Newsletter October 2025

Newsletter October 2025

 

Dear Sir or Madam,


In this issue, we're excited to share the following updates:

 

R-290 under Test - Expanding Our Capabilities, Expanding Your Opportunities

Propane (R-290) has long been established as a natural refrigerant in stationary heat pumps, e.g., domestic heat pumps. In the automotive industry, however, its use continues to be controversial. Regardless of the area of application, we are continuously expanding our testing capacities for flammable refrigerants – with a special focus on R-290. In addition to the proven testing of compressors, which can be performed fully automated 24/7 if required, we also measure all other components in the refrigeration cycle, including valves, heat exchangers, and other system elements. In the field of stationary heat pumps, we analyze in detail entire systems, individual components, and specific operating points such as icing and deicing.

 

Another milestone is our participation in the TEN.efzn research program – Transforming the Energy System Lower Saxony. As an associate member, we operate our own test bench for testing components and systems with the refrigerant propane. In this way, we support the development of a compact heat pump module for building heat supply, which optionally uses oil-free  components and/or components from automotive thermal management.


For more information, please visit our website or contact our colleague Norbert Stulgies directly at versuch@tlk-thermo.com. From the idea to implementation: We support you with customized solutions for your measurement task.

Two employees working on a compressor test bench for R290

Faster, Stronger, Smarter: Real-Time Simulation for Natural Refrigerant Mixtures

Our TIL Suite, consisting of the TIL model library and the TILMedia substance data library, is used successfully by many customers for the design of large heat pumps – e.g. for efficient heat supply in heating networks or industrial processes. The libraries are characterized by high accuracy and computing performance. 


To ensure that this remains true even as complexity increases – especially when using natural refrigerant mixtures – we are investing specifically in the further development of our software. Together with the Thermal Science Lab of the Technische Universität Braunschweig, we have launched the GROGA innovation project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ZIM program).


A key focus is on improving the real-time capability of particularly complex simulation models so that they can also be used for hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) testing, model-based control, and online fault monitoring in digital twins.

Particular attention is paid to high-temperature heat pumps with natural refrigerant mixtures such as CO₂ or hydrocarbons. These are climate-friendly and particularly efficient due to their adaptation to temperature glide, but place high demands on simulation, for example in terms of changes in composition and phase equilibrium.


With GROGA, we are creating the necessary modeling basis to analyze, control, and monitor these systems dynamically, stably, and in real time – as part of an integrated cyber-physical system.
 

pT-diagram for various compositions of the refrigerant mixture CO2 and butane

Meet Our Experts in the Webinar on the Latest Software Updates – Ask Away!

The new releases for our in-house software products are now available. We will also be offering our next software webinar at the beginning of November – on November 6 in English and on November 7 in German. At this event, we will be showcasing the new features of TIL Suite, DaVE, and MoBA Automation. Our software experts will be on hand to answer your questions. 


We would also like to introduce you to our co-simulation environment TISC Suite. We will provide an insight into the software's functionalities and show you various application scenarios. With TISC Suite, you can implement time-synchronous data exchange between different simulation programs, hardware components, visualizations, and your own C or Python applications. 


If you are interested, you can register free of charge on the following webinar website  – in English or German. We look forward to your participation and the professional exchange!
 

Our Contributions to International Conferences Now Available for Download

Our end-of-summer period was dominated by exchanges with experts from science and industry: we were able to present our current work to a broad audience of specialists at several international conferences.

Participation of TLK in various conferences

Our team was represented with three contributions at the 16th International Modelica Conference in Lucerne:

 

  • Modeling, Simulation, and Validation of Thermal Propagation for 3D Discretized Battery Cells in Modelica, Finn van Ginneken – Download
  • Dynamic Simulation of a PEM Electrolysis System, Markus Pollak – Download

  • Input Smoothing for Faster Co-Simulation using FMI, Christian Schulze (together with Dassault Systèmes and other partners) – Download

     

At the 14th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems in London, Magnus Lenger presented exciting results on the topic of Pump, Compressor, and Expander Requirements for Power Generating Liquid Hydrogen Regasification. And at the 23rd Dresdner Colloquium on Refrigeration Technology, Andreas Varchmin presented our expertise in Model- and Simulation-based Control Development for Refrigeration Systems and Heat Pumps. If you are interested in the technical papers, please contact the authors or w.tegethoff@tlk-thermo.com.

At the end of the year, we are looking forward to the DKV Annual Conference from November 19 to 21, 2025, in Magdeburg and the VDI Symposium: Thermal Management for Electric Motor-Driven Passenger Cars from December 9 to 10, 2025, in Filderstadt.

Mark your calendar for next year: From October 13 to 15, 2026, you will find us together with TLK Energy at Chillventa in Nürnberg – we look forward to seeing you there!

We’re entering the final stretch of the year full of energy and look forward to supporting you with our expertise in realizing your ideas and projects. For the latest information on our activities, please follow us on LinkedIn.

 

Best regards
Willi Tegethoff and Niko Lemke