Filipino bags international refrigeration award

MANILA, Philippines – Professional mechanical engineer Cesar Luis de Leon Lim will receive the Milton W. Garland Commemorative Refrigeration Award for Project Excellence on June 20 at the Annual American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

The ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization that seeks to advance heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education. The 51,000 members work in the fields of indoor air quality, building design and operation, and environmental control for food processing and industry.

According to Steve Hammerling, technical service engineer, Lim is the second awardee since it started in 1989. The first awardee was from Central Florida.

Lim’s entry was the conversion of the cylindro-conical tanks (fermenting and storage) from ammonia jacket cooling to laser welded cooling panel located at the San Miguel Corp.’s San Fernando Brewery in San Fernando City, Pampanga.

Lim submitted his entry four times before wining the prize. In 2006 it was sent back for revision by the Society. He sent it back in 2007 and again in August 2008, but both times it got lost. He submitted it yet again in October 2008, not expecting anything anymore.

Lim is consultant to the San Miguel Corp.-Beer Division. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City in 1975, and took his MBA from 1977 to 1981 at De La Salle University in Manila.  He was sent by San Miguel to study refrigeration in Northwest Kent College of Technology, Hall Training Center in 1993.