On June 23rd 2017, the Saxon State Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport convinced himself of the performance and innovative energy of ILK Dresden.

The Dresden ILK (Institute of Air Handling and Refrigeration) is existing for more than 27 years as an independent research company which works closely together with the industry. The federal government has known the ILK for a long time as well as the development and the impact of the ILK in Saxony and worldwide. With an interdisciplinary team of about 150 employees and a total turnover of 13.5 million Euros, ILK is one of the biggest private research companies in Germany. ILK has about 90 partners in the Saxon industry.

The head of the institute, Dr. Herzog, informed the State Minister about the focus of the ILK research and development (R&D) on basic subject matters and challenges of our time, such as the mitigation of global warming, the transition of the energy system, sustainable growth for the medium-sized businesses as well as improved life quality.

Important R&D areas are energy-efficient refrigeration and air-conditioning technology with low-GWP refrigerants, power-heating-refrigeration-coupling, energy storage, thermal water treatment, air pollution control, cryogenic facilities as well as cryo-bio-technologies, but also the application of extremely low temperatures (cryogenics).

Moreover, the required energy-efficiency in the fields of refrigeration and ventilation necessary for the mitigation of global warming, but also the regulations, especially in the areas of CO2 emissions, particulate emissions as well as chemical cryogens have led to an increased demand for as well as an intensification of the R&D activities at the ILK.

Main areas of development at the ILK with a high innovation and transfer potential for the economy, especially in Saxony, are energy storage by means of the specific ILK liquid ice technology (“ice slurry”) as well as liquid air energy storage (FLES).

Another challenge is the application of very low temperatures in ventilation of superconducting magnet systems for particle physics. In the field of cryogenics, the ILK Dresden is involved in the implementation of the international accelerator projects FAIR (GSI Darmstadt) and NICA (JINR Dubna, Russia).

In the past years, ILK has achieved an enormous increase in its R&D turnover. Many new jobs have been created here at ILK in Dresden. ILK has especially expanded the R&D areas of energy engineering, energy storage and cryogenics. Consequently, ILK intends to build a new second facility at the science site in the east of Dresden (“Wissenschaftsstandort Dresden Ost”) for the afore-mentioned areas of technology between 2018-2020. Support will be needed for this investment.

We would like to thank the State Minister Martin Dulig for his visit as well as for his interest and his commitment to the support of the ILK’s further development.