Hubbard assists graduate researcher to IoR’s Ted Perry Award 2018

Christina Francis (centre) receives her Ted Perry Award 2018 supported by Hubbard Products Refrigeration Design Manager - Ashwaq Mohammed (right)

At this year’s annual dinner of the Institute of Refrigeration, held on Thursday 22nd February, Christina Francis of London South Bank University received the 2017/2018 Ted Perry Award for her research into the direct and indirect impact of carbon emissions from refrigerated transport systems. The particular focus of this research was on the growing area of supermarket home delivery vehicles.  The results have provided new insights about the causes of direct emissions through refrigerant leakage and led Hubbard Products to redesign a key component of their vehicle refrigeration solutions.

Hubbard Products were pleased to support Christina throughout the four-year research period with refrigeration knowledge and insight into the practicalities and commercial requirements of vehicle refrigeration as demanded by some of the UK’s largest blue-chip retailers. Hubbard has a established reputation in the field of refrigeration economy and sustainability, leading on the EU sponsored ‘leak detect’ program.

Jed Sherwood, Regional Sales Manager - Hubbard Products (Transport Refrigeration) worked closely with Christina and acted as liaison between Hubbard’s customers and the Hubbard engineering development team over the four-year period of the research. He comments, “This was a long and in-depth piece of research that has immediately delivered benefits for both Hubbard as a manufacturer and our customers by reducing the incidental impact of their day-to-day business activities through greater efficiency and reductions in refrigerant leakage. Christina showed perceptiveness of the commercial constraints that apply, above and beyond the normal academic standards that mark her out as an opinion former for the future. The award of the Ted Perry Award 2018 acknowledges this astuteness and we are delighted that she chose to work closely with us over such a long period.”

This Award was set up by the Institute of Refrigeration after the death of Ted Perry, a lifetime worker into the field of refrigeration and a past President of the Institute with a legacy from his wife Barbara Perry. Ted always had a great enjoyment in coaching young engineers in excellence in refrigeration and general engineering practice.

The aim of the Award is to encourage young engineers to investigate the special and diverse skills required in refrigeration with the hope of encouraging them to enter the field professionally. The Award is open to anyone submitting a piece of work on an engineering topic related to refrigeration and undertaken as part of a degree course or doctorate.

Christina’s research and findings undertaken in extended laboratory and field tests concluded that chilled systems use comparatively less energy than medium temperature and frozen systems and when a leak tight system design is combined with high fuel economy carbon emissions can be reduced by up to 22%.

For a fuller understanding of the award winning research and it’s practical applications please contact Jed Sherwood at: jeds@hubbardproducts.com