37th International Congress (2006)

37th International Congress on Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning (2006)
 
ENERGY SAVING AND HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT – IN THE FOREGROUND

The 37th Congress on Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning, organized by SMEITS – the Serbian Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning, was held in the Save Centre, Belgrade, from 6th to 8th December 2006,  with about 600 participants and numerous guests and lecturers from Asia, America and 15 European countries. Within the Congress, a very successful exhibition of equipment and accomplishments was held with over 140 exhibition stands.

The Congress opening

The Congress was formally opened by Dr Tibor Sabor, the Assistant Minister for Basic Research of the Ministry of Science and Environment Protection, and the audience  was addressed by professor Bratislav Blagojevic, PhD, director of “Feniks BB“ company, the general patron of this congress. They were both presented by the Chairman of the Congress Organizing Committee, prof. Branislav Todorovic, PhD, who first greeted the congress participants.
Concurrently with the first lectures, in a special guest room, a press conference was held for numerous members of the press and television.

Introductory lectures

The professional programme of the Congress included three introductory lectures of the authors from England (Derek Clements Croome, Professor from  Reading University), Slovenia (Professor Peter Novak, PhD) and Singapore (Chandra Sekhar, Professor from the Singapore National University).
The programme was organized  in several sections.

Energy Efficiency Section

The introductory speech and report  in the First Section were given by Dr Kostas Balaras of Greece, who spoke about energy evaluation of nonresidential buildings, and Zoltan Madjar of Hungary spoke on the European view of  the energy performance of buildings. Other lecturers spoke on energy management (S. Maksimovic and S. Todorovic) and methods testing and program support for nonresidential buildings in terms of the EU  Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (Marija Todorovic).

Heat Generation and Cogeneration Section

The Section  dedicated to heat generation and co-generation included 8 lectures. The use of heating oil and its efficient combustion was the topic presented by colleagues from the company”Innospec“ from Great Britain, and representatives of the company “Ovex“ from Belgrade (B. Sretenovic and Dj. Kojic) made comments on the latest standards for feed and boiler water quality.  The Faculty of Technical Sciences had its representatives (J. Petrovic and B. Gvozdenac) who presented the computer model for engineering and economic feasibility of co-generation distribution plants. The author from “Minel Kotlogradnja“ (B. Gacesa) talked about the new flue boiler’s geometry, and a group from the company “Bikozin“ and the Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering presented their experience and results regarding the use of additives in the public utility company „Beogradske elektrane“ (Belgrade Power Plants).
Guests from Slovenia (E. Pavlovic and E. Venko) analyzed the results of optimization of heat exchangers with natural convection and space heating element, and a combined group of Czech authors and authors from the Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering discussed a mathematical model of heat exchangers.

Refrigeration Engineering Section

A special section on refrigeration engineering was dedicated to the late professor Sava Vujic and it comprised 11 lectures.
Dr Risto and Samuil Ciconkov from Skopje presented some new technologies in ammoniacal systems, and “Güntner“  company presented its analysis of alternative systems. The colleagues from the Technical Faculty of Ljubljana  talked about the effects of interior space cooling on  outdoor temperature, and professor Jankovic from the Belgrade Faculty of Agriculture, presented his paper on controlled atmosphere for fruit freezing, while in the second paper written with co-authors, he discussed raspberry freezing. Professor Kosi with colleague Zlatanovic presented the paper on decentralized systems for heating, refrigerating and air-conditioning, and N. Kazic and V. Ivanovic,  from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Podgorica, gave explanation of the number of cycles of the heat pumps with two-stage control  open-closed.  M. Djukan talked about the construction of Italian compressors.

Presentation of sponsors

The second day of the Congress began with the presentation of production lines of the general patron –«FENIKS BB» company of Nis, and main sponsors: «DANFOS», Belgrade, «DELTA TERM», Belgrade, «DOMING», Belgrade, «EL-TEC MULEJ», Nis, «ETAZ», Belgrade, «GROUP PROTEM», Belgrade, »HIDRIA IMP KLIMA«, Godovic, Slovenia, »IMI INTERNATIONAL«, Belgrade, »JUNKERS«, Belgrade, »PVF TRADERS«, Belgrade, »REFTECH«, Belgrade, »TECHNOLIY ITALIAN SERVICES«, Belgrade, »TERMONET«, Belgrade, »TROX TECHNIK«, Belgrade, and  »YORK - JOHNSON CONTROLS«, Belgrade.

