Current Students and Staff

// University News

8 Sep 2016

Loughborough graduate wins national round of prestigious design competition

A new portable cooling device to improve vaccine transportation in developing countries has been announced as the UK winner of the 2016 James Dyson Award.

ISOBAR can keep vaccines cold for up to six days and can be recharged on the go in just over an hour, providing a safe and effective means of transportation.

The device was invented by Loughborough University Industrial Design and Technologygraduate William Broadway as part of his final year project.

William will receive £2,000 to develop ISOBAR, which he plans to put towards building more prototypes and applying for patents.

ISOBAR uses a chemical process to provide a long term cooling effect for vaccine delivery. A mix of ammonia and water is heated in a lower pressure vessel. The ammonia vaporises and separates from the water into the upper chamber where it is trapped by a valve. It remains trapped until the cooling effect is needed.

It is anticipated that ISOBAR could save millions of lives[1], due to the fact that current vaccine programmes in developing countries do not meet the international standards for temperature safe vaccine distribution which leads to vaccines losing potency.

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