About THERM
Cooling system engineers who write the software
We have spent our careers designing, building and testing large cooling systems. Today we develop the software and digital twins that calculate them, from offices in Essen, Germany and Somerset West, South Africa.
The company
Two offices, one engineering team
THERM develops thermal design software for cooling systems and advises manufacturers and plant operators on thermal performance. Our platform AEON calculates air-cooled condensers, cooling towers, coils and dry coolers component by component, in the cloud or built into a manufacturer’s own software.
The team comes from the power industry, where we engineered large air-cooled condensers and wrote the thermal rating software used to size them. We now apply the same methods to HVAC, refrigeration and data center cooling.
THERM Development GmbH in Essen and THERM Development (Pty) Ltd in Somerset West work as one team on every software and consulting project.
- Offices
- Essen, Germany · Somerset West, South Africa
- Software
- AEON cloud platform · custom calculation engines · CLONE digital twins
- Consulting
- Thermal audits · system sizing · CFD wind studies · hybrid cooling
- Industries
- Power and process · HVAC and refrigeration · data center cooling
- Languages
- English · German · Afrikaans
The team
The engineers who answer your enquiry
Both directors hold a PhD in mechanical engineering from Stellenbosch University and have spent their careers on cooling systems.
Albert Zapke
Managing Director · THERM Development GmbH, Essen
Albert has worked on industrial cooling systems since 1998. He was Global Head of Research and Development at ENEXIO in Germany, and before that Director of Contracts and Engineering at GEA Aircooled Systems in South Africa (now Kelvion Thermal Solutions), where he was lead engineer for the air-cooled condenser of Medupi Power Station. He has been Managing Director of THERM Development GmbH since 2021.
- PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Stellenbosch University; MBA, University of the Witwatersrand
- Professor Extraordinary, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University
- Technical coordinator of the EU Horizon 2020 project MinWaterCSP, 2016 to 2018
- Consultant to the US Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on large-scale cooling systems, 2014 to 2017
- Postgraduate programme in artificial intelligence and machine learning, The University of Texas at Austin
Riaan Terblanche
Technical Director · THERM Development (Pty) Ltd, Somerset West
Riaan leads the development of THERM’s calculation software, including the component library and the solver at the core of AEON. He joined THERM in 2019 after more than seven years at GEA Aircooled Systems, where he was project engineer for the Medupi air-cooled condenser and developed a component-based solver for thermal rating software.
- PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Stellenbosch University, on the rain zone performance of wet-cooling towers
- Project engineer for the Medupi air-cooled condenser, including the evaluation of its performance tests
- Work package leader for cooling system design and thermal rating software in the EU project MinWaterCSP
- Designer of the hybrid dry/wet steam condenser developed in MinWaterCSP
Research and publications
Close to research since 1996
Our software rests on published methods. Together we have written 20 journal and conference papers on cooling systems, fans and heat exchangers.
Digital twins in practice
“Application of thermal performance digital twins for cooling systems at fuel-switch and brownfield projects”, vgbe energy journal 7, 2024.
SmartCSP, 2023 to 2025
THERM developed a thermal performance digital twin of a cooling system for this German research project, under contract to Fraunhofer ISE.
Best Paper Award 2015
ASME International Gas Turbine Institute, Fans and Blowers, for “The Determination of Fan Blade Aerodynamic Loading from a Measured Response”, co-authored by Albert Zapke.
Stellenbosch University
Research projects with the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering on axial flow fans and the air-side performance of air-cooled condensers.
Talk to the engineers
behind AEON
Tell us about your cooling system or the software you are building. One of us replies, usually within two working days.