Air Heating Systems Section

There were several topics in the Section for air heating and ventilation systems. I. Mijatovic and M. Blagojevic from the Faculty of Occupational Safety of Nis discussed the central supervision and control systems, and the representatives of the Austrian company “Trox“ presented the flow regulator of air systems. Prof. Ozerdem from Turkey analyzed the heat transfer through an air-conditioning chamber, and the representative of the German company “Weiss Klimatechnik“  spoke about operating theatres in hospitals. S. Vlahovic presented a very efficient system for snow melting with panel system, and Vladan Petrovic from Kragujevac spoke about a new construction of panel radiators.

District Heating Section

Like always, many papers (10)  were presented in the District Heating Section.
Mirjana Drpic from the Materials Testing Institute talked about the European standard for testing heat transfer of preinsulated pipes; Mitkovski from Bor presented the energy evaluation of a residential building; Dusan Danilovic talked about epoxy wool as pipe insulator, while the researches from the Institute “Kirilo Savic“ presented the district heating system of Obrenovac wherein the preinsulated pipes system was applied. V. Sukovic described an ultrasonic heat meter, and a group of authors from “Kraljevo Heating Plant” reported on the reconstruction of substations and their interconnection in the single system of supervision and control. Colleagues from “Beogradske elektrane“ (Belgrade Power Plants)  analyzed and tested operation parameters of a new substation concept. A lecture given by S. Bajmak was about the influence of the heat overload structure on the district heating efficiency, and a paper presented by A. T. Bagi was about the evaluation of fuel saving in the central heating.

Section of  Solar Radiation Effects on Buildings and Solar Radiation Protection

In this section, the following papers were presented: «On Precise Modelling of Self-Shading Façades »  by J.Mardiljevic and  K.Lomasa from the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development of  «De Monfort« University, UK,  and «Preliminary Experiments with an Innovative Approach to Solar Radiation Control on Glazed Façades » by B. Natticci and A.Carbonari from Ancona, Italy.

Section of Development of Sustainable Buildings and HVAC&R Systems

The audience was specifically interested in the section for sustainable buildings, where 4 lectures were given. A guest from England, D. Braham spoke about the design on HVAC&R systems with heat accumulation in his country, and Professor Lee from Hong Kong spoke about the old method of floor heating which is still used in some Chinese villages. N. Miloradovic presented his paper on the past methods of heating with modern analyses of their effects talking about the Neolithic architecture and sustainable development. Daran Robinson was a guest from Switzerland, although he is English. He showed how heat and air flows are simulated in urban environment.

Section of  the application of CFD simulation in testing the indoor environment parameters

This section was dedicated to simulation as a new tool in the design and evaluation of solutions, and 7 lectures were given.
Our citizen who works as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, Jelena Srebric, showed the limit conditions for reliable simulations. The next lecture was on investigation of natural ventilation dynamics (Olivera Ecim, Milos Pavlovic and Marija Todorovic), and then the representative of the German company AFA spoke about aspiration of exhaust gases from workshops.
M. Petrovic (B. Bogdanovic as coauthor) talked about pollution from heating plants, and Tatjana Kolic from  „Beogradske elektrane“ (Belgrade Power Plants) talked about reduction of pollutants emission from  Serbian thermal power plants. A young mechanical engineer, Miroslava Kavgic, appeared in front of the audience for the first time and talked about comfort conditions in renovated theatres in Belgrade.

Section of  Laboratories and HVAC&R Equipment Testing

The last section on 7th December was on laboratories for testing HVAC&R elements and systems in Slovenia (E. Venko and P. Novak), and in Romania (a group of authors from the Technical University of Bucharest). 
The programme of the  last congress day was very rich. Within the group on thermophysics of materials and building behaviour, B. Budisavljevic emphasized the characteristics of the  "light concrete block" of  the new generation. S. Grahovac, as a guest from Germany, described and analyzed the heat transmission through specific materials of a vehicle, and professor Sumarac  talked about material and heat transmission, i.e. heat losses in lofts.

Section of Renewable Energy Sources

The last section was focused on renewable energy sources. Terry Townsend, ASHRAE President had two presentations on the future of HVAC&R  profession, sustainable development and ASHRAE plans. Dr Lukic from  Kragujevac  presented his paper on flat solar receiver, and his colleagues from the same faculty, Bojic and Taranovic, presented the results of measurements on the hybrid solar energy  receiver. Professor Marija Todorovic talked about the EU ACCENT project relating to the development of economical energy use of biomass in the countries of the West Balkans, and  N. Djajic and D. Ivezic talked about possibilities, barriers and priorities in using renewable sources in the Balkans region.  D. Mandaric and P. Varga from REHAU company gave a very interesting lecture  on application of geoprobes in use of geothermal energy.
The closing lecture was given by professor B. Todorovic, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Congress, who spoke on occurrence of humid air diagrams  within a short period at several distant places on the Globe, under different names. 

