VATIS UPDATE Article

The Ames Laboratory in the United States will be leading a major effort to develop a commercial application for caloric cooling, said to be more efficient and quieter than conventional cooling. The technology is called magneto-caloric cooling, in which certain solid materials heat up when placed in a magnetic field and cool down when they are removed from the field.

Magneto-caloric cooling is the most developed form of what is called caloric cooling, a process that was discovered in the 1800s and also includes mechano-caloric cooling and electro-caloric cooling. The technology has undergone development over the decades, but not to the point of commercialisation. However, starting 1 July, the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State will be leading an effort called CaloriCool to develop a commercial application for magneto-caloric cooling and other forms of caloric cooling. The Ames Laboratory, which operates under the United States Department of Energy, has previously done important research into magneto-caloric cooling.

The Ames Laboratory will be collaborating with eight other national labs in the CaloriCool programme. “This is truly a major effort – a multimillion-dollar programme to develop caloric cooling to the point of commercial application,” said Dr. Joseph Sebranek, distinguished professor of animal science at Iowa State University, at a ‘Scientists Speak’ session at the IARW-WFLO Convention, held on 16-19 April in Las Vegas.

Some progress has already been made towards the commercialisation of magneto-caloric cooling. Materials capable of producing the magneto-caloric effect (heating and cooling) include an alloy of lanthanum, iron and silicon (Calorivac, from Vacuumschmelze in Germany), and an alloy of manganese, iron, phosphorus and silicon (Quice, from BASF in Germany). BASF, Haier and the Astronautics Corp. of America displayed a wine cooler using a magneto-caloric heat pump at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2015, while Cooltech showcased a medical fridge employing magnetic refrigeration at the MEDICA show last November.