Einstein's green refrigerator

In addition to the great theories in physics, Einstein also designed many devices for home use. In 1930, he and his former student Leo Szilard designed a refrigerator without electricity, with no moving details.

Picture 1 of Einstein's green refrigerator

Einstein's "green refrigerator" design template


However, the technology of using this refrigerator has no high efficiency and almost this design has been neglected.

Malcolm McCulloch, an electrical engineer at Oxford, is currently trying to make Einstein refrigerators. McCulloch explains that this refrigerator