The Congress work  and materials 

All presentations at the Congress were simultaneously translated from Serbian into English and from English into Serbian, and the congress participants were very content with the translation quality.
Time of lectures was limited and controlled by a special “light” showing  the remaining time of each lecture/presentation, which was useful for maintaining the programme schedule.
All the guests and lecturers had a special room at their disposal,  where students from the Belgrade faculties  of Mechanical Engineering and Agriculture welcome the guests and distributed congress material to foreign participants. The congress material was in two packages_ one was from the Organizer and the other one contained the materials from various manufacturers.
The material prepared by the Organizer consisted of the Proceedings in Serbian , a CD with papers in English (including all papers written by foreign guests), as well as the special edition of the book “Who is Who in HVAC&R “. The Proceedings included almost all papers registered for the Congress, while  a few remaining papers will be printed in the journal “KGH“. The publication “Who is Who in HVAC&R “ contains information on 124 companies related to HVAC&R profession, with tabular review of activities on 242 pages.

Banquette and award of recognitions

The banquette was organized for the second day of the Congress. At the dinner, about 500 guests were greeted by the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Dr Todorovic, and then recognitions were awarded to meritorious HVAC&R professionals. The highest recognition,  the plaque “KGH” was awarded to four colleagues: S. Lazic, M. Dusmanovic, B. Xinic and M. Bojic, and the medal “KGH“ was awarded to Jovan Milic and  Sinisa Stankovic. The medal was also awarded to three companies “Beogradske elektrane“ (Belgrade Power Plants), „Termoprojekt“ and „Termovent komerc“. Stanimir Lazic from Novi Sad addressed the guests with a touching speech.  He was accompanied by Mladja Dusmanovic,  who mentioned his three professors who significantly influenced his career - Jovan Sel, Konstantin Voronjec and  Branislav Todorovic.
At the banquette,  special recognitions were awarded to the companies that had been regular sponsors of the congress for ten years, and thus showed  full understanding for the needs of institutions such as this Belgrade congress and journal “KGH“, as well as readiness to provide financial support in their continuous activity. The recognitions were awarded to the following companies: Airtrend - Gobrid, BM Art, Danfos, Feniks BB, Oblik Izolacije, Partner Inzenjering, Rading, Soko Inzenjering and  Trox – Representative Office in Belgrade.
The banquette was organized along with excellent music, which kept a number of guests until the early hours and even a “cold” Englishman, Mr. Derek Croome,  played a violin that was handed over to him by a violinist from the orchestra.
For the guests who came from Turkey, England, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, Singapore, Hungary and Hong Kong, as well as for visiting lecturers, a dinner was organized in a pleasant ambience of the restaurant “Sindjelic“,  a day before the Congress,  by “Beohamex“, an agent of the German manufacturer of HVAC&R equipment “Wolf“.

The farewell lunch

The farewell lunch at the end of the Congress took place on Friday, in excellent mood of the participants and spontaneous conversation about the following congress, which was scheduled for 5th,  6th and 7th December 2007. During the lunch, the ASHRAE President greeted the Congress participants and expressed his gratitude to the Organizers for an extraordinary reception. In the name of the farewell lunch organizer, the company “Beohamex“ – agent of “Wolf“,  the guests were greeted by Mr. Bozic.

The Exhibition Opening

The Congress was preceded by the opening of the exhibition which gathered 140 companies, equipment manufacturers and agents. On the first  floor of the Sava Centre, there was a welcoming cocktail for the congress and exhibition participants, and the representative of the company “Grappa - Carrier“, Mr.  Predrag Filipovic, opened the exhibition. It was not an exhibition, but a fair that also took place on both ground and first  floors of the Sava Centre.
After the Congress opening, the Deputy Minister, Mr. Sabo, together with the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Mr. Todorovic, saw the exhibition.  The students of the thermal engineering department of the Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering also visited the exhibition and got acquainted with all displayed exhibits in detail. A special jury awarded the diplomas to professionals who arranged the exhibits and the exhibition setting.
The general patron of the congress, the company “Feniks BB“ from Nis,  had the largest exhibition stand.