SwRI and Copeland win R&D 100 Award for innovative oil-free compressor

Oil-free, frictionless compressor designed to effectively cool large, industrial facilities named one of the most significant innovations of 2025

2025-09-03

(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO — September. 3, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announced today that compressor technology co-developed with Copeland has won an R&D 100 Award. R&D World Magazine has recognized the “Copeland oil-free centrifugal compressor with Aero-lift™ bearing technology” as among the 100 most significant innovations for 2025.

“We are all proud of being recognized with this 2025 R&D 100 Award,” said SwRI President and CEO Adam Hamilton, P.E. “SwRI is honored that the R&D 100 judging panel selected one of our recent projects for this recognition.”

The frictionless, oil-free compressor is designed to cool large industrial locations, such as data centers and health care facilities, and can be used for other large chiller and heat recovery applications. It cools industrial spaces and large facilities while eliminating the traditional costs associated with oil maintenance and expensive magnetic bearings. Its high-speed rotating shaft recovers quickly from power interruptions and enhances its industrial cooling abilities. Aero-lift bearing technology allows the compressor to self-levitate and operate passively, eliminating the need for traditional magnetic levitation or oil-bearing ancillary systems.

“This technology is a game changer in many respects,” said Dr. Jason Wilkes, senior manager of R&D with SwRI’s Mechanical Engineering division. “We are pleased to see it recognized with an R&D 100 Award.”

The oil-free compressor delivers improvements across several key chiller performance metrics, and it has been proven to achieve a 10% increase in full-load efficiency in air-cooled applications while improving efficiency in other areas. It includes intelligent control algorithms to optimize start and stop times, has a flexible, customizable architecture, and is compatible with several different refrigerants to enable a transition to lower global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants in the future.

The Copeland oil-free centrifugal compressor with Aero-lift bearing technology was developed by a team led by SwRI’s Dr. Jason Wilkes and Copeland’s Program/Managing Director Mike Oakley and Chief Engineer Michael Perevozchikov. SwRI staff members Ellen Smith, Natalie Smith, Chris Kulhanek and Jeff Moore played significant roles in its development.

“We were pleased to work with the team at SwRI on this groundbreaking technology,” said Oakley. “This oil-free centrifugal compressor with frictionless Aero-lift bearing technology delivers high lift performance, reliability and efficiency enhancements in demanding chiller applications. It helps our original equipment manufacturers and industry stakeholders meet their next-generation requirements for high efficiency, system design flexibility and compatibility with lower-GWP refrigerants.”

The R&D 100 Awards are among the most prestigious innovation awards programs, honoring the top 100 revolutionary technologies each year since 1963. Recipients hail from research institutions, academic and government laboratories, Fortune 500 companies and smaller organizations. Since 1971, SwRI has won 54 R&D 100 Awards. This year’s winners will be recognized at an awards banquet in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Nov. 20.

SwRI was also the recipient of a second R&D 100 Award in 2025 as a co-developer of the “Low Mass and High Efficiency (LMHE) Medium-Duty Truck Engine.” The award was received alongside General Motors LLC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Michigan Technological University, ECK Industries, Inc., Northfield Manufacturing, Inc., Wolverine Bronze Company, International Casting Company and CWC Textron Company.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/markets/energy-environment/machinery.

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