporation of freons into the atmosphere.
• Super-Fast Cooling
  • Unique hardware reaching -90 ° C temperature delta in 30 seconds.
• Versatility/Scalability
  • Using DAC technology as a basis, we can build AC/refrigeration solutions for a full range of usage scenarios: commercial, residential & industrial.
• Compatibility: DAC technology can be used for upgrades of the existing AC/refrigeration systems to reduce their operating costs.

Our solution contributes to the current environmental challenges in the world by:

1. Reduction of pollution by HFCs: 

Average industrial refrigerator contains 1.25kg of HFC which at some stage of its life cycle will leak into the atmosphere. Heat trapping capacity of HFC on average is 1,400X higher than CO2. Avoided HFC pollution will be 1,250t (equivalent to 1,750,000t of CO2 emissions).

2. Energy saving and reduction of CO2 emissions:

Sample industrial refrigerator uses 5kW of electricity. For the same cooling capacity, DAC will need only 3.5 kW. This translates into 13,140 kWh of energy savings by each unit per annum per device. 

Below is the list of the biggest possible impacts achievable with our technology:

1. Ecological impact: By 2050 global GHG emissions from AC and refrigeration will cause 27% of all global emissions. DAC aims to cut this in half.
2. Efficiency impact: The use of air conditioners and refrigeration already accounts for about 10% of global electricity consumption. Without energy efficiency measures, the demand for cooling energy will increase more than 20 times by 2050. DAC will enable up to 50% energy consumption reduction, making it OPEX and ecologically friendly choice for ac and refrigeration.
3. Impact on food waste reduction: Around 30% of all food is lost between field and customer. Introduction of efficient and easy-to-install cooling units will help to reduce food spoilage.

 Our project outcomes:

• Helping to achieve climate neutrality:  calculated emission reduction by 30%
• Increasing energy efficiency: DAC will provide up to 50% energy consumption reduction
• Estimating ease of installations/retrofitting of existing infrastructural objects with DAC devices - in man/hours. 

DAC uses a unique combination of gas-dynamic principles, allowing to recuperate part of the thermal energy of the air and convert it into electricity, benefits include:

- Immediate air cooling by 90°C (potentially up to 172°C) with a Tornado-like jet stream. - Air as a cooling agent replacing HFCs. 

- Low-pressure cooling (0,6-1 bar) = safer and easier to produce devices (by 30%). 

- Smaller & more efficient (uses 30% less electricity) compared to conventional HFC systems. 

- More affordable (30% less cost) and easy to install.

Wide application of DAC will cut valuable waste by up to 5% vs conventional cooling. Summary: 30% cost reduction, 30% energy savings, 2x faster cooling, easy install, reliable

The hardware implementation of DAC cycle includes:

• a compressor with an electric motor and intercooler, which carries out adiabatic air compression
• a geometric supersonic nozzle, in which adiabatic and isentropic expansion, cooling, and acceleration of air are carried out
• an air turbine with electric generator, in which isothermal extraction (conversion) of the kinetic energy of the airflow is carried out,
• a refrigeration chamber, in which heat exchange with the cooled volume is carried out.

DAC unit is connected to ventilation equipment at the inlet of a ventilation tube (in a central corridor of a mine). Cold air from DAC (temperature -45…-60°C) is mixed with fresh air (+25…+30°C) after which a combined cooled airflow (+15…+20°C) is transported to the outlet of the ventilation tube, where it cools the room. After heating, exhaust warm air is ventilated out of the room.

Dynamic Air Cooling is a novel cooling technology based on a combination of gas-dynamic and thermodynamic processes. Technology does not use any chemical coolants and in theory, can provide a temperature delta of-170°C. The largest practically achieved temperature delta so far is-92°C (7/11/2021). DAC operational principle also foresees recuperation of thermal energy of the air and generation of electrical energy to partially power the device (up to 30% from the overall consumption).

Starting from 8/2020 DAC team conducted R&D works financed by NCBR BRIdge Alfa program (Poland). The goal of the program was to create a TRL6 prototype suitable for refrigeration and application as a central air-conditioning unit. Results have to be confirmed by client trials verifying key parameters of the technology.

R&D process: Prototype construction works were fully completed in December 2021. Team has built an 18kW prototype, capable of achieving a stable temperature delta of-80°C, operating with COP 1,2 at temperatures below-20°C.Key components of the prototype include:

• Screw compressor (18kW, pressure max 8 bars, airflow 3m3/minute, outlet air temperature increase +20°C;
• Working elements-a patented system of gas-dynamic elements, calculated and produced by DAC to meet the specific parameters of compressor airflow;
• Custom air turbine fully constructed by DAC team for purposes of recuperating kinetic energy from the highspeed (450m/s) cold airflow. In the future turbine will be connected to an electric power generator.

The prototype was extensively tested in the lab, reaching peak lows of-44°C. Team made a decision to locate the Working elements and air turbine in a separate Cooling module and connect it to a compressor via a rubber hose. This decision allowed to use of different compressors for testing and demonstration purposes, as was requested by trial partners.

Conclusions: 

All conducted trials confirmed the high effectiveness of DAC technology for both air-conditioning and refrigeration purposes. In particular, the successful application of 18 kW DAC unit in the oversized cooling chamber of 1100m3, currently cooled by 80kW vapor-compression showed the great potential and effectiveness of DAC technology. At the same time, several technological issues need to be addressed in further R&D process:

• Excessive noise of the cooling process decreases the comfort of operation;
• Heat emissions from the air compressors require additional cooling.

MetalFrio, Piast and Sescom, are interested to continue cooperation with DAC in the following areas:

• MetalFrio: cooling units for drinks and snacks distribution
• Piast:
  • designing cooling unit for ready agricultural products (100m3 storage)
  • replacing 80kW freon cooling in the ,,plus storage chamber,,
  • a shock-freezing line for the production of frozen vegetables and fruits.
• Sescom:
  • prototyping a DAC AC installation for large commercial/office spaces (split system–a combination of DAC gold generator with heat exchanger and glycol-based cold distribution system inside buildings

Additional information (photo and video) can be found here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x538y7yd8qo6aoa/AADqVqbhiNn-y1wIPPapic-za?dl=0

As we continue the development and market scaling, we will grow our team based on the principles of professionalism, competency, diversity and inclusivity. Our goal is to ensure engagement and expertise strengthening of all team members with attention to the underrepresented minorities. 

Our technology is aimed to emphasize innovation and scalability in the affected sectors including a focus on social and economic benefits for the low-income communities, providing access to efficient cooling to reduce food waste, improving living conditions, reducing energy consumption, and contributing to the environmental footprint reduction. 

We have started to explore the human and physical capital resources. Our team is involved with several global players and organisations, including NYSERDA and EIC. We plan to grow the team and manufacturing partners in the region based on the principles noted.

Our revenues come from 3 sources:

1. Selling our cooling devices. 

The main source of revenue for the period of 2023-2025. Price will vary based on the cooling capacity of a unit (Avg.expected price level of 500-1000 EUR per 1 kW of cooling capacity).

2. Licensing. 

In a long-term perspective, licensing of DAC devices to cooling equipment manufacturers will be a key scaling-up factor. This will allow us to access new markets via already existing local and regional producers. Our plan is to provide licenses based on kW of cooling capacity and number of units, which will provide control over separate markets as well as development of the technology in the future.

3. By 2027 we will explore the concept of Cooling as a Service (www.caas-initiative.org/) offering a pay per use model for refrigeration systems.

Grant + private investments in the R&D phase (2022-2024). DAC game-changing innovation is recognized and supported by the European Innovation Council through the EIC Accelerator program.

Break-even in 2025 = further financing of development from revenues At the scaling stage, we plan to outsource most of the production. We will select manufacturers based on the technical requirements developed within this project. We will also hire service providers to install and operate the refrigeration units.

For the HVAC market segment, we arrange contracts with distributors of refrigeration equipment, among others facility management. For the segment of refrigerated containers, we cooperate with transport companies and OEM manufacturers of containers and industrial refrigeration, reaching potential end recipients through the already existing sales and distribution channels.

In the mid-term horizon, we plan to start licensing our technology to other air conditioning/refrigeration manufacturers, which will potentially allow us to scale to over 100,000 units through one partner.

Below is the list of other incubators or accelerator programs DAC has participated in the past

• 2018
  • 1st place KyivTechHub Competition
• 2019
  • European Startup Festival Pitching Match London winner
  • 3rd place Poland Prize Acceleration Program 2020
  • UK Department of Int. Trade "Sustainable Fast Track Award"
  • BRINC ScaleUP program
  • Horizon
• 2020 Seal of Excellence Award
  • Vestbee Award at PowerUP! in the EIT InnoEnergy Grand Final
  • KSSE Special Award at the European Economic Congress Tech and Start-Up Days
• 2021
  • DAC wins Poland's National Centre for R&D (NCBR) Fast Track Competition
  • Seal of Excellence Grant competition winner
  • Venture for ClimateTech Accelerator, New York, USA
  • MassChallenge Switzerland 2021 Acceleration program
  • Hello Tomorrow´s Deep Tech Pioneer 2021
  • CEE Hardware startup of the month by Vestbee.
  • DAC wins EIC Accelerator (EISMEA) support for a €EUR3.25M R&D program
• 2022
  • 1st place Huawei Startup Challenge (100.000 PLN)
  • 1st place ING Grant Program (400.000 PLN)
  • Urban-X accelerator, New York, USA
  • GrowNY finals, USA
• 2023
  • investment round, TS

Total amount raised in prizes, grants, investments during the period 2015-2023 is 3,778,866 EUR.