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Magnetic Refrigeration V3

Magnetic refrigeration is an emerging cooling technology that uses the magnetocaloric effect to provide cooling without greenhouse gas refrigerants. It works by applying and removing a magnetic field from magnetocaloric materials like gadolinium, which causes the materials to heat up or cool down. Several companies are developing magnetic refrigeration technologies for applications like commercial refrigeration and air conditioning, with potential benefits including higher efficiency and no direct carbon emissions compared to traditional vapor compression cooling. However, challenges remain around the availability of magnetocaloric materials and reducing production costs before the technology is ready for wide-scale adoption in the next 5-10 years.

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Mirza Mesanovic
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143 views3 pages

Magnetic Refrigeration V3

Magnetic refrigeration is an emerging cooling technology that uses the magnetocaloric effect to provide cooling without greenhouse gas refrigerants. It works by applying and removing a magnetic field from magnetocaloric materials like gadolinium, which causes the materials to heat up or cool down. Several companies are developing magnetic refrigeration technologies for applications like commercial refrigeration and air conditioning, with potential benefits including higher efficiency and no direct carbon emissions compared to traditional vapor compression cooling. However, challenges remain around the availability of magnetocaloric materials and reducing production costs before the technology is ready for wide-scale adoption in the next 5-10 years.

Uploaded by

Mirza Mesanovic
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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An Eye on the Future of Heating & Cooling Technologies- Magnetic Refrigeration

In a series of articles SIRACH will review individual heating and cooling technologies and describe
how they work, as well as who has been developing them. The article will also cover the potential
benefits, applications and challenges in bringing to market. This month we will describe magnetic
refrigeration.

Basic working principles


Magnetic refrigeration is an emerging, innovative and potential low carbon technology. Due to the
increased concern about global warming and an ever increasing energy consumption, the interest in
magnetic refrigeration as a new cooling technology competitive to conventional vapour compression
cooling has grown considerably over the last 15 years. The principle of magnetic refrigeration is
based on a phenomenon known as magnetocaloric effect (MCE). This was discovered by Emil
Warburg in 1881 and is related to the property of some exotic materials such as Gadolinium and
Dysprosium that heat up when applying a magnetic field and cool down when the magnetic field is
removed. This is illustrated in the figure below. It can be seen from the figure that by operating the
magnet in four steps, it is possible to reject heat and produce cooling. The energy (E =m.Cp.ΔT)
generated during each magnetocaloric cycle depends on the variation of temperature ΔT, the mass
of material (m) and its specific heat capacity (Cp). This effect is maximal at a specific temperature
called the Curie temperature of the material.

Schematics showing basic working principle of Magnetic Refrigeration

The main limitation of the magnetocaloric system shown in the figure is the relatively small
temperature difference that can be achieved between the cold and hot source. A number of
techniques have been used to increase this exchange such as Active Magnetic Regenerator
Refrigeration (AMRR). The principle of this cycle uses a heat transfer fluid in contact with the
magnetocaloric materials (MMC) flowing from the cold side to the hot side when the MMC is heated
(magnetised) and from the hot side to the cold side when the MMC is cooled down (demagnetised).
This progressively increases the temperature difference between the cold and hot source to about
20K making the system potentially suitable for commercial applications.

Potential Applications
There are various potential applications. First developments have been oriented to the commercial
and domestic refrigeration markets for example display cases, beverage coolers, professional or
domestic fridges etc. However, magnetic cooling can also be completely adapted to other
refrigeration applications such as air conditioning, including automotive, cryogenics or in heating
applications (e.g heat pumps).

Benefits
The demand is likely to be driven by environmental regulations, since magnetic cooling does not use
any refrigerant gas but only a water based coolant fluid. There are no direct CO2 emissions so it fully
complies with all regulations such as F-gas in Europe or upcoming EPA regulations in the US. In
addition, the magnetocaloric cycle frequency being typically between 1 and 3 Hz, the rotation speed
of the machine is slow and therefore very quiet compared to traditional compression systems.
According to recent research it has been predicted that MCE will have a significantly higher cooling
efficiency (COP) than the present conventional methods, with a potential for a 30% energy saving.

Challenges
Even though some product commercialization has been completed, there still remain some
challenges:
• The primary one is related to the supply of magnetocaloric materials, which are scarce.
Therefore reducing material content or identification of new materials would benefit.
• Possibilities for reducing production costs. According to Cooltech the fabrication process has
not been optimized yet and costs are still high for allowing a large deployment scale.
• Interface optimisations (e.g Heat exchangers) between the devices and the equipment to be
refrigerated have to be optimised for maximum efficiency.
• Development of prototypes for various specific applications.

Current market development


Although there is a lot of academic work by scientists & engineers from worldwide universities and
research institutions the current market development is not fully mature. Some of the companies
pushing the boundaries of this technology include Camfridge, currently involved in large EU research
project on magnetic refrigeration http://elicit-project.eu/. NEXTPAC (working on heat pump
applications) and Cooltech, according to Cooltech after 3 years industrializing and testing its
magnetic refrigeration system, Cooltech is now introducing a standard product specifically adapted
to the commercial refrigeration market. In addition other multinationals from around the world who
are working on similar technologies include such as Whirlpool, Electrolux, Astronautics, GE-
Appliances, Samsung, Erasteel, Sanden, Chubu, BASF, VAC etc.
Verdict
Not ready yet but One to watch over the next 5 – 10 years.

If you want to experience SIRACH in person, our next SIRACH meeting is scheduled for the 10
October 2015, at Newcastle University Claremont Road, NE1 7RU.

SIRACH will be exploring the topic of - Networks for heating and cooling - opportunities, challenges
and new solutions.

On the 1st October the SIRACH Network is visiting Newcastle University and the Joseph Swan Centre
for Energy Research. Delegates will visit this interdisciplinary research centre, known to deliver
holistic, cutting-edge research and finding new ways of meeting the growing energy needs in an
environmentally-friendly and sustainable way. Current research projects include, Biofuel Micro-
Trigeneration with Cryogenic Energy Storage, Building Management and Energy Demand and Low
Grade Heat Driven Adsorption-Linear-Expander Cycle for Cogeneration of Power and Refrigeration.
The Centre and Newcastle University are also involved in the Sustainable Thermal Energy
Management Network.

For more information or to be included on the SIRACH mailing list please register at
www.sirach.org.uk or email info@sirach.org.uk

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