Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 22 December 2022 to Question 110605 on Heating: Technology, how much funding his Department has provided to research nanotechnology in heat pipes through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund scheme in each year between 2009 and 2022.

Heat pipes are heat-conduction devices that employ phase transition of materials to remove heat from hot bodies. The use of nano-boron technology in heat pipes is in early-stage research which has not been demonstrated on a large scale. Consequently, there are no plans for a UK-wide roll out of heat pipes utilising nano-boron technology.

BEIS has not funded any work through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund specifically on heat pipes and expects that other projects funded will improve solutions such as heat pipes. One example is the £806,000 project by Oxford Nanosystems Ltd to develop nano technology coatings for heat exchangers, funded through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund.