Ionocaloric cooling has the potential to replace existing methods with something that is safer and friendlier to the planet.
The heat is removed from a space via a gas that cools as it moves away. Some of the gases we use are not friendly to the environment.
There are other ways a substance can be forced to absorb and excrete heat energy.
A new method developed by researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, in the US takes advantage of the way that energy is stored or released when a material changes phase.
The ice will melt if the temperature is raised. We might not know that melting cools it by absorbing heat from it's surroundings.
Adding a few charged particles can be used to force ice to melt. Salt is put on the roads to prevent ice formation. Salt can be used to change a fluid's phase and cool it.
Drew Lilley is a mechanical engineer from the Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory. No one has come up with an alternative solution that works efficiently, is safe, and doesn't hurt the environment.
The ionocaloric cycle has the ability to meet all of those goals.
The theory of the ionocaloric cycle was modeled by the researchers to show how it could be improved upon. The current running through the system would change the temperature of the material.
Experiments were conducted using a salt made with iodine and sodium. Carbon dioxide is used in the production of this common organic solvent. The system could be negative if that's the case.
A temperature shift of 25 degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit) was measured through the application of less than a singlevolt of charge in the experiment, which exceeds what other caloric technologies have achieved so far.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is trying to balance the GWP of the refrigerant, energy efficiency, and cost of equipment.
Our data seems to be very promising on all three of these aspects.
High GWP gases such as hydrofluorocarbons are used in the vapor compression systems. In order to reduce the production and consumption of HFCs by at least 80 percent over the next 25 years, some countries have committed to ionocaloric cooling.
The systems could eventually be used for both heating and cooling.
Prasher says that they have shown that it can work with the new thermodynamic cycle and framework.
It is time for experimentation to test different combinations of materials and techniques.
The research has appeared in a journal.
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