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Li X, Hua P, Sun Q. Continuous and efficient elastocaloric air cooling by coil-bending. Nat Commun 2023; 14:7982. [PMID: 38042868 PMCID: PMC10693641 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43611-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Elastocaloric cooling has emerged as an eco-friendly technology capable of eliminating greenhouse-gas refrigerants. However, its development is limited by the large driving force and low efficiency in uniaxial loading modes. Here, we present a low-force and energy-efficient elastocaloric air cooling approach based on coil-bending of NiTi ribbons/wires. Our air cooler achieves continuous cold outlet air with a temperature drop of 10.6 K and a specific cooling power of 2.5 W g-1 at a low specific driving force of 26 N g-1. Notably, the cooler shows a system coefficient of performance of 3.7 (ratio of cooling power to rotational mechanical power). These values are realized by the large specific heat transfer area (12.6 cm2 g-1) and the constant cold zone of NiTi wires. Our coil-bending system exhibits a competitive performance among caloric air coolers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xueshi Li
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
| | - Peng Hua
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
- HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute, Futian, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
| | - Qingping Sun
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
- HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute, Futian, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
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Li J, Torelló A, Kovacova V, Prah U, Aravindhan A, Granzow T, Usui T, Hirose S, Defay E. High cooling performance in a double-loop electrocaloric heat pump. Science 2023; 382:801-805. [PMID: 37972174 DOI: 10.1126/science.adi5477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 09/22/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Abstract
Cooling through solid-state electrocaloric materials is an attractive replacement for vapor compression. Despite recent efforts, devices that are potentially commercially competitive have not been developed. We present an electrocaloric cooler with a maximum temperature span of 20.9 kelvin and a maximum cooling power of 4.2 watts under the moderate applied electric field of 10 volts per micrometer without any observed breakdown. Moreover, the maximum coefficient of performance, even taking into account energy expended on fluid pumping, reaches 64% of Carnot's efficiency as long as energy is properly recovered. We believe that this demonstration shows electrocaloric cooling to be a very promising alternative to vapor compression cooling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junning Li
- Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux L-4422, Luxembourg
| | - Alvar Torelló
- Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux L-4422, Luxembourg
| | - Veronika Kovacova
- Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux L-4422, Luxembourg
| | - Uros Prah
- Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux L-4422, Luxembourg
| | - Ashwath Aravindhan
- Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux L-4422, Luxembourg
- University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette L-4365, Luxembourg
| | - Torsten Granzow
- Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux L-4422, Luxembourg
| | - Tomoyasu Usui
- Murata Manufacturing Co., Nagaokakyo, Kyoto 617-8555, Japan
| | - Sakyo Hirose
- Murata Manufacturing Co., Nagaokakyo, Kyoto 617-8555, Japan
| | - Emmanuel Defay
- Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux L-4422, Luxembourg
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Qian S, Catalini D, Muehlbauer J, Liu B, Mevada H, Hou H, Hwang Y, Radermacher R, Takeuchi I. High-performance multimode elastocaloric cooling system. Science 2023; 380:722-727. [PMID: 37200413 DOI: 10.1126/science.adg7043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Developing zero-global warming potential refrigerants has emerged as one area that helps address global climate change concerns. Various high-efficiency caloric cooling techniques meet this goal, but scaling them up to technologically meaningful performance remains challenging. We have developed an elastocaloric cooling system with a maximum cooling power of 260 watts and a maximum temperature span of 22.5 kelvin. These values are among the highest reported for any caloric cooling system. Its key feature is the compression of fatigue-resistant elastocaloric nitinol (NiTi) tubes configured in a versatile multimode heat exchange architecture, which allows the harnessing of both high delivered cooling power and large temperature spans. Our system shows that elastocaloric cooling, which only emerged 8 years ago, is a promising direction for commercializing caloric cooling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suxin Qian
- Department of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, People's Republic of China
- Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - David Catalini
- Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Jan Muehlbauer
- Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Boyang Liu
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Het Mevada
- Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Huilong Hou
- Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, People's Republic of China
- Zhongfa Aviation Institute of Beihang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310023, People's Republic of China
- Tianmushan Laboratory (Zhejiang Provincial Laboratory for Aviation), Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310023, People's Republic of China
| | - Yunho Hwang
- Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Reinhard Radermacher
- Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Ichiro Takeuchi
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
- Maryland Quantum Materials Center, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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Abstract
Developing high-efficiency cooling with safe, low-global warming potential refrigerants is a grand challenge for tackling climate change. Caloric effect-based cooling technologies, such as magneto- or electrocaloric refrigeration, are promising but often require large applied fields for a relatively low coefficient of performance and adiabatic temperature change. We propose using the ionocaloric effect and the accompanying thermodynamic cycle as a caloric-based, all-condensed-phase cooling technology. Theoretical and experimental results show higher adiabatic temperature change and entropy change per unit mass and volume compared with other caloric effects under low applied field strengths. We demonstrated the viability of a practical system using an ionocaloric Stirling refrigeration cycle. Our experimental results show a coefficient of performance of 30% relative to Carnot and a temperature lift as high as 25°C using a voltage strength of ~0.22 volts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drew Lilley
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.,Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Ravi Prasher
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.,Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
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Defay E. Cool it, with a pinch of salt. Science 2022; 378:1275. [PMID: 36548431 DOI: 10.1126/science.adf5114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Melting a solvent with a salt and then desalinating it enables a reversible cooling cycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emmanuel Defay
- Department of Materials Research and Technology, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, 4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg
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Torello A, Defay E. Maximizing adiabatic temperature change in elastocaloric polymers. Chem 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2022.11.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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