Two University of the Philippines alumni believe that a technological irony could be the next big thing in the local refrigeration industry. They want to harness the heat of the sun to produce ice.
King Karl Seroje and Brian Tan Seng established a company that promotes using the heat of the sun, instead of electricity, to activate a sustainable refrigeration system and help the country reduce its carbon footprint.
Seroje and Seng are the entrepreneurs behind Cleverheat Thermal Technologies Inc. which revives the use of heat pipe technology for refrigeration and cooling solutions.
Another irony is that it is actually an old technology predating the era of electricity, they say, but it is something that can best provide cooling solutions amid today’s global warming.
and King Karl Seroje
“It is using heat to refrigerate. It is an old technology, but now we are seeing its huge potential, because of the global warming issue,” says 24-year-old Seroje, who obtained a BS Physics Degree from UP in 2015.
Seng, 39, describes CleverHeat as “a hardware startup seeking to provide low-carbon footprint solutions to air-conditioning and refrigeration by harnessing heat from the sun.” Seng is already a successful IT professional, being the president and chief executive of 98Labs Inc. He graduated from the University of the Philippines-Diliman with a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering in 2002.
Cleverheat’s technology uses heat pipes that absorb and transfer heat from one interface to another.
“Cleverheat is developing a non-electric, solar heat-powered refrigeration system, so that industries would reduce the use of electricity for their refrigeration operations. Ice plants, for example, can use Cleverheat for their operations, instead of spending too much on electricity,” says Seroje.
Seroje says the same technology can work for air-conditioning needs of households.
He says Cleverheat can be installed together with existing electric-powered refrigerator. “Since it is heat-powered, when the sun is up, Cleverheat starts to work and it automatically shuts down the electric powered refrigerator. Once the sun is down, then the conventional refrigerator or air-con can take over. This way, electricity cost is reduced,” he says.
Seng explains that compared to costly photovoltaic system that uses solar panels, Cleverheat uses heat pipes. “We have heat collectors that look like tubes which trap the heat from the sun. That is what drives the refrigeration cycle,” he says.
He says the technology is timely because “we have reached a point we are consuming a lot of electricity that contributes to global warming.”
“We are reviving this heat technology which is sustainable, because it is using solar heat,” says Seng.
Cleverheat is one of the three groups that won the six-month fellowship program and P800,000 in financial support from Impact Hub Manila, World Wide Fund for Nature, Peace and Equity Foundation and the Asian Development Bank. Other awardees are HiGi Energy Pte. Ltd. and Solar Sari-Sari Store.
The two-man team is working on a demo unit that they can showcase to potential customers. “Using the funds that we received from Impact Hub, we want to create a much bigger unit to match the cooling requirements of ice plants,” says Seng.
“So far, we have been able to build a proof of concept that really works. There is a solid science behind that,” he says.
At least two ice plants have expressed interest in using Cleverheat. “They are just waiting for us to complete the product, then we can install,” Seroje says.
Seroje estimates that it would cost P750,000 to build a complete Cleverheat unit designed for ice plants.
“In the future, it would be cheaper than electricity, because Cleverheat could pay for itself maybe in one to two years,” says Seng.
The plan also involves providing refrigeration or air-conditioning system for households, says Seroje.
“Our primary goal is to close the first customer. We are perfecting the product. Once we have the success story that can be applied on business, hopefully it will roll in more customers,” says Seng.
Cleverheat is now being incorporated as a company. “So far, we are just two in the team, but we are recruiting more team members to help us in this project because it will be huge,” says Seng.
