About MultiPACK

The introduction of the new EU regulation on F-gases (fluorinated greenhouse gases) in 2015 has prompted the need to discontinue their use and replace them with less environmentally harmful solutions. MultiPACK is an EU project that aims at building confidence in integrated heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) packages based on CO₂ technology, as an alternative to F-gases, installed in high energy-demanding buildings. The introduction of these new energy-efficient units, in addition to complying with EU regulations and reducing the impact on the environment, should decrease the specific energy consumption by more than 25%, while also reducing the total cost of ownership.

Confidence is built by running demonstration tests at six commercial sites, three of which are yet undetermined, at no expense for the owners. The principal target is Southern Europe, where the warm climate constitutes a significant challenge for heat pumping and refrigeration technologies; South-European contractors have to be trained to become confident and motivated to offer innovative solutions, such as the one proposed by MultiPACK. Package manufacturers, typically being SMEs, do not have the possibility to shake down new developments in a laboratory environment representing real life conditions. Therefore, MultiPACK will reduce the risk and fear for the end-user accepting the installation of demonstration/validation units in their properties, solving the challenge of “innovation without risk for the end-user”.

Training material supporting end users and contractors towards a successful implementation of integrated packs will become public via the MultiPACK website.

The H2020 Framework

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020), in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market. The MultiPACK project ID is 723137, funded under the programme H2020-EU.3.3.1. - Reducing energy consumption and carbon foorpint by smart and sustainable use.

Our activities

As the overall goal of MultiPACK is to build confidence in new cooling and heating technologies, the core of our activities is to install and monitor our CO2 packages at relevant test sites in Southern Europe and to spread the word about our intentions and results. 

• Test sites. The three test sites for high-energy demanding buildings (hotels, gyms, spas, etc.) have not been chosen yet. If you are interested in participating in the test campaign by letting us install a MultiPACK package at one of your buildings, do not hesitate to contact us.
• Dissemination. MultiPACK will produce periodic newsletters, leaflets, brochures and other material, all published in this website, to inform the public of the results obtained at the test sites. Detailed measurement results from the latest CO2 technology for HVAC&R will be made available by MultiPACK.

Work groups

The project is divided into six work groups to better share duties and responsibilities.

Management

This group is devoted to the management of the overall project, in particular the coordination and management of the project's resources, promotion of cooperation between the partners, updating the consortium on the progress, monitoring technical activities and reporting to the European Commission.

Dissemination, exploitation and communication

It deals with disseminating the project's intentions, plans and results. The core objectives are to facilitate communication among project partners and market stakeholders, to raise awareness in public recipients (popular science, scientific publications, participation in relevant events) and to disseminate the project results.

Demonstration of reversible HVAC & DHW packs

This group has the responsibility to run a series of experiments with multiple objectives, namely to assess the performance, durability and reliability of reversible HVAC & DHW (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning & Domestic Hot Water) CO2 packs including multi-ejector blocks and thermal storage modules, to secure the technological maturity of the packaged units by providing maximum possible modularity and scalability, as well as remote monitoring and control, and to elevate the TRL (Technology Readiness Level) from 6 to 7.

Verification of integrated supermarkets packs

The objectives of  this group are analogous to those of the previous one, but for applications in supermarkets and with a target TRL of 8, as opposed to the current 7.

Verification of multi-ejectors

It aims at refining the design and control of multi-ejectors, which are also part of the experimental packages of the two previous work groups, according to the specifics of end-users. The performance, durability and reliability of multi-ejector blocks is assessed, with the hope of elevating the actual TRL from 7 to 8.

Ethics requirements

A dedicated work group has to define the ethics requirements of the project. A critical element of MultiPACK is the handling of data, so it has to be guaranteed that all information gathered throughout the project be handled according to EU and national legislation. Detailed information must be provided on the procedures that will be implemented for data collection, storage, protection, retention and destruction. Third parties willing to participate in the project as experimental test sites have to sign the informed consent forms that will be prepared by this work group.