Magnetocaloric Materials Revolutionize Refrigeration Technology

Multimedia · Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2016

OSTI ID:1244230

Momen, Ayyoub

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have partnered with General Electric (GE) Appliances on a building technologies project to revolutionize today’s 100-year-old home refrigeration technology. Using magnetocaloric materials (MCM), they’ve eliminated the need for a vapor compression cycle, associated refrigerants, and their negative environmental impacts. The research team is currently working to determine the most effective means to transfer heat from the solid MCM, and using fluid passed through high-resolution microchannels shows promise. This technology has the potential to reduce energy consumption by 25%, and GE hopes to commercialize magnetocaloric refrigerators for use in homes by 2020.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1244230
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
REFRIGERATION
MAGNETOCALORIC