TC-HVACR 2027: International Conference on Tropical Cooling and Sustainable HVAC&R 2027 BITEC Bangkok, Thailand, April 1-3, 2027

TC-HVACR 2027 – International Conference on Tropical Cooling and Sustainable HVAC&R is an international academic and industry conference held in conjunction with Bangkok RHVAC 2027 from 1–3 April 2027 at BITEC, Bangkok, Thailand.

The conference brings together researchers, academics, engineers, industry professionals, policymakers and practitioners to exchange knowledge and present research on cooling and HVAC&R technologies with particular relevance to tropical climates and sustainable development.

TC-HVACR 2027 focuses on four key areas: cold chain and post-harvest cooling, HVAC&R technologies and data center cooling, sustainable built environments and indoor air quality, and refrigerant transition and environmental policy.

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following paper categories are welcome.

Paper template

Paper Templates - Google Drive

• Technical Paper (บทความวิชาการ)
  • Peer-reviewed original research. Abstract first, then a full manuscript of 6–8 pages. Oral presentation, 15 minutes plus 5 minutes of questions. Accepted papers appear in the conference proceedings.
• Industry Case Study (กรณีศึกษาจากภาคอุตสาหกรรม)
  • Applied work from manufacturers, contractors, and building operators. Abstract first, then an extended abstract of 2–3 pages. Oral or poster presentation. Reviewed for relevance and technical accuracy rather than novelty.
• Student Track (ผลงานนักศึกษา)
  • Open to undergraduate and postgraduate students as first author. Same requirements as a technical paper. Eligible for the Best Student Paper Award announced on the final day.

List of Topics

TC-HVACR 2027 · International Conference on Tropical Cooling and Sustainable HVAC&R

TOPICS OF INTEREST

1–3 April 2027 · BITEC, Bangkok, Thailand · Held in conjunction with Bangkok RHVAC 2027

Special focus for 2027: post-harvest cooling, cold chain logistics, food loss, and controlled environment agriculture in the tropics. Papers in Groups A to D are prioritized for oral sessions; Group F is offered as an emerging-technology session and Group K as a policy and compliance session.

THEME 1

Tropical Cold Chain, Post-Harvest & Agri-Cooling

Resilient refrigeration, post-harvest systems, and efficient temperature control for food security across tropical supply chains.

A. Post-harvest Treatment and Cold Storage of Tropical Produce

• Precooling of tropical fruit and vegetables: forced-air, hydro-cooling, vacuum cooling, and package-level cooling rates

• Quarantine and disinfestation treatments: vapor heat treatment, hot water treatment, and their thermal design and validation

• Controlled and modified atmosphere storage, ethylene management, and ripening room design

• Chilling injury, storage temperature optimization, and quality retention in mango, durian, longan, mangosteen, banana, and pineapple

• Cold store design for tropical ambient conditions: envelope and insulation, vapor barriers, door and airlock strategy, air distribution, humidity control, and defrost

• Energy performance, refrigerant selection, and decarbonization of cold stores; thermal storage and demand-side response

• Low-cost, solar-powered, and off-grid cooling for smallholders and community cold rooms

• Pre-harvest factors and mineral nutrition affecting storage life: calcium and related treatments to reduce physiological disorders such as fruit cracking, hollow heart, and blossom-end rot

• Postharvest biochemistry and molecular physiology: pigment and anthocyanin biosynthesis, gene expression, and their response to storage temperature and atmosphere

• Plant growth regulators and hormone-based treatments to delay senescence and extend shelf life

• Postharvest handling and cold chain for cut flowers and ornamentals, including orchids for export

• Postharvest handling, drying, and storage of medicinal and herbal crops

B. Cold Chain Logistics and Distribution

• Refrigerated transport: reefer containers, truck and trailer units, multi-temperature vehicles, and their thermal performance in tropical ambients

• Cold chain network design: facility siting, distribution center layout, cross-docking, and hub-and-spoke models for perishables

• Loading docks, airlocks, dock seals and shelters, staging areas, and temperature control at every handover point

• Last-mile delivery of chilled and frozen goods; online grocery and food delivery in tropical urban conditions

• Port, airport, and border-crossing cold logistics; export corridors, customs dwell time, and sea versus air freight trade-offs

• Route optimization, load planning, and vehicle scheduling under temperature and time constraints

• Insulated packaging, phase change materials, eutectic plates, and dry ice alternatives

• Pharmaceutical and vaccine cold chain; GDP compliance and validated distribution

• Fleet decarbonization: electric and hybrid transport refrigeration, cryogenic systems, and emissions from reefer operations

• Cold chain capacity, third-party logistics service models, and the economics of ASEAN corridors

C. Food Loss, Cold Chain Integrity and Traceability

• Quantifying food loss along the chain: measurement methods, loss hotspots, and the refrigeration share of that loss

• Temperature excursions at handovers, and their measured effect on shelf life and rejection rates

• IoT sensing, data loggers, blockchain, and digital traceability for perishable cargo

• Shelf-life and quality prediction models linking time–temperature history to remaining marketable life

• Techno-economic and life-cycle assessment of cold chain investment against loss avoided

• Policy, standards, and capacity building for cold chain development in ASEAN

D. Controlled Environment Agriculture

• Greenhouse climate control in hot and humid climates: evaporative cooling, dehumidification, shading, and natural ventilation

• Vertical farms and plant factories: HVAC sizing, latent load, air distribution at canopy level, and lighting–thermal interaction

• Vapor pressure deficit control, CO₂ enrichment, and crop-specific setpoint strategies

• Heat pumps, thermal storage, and renewable integration for year-round growing

• Energy and water use efficiency, and cost per kilogram of produce

• Sensing, modeling, and automated control of the growing environment

THEME 2

Next-Generation HVAC&R, Data Center & Advanced Cooling

High-efficiency equipment, emerging cooling technologies, and mission-critical cooling for hot-humid climates and the region’s expanding digital economy.

E. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Equipment

• Heat exchangers, coil design, and heat transfer enhancement

• Low-GWP refrigerants, retrofit strategies, and refrigerant management

• Compressors, heat pumps, and vapor-compression system performance

• Testing, rating standards, certification, and regulatory compliance

• Manufacturing processes, materials, and protective coatings for HVAC&R equipment

F. Solid-state Refrigeration and Advanced Materials

• Elastocaloric cooling and shape memory alloys: cycle architecture, fatigue life, capillary-fed and regenerative heat transfer designs

• Magnetocaloric refrigeration: active magnetic regenerator design, magnet cost and packaging, Gd and La–Fe–Si material systems

• Electrocaloric and barocaloric cooling: material development, driving mechanisms, and device demonstrations

• Thermoelectric cooling: figure of merit, module and system integration, spot cooling and micro-cooling applications

• Thermoacoustic, magnetic, and other not-in-kind cycles for refrigeration and heat pumping

• Sorption and desiccant cooling: metal-organic frameworks, zeolites, composite desiccants, and solar-driven regeneration

• Benchmarking not-in-kind technologies against vapor compression on COP, cost, power density, and technology readiness

• Phase change materials, thermal energy storage media, and encapsulation methods

• Nanofluids, enhanced heat transfer fluids, and dielectric fluids for immersion cooling

• Functional surfaces and coatings: anti-frosting, condensate management, corrosion protection, and antimicrobial treatments

• High-performance insulation: vacuum insulation panels and aerogels for cold stores and refrigerated transport

• Passive daytime radiative cooling materials and coatings for buildings, cold stores, and refrigerated vehicles

• Additive manufacturing, topology-optimized heat exchangers, and polymer or composite heat exchanger materials

G. Data Center and Mission-critical Cooling

• Data center thermal management, liquid and immersion cooling

• Direct-to-chip liquid cooling, coolant distribution units, and rack-level heat exchangers for high-density AI computing

• Mission-critical cooling design: redundancy, resilience, and uptime under tropical ambient conditions

• Waste heat reuse from data centers: heat recovery for district, industrial, and absorption cooling applications

• Energy and water performance of data centers in the tropics: PUE, WUE, and economizer and free-cooling potential

THEME 3

Sustainable Built Environment, IAQ & Outdoor Cooling

Climate-responsive buildings, healthy indoor environments, and evaporative and outdoor cooling for hot-humid cities.

H. Buildings, Indoor Environment and Energy

• Indoor air quality, ventilation, and filtration in tropical climates

• Building energy performance, controls, BMS, and digital twins

• Waste heat recovery, thermal storage, and solar-assisted systems

• AI and machine learning for system optimization and fault detection

• Decarbonization pathways and net-zero roadmaps for the built environment

• DC distribution and DC microgrids in buildings: direct-DC supply to inverter air conditioners, fans, and pumps, and the efficiency case against repeated AC–DC conversion

• Solar-direct and battery-coupled cooling: matching PV output to cooling load without grid conversion, and the control strategies this requires

• Power quality and harmonics from inverter-driven cooling equipment at building and feeder scale

• Zone-level cooling load forecasting and load disaggregation from metered building data

• Demand response by load type, and coordinated automatic control of multiple air conditioning units

• Reinforcement learning and data-driven control of building cooling, and the open datasets that make such work reproducible

• Solar forecasting for cooling load matching, PV ramp events, and their effect on system frequency response

I. Architecture, Building Envelope and Green Building Certification

• Integration of architectural design and air conditioning: massing, orientation, and floor plate depth, and their measured effect on tropical cooling load

• Building envelope performance: high-performance glazing, shading devices, double-skin façades, green roofs, and living walls

• Natural, mixed-mode, and hybrid ventilation; stack effect, courtyards, and vernacular Thai design strategies applied to modern buildings

• Green building certification and the HVAC pathway to it: LEED, TREES, WELL, EDGE, and Thailand’s Building Energy Code

• Coordination of MEP with architecture: plant room siting, riser and ceiling void allocation, maintenance access, and the cost of late coordination

• Retrofit and adaptive reuse of existing buildings for lower cooling demand

• Adaptive thermal comfort models and occupant behavior in naturally ventilated tropical buildings

• Whole-life carbon: embodied versus operational carbon trade-offs in envelope and HVAC decisions

J. Evaporative, Water-based and Outdoor Cooling

• Cooling tower design and operation: fill selection, drift and plume control, siting and noise, water treatment, and Legionella management

• Waterfall, cascade, and architectural water features used as evaporative cooling elements: performance, control, and integration with the building

• Direct, indirect, and hybrid evaporative cooling for tropical humidity conditions

• Water consumption, condensate recovery, rainwater reuse, and water use effectiveness in cooling systems

• Outdoor thermal comfort in semi-open and open spaces: PET, UTCI, and field measurement in tropical settings

• Spot and zone cooling of outdoor areas: misting, high-volume low-speed fans, radiant panels, and ventilated canopies for markets, stadiums, transit stations, and dining terraces

• Urban heat island mitigation: cool roofs and pavements, tree canopy, water bodies, and street geometry

• Microclimate modeling and design-stage prediction: CFD, ENVI-met, and validation against site measurement

• Concept and demonstration projects for outdoor temperature control, including energy and water cost per square meter served

THEME 4

Refrigerant Transition, Policy & Compliance

Low-GWP refrigerants, environmental policy, and responsible pathways toward lower-carbon cooling.

K. Refrigerant Transition, Policy and Compliance

• National refrigerant inventories: import, consumption, banked quantities, and the methodology behind them

• Demand forecasting and phase-down pathway modeling for HCFCs and HFCs

• Montreal Protocol implementation, HCFC Phase-out Management Plans, and the Kigali Amendment HFC phase-down

• Selection of low-GWP alternatives; lifecycle climate performance (LCCP) and TEWI assessment

• Refrigerant recovery, reclamation, recycling, and end-of-life destruction

• Leak detection, containment, and servicing-sector practice in tropical operating conditions

• Safety standards and codes for flammable (A2L, A3) and higher-pressure (R-744) refrigerants

• Technician training, certification, and capacity building for the transition

• Regulatory instruments: import licensing and quotas, labeling, and minimum energy performance standards

• Cost and feasibility of transition for SMEs and the independent servicing sector

• Natural refrigerants and not-in-kind technologies as compliance pathways

Other topics related to the refrigeration and air conditioning industry are also welcome.

PRESENTATION AND PUBLICATION PRESENTATION AND PUBLICATION

Oral sessions run across all three days, 1–3 April 2027, in the conference halls adjoining the exhibition. Poster sessions are held on 2 April. At least one author of each accepted paper must register and present in person; papers presented by proxy are permitted only with written approval from the Technical Chair.

Accepted papers are published in TC-HVACR 2027 Proceedings with an ISBN. Selected papers may be invited for extended publication in a partner journal. Authors retain copyright and grant the organizers a non-exclusive license to publish and distribute.

Venue

The conference will be held at Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC), Bangkok, Thailand, from 1–3 April 2027, in conjunction with Bangkok RHVAC 2027.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to info@bangkokrhvac.com.