The Institute of Thermal Engineering is one of the earliest laboratories established in Beijing Institute of Technology, and was founded in 1952 by Profs. Queji Sun and Huanzhang Xie, both of whom are the returned scholars from U.S. and renowned experts in the thermal engineering field. There are 9 teachers in the institute, including 2 professors (1 selected in the Thousand Talent Program for Young Scholars), 4 associate professors, 2 lecturers and 1 technician. The institute mainly engages in the researches of efficient utilization of new energy as well as heat and mass transfer, and has undertaken more than 60 projects during the past 10 years, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), National “863” Program of China, National Key R&D Program of China, National Defense Pre-Research Foundation of China, etc. Research outcomes win 1 second class prize of National Technology Invention Award, 2 first class prizes and 4 second class prizes of provincial and ministerial-level Award, and more than 20 National Invention Patents.
The research areas
（1）New Energy Power System Technology
（2）Solar Thermal Engineering and Technology
（3）Fuel Cell Technology
（4）Refrigeration and Energy-Saving Technology
（5）Vehicle Cabin Environment Control Technology
Research outcomes
（1）High-temperature solar collection, solar air-conditioning and solar desalination technology are being operated and applied in a large-scale, and the associated research achieves the leading level in domestic
（2）Researches on environment pollution control in vehicle cabins, and heat and mass transfer have gained supports with 3 NSFC projects, and published over 30 SCI papers, including 1 ESI hot paper and 2 ESI highly cited papers
（3）Researches on energy efficiency and cycle life technology of metal-air battery, and thermal management technology of fuel cell have been conducted. ESI papers are published, and are supported by Commission of Science and Technology of Military Commission
（4）Accomplish the designs of several military vehicle auxiliary systems, and the heat management technology project of new armored vehicle
Main support conditions
The Institute owns solar thermal utilization test platform, high-flux and high-speed wind tunnel test platform, radiator heat transfer performance test platform, vehicle cabin environment test platform, etc.
Figure 1: Solar energy collecting device
Figure 2: Integral aluminum heat exchanger performance and its use in refrigeration air conditioning
Figure 3: Experimental platform for air conditioning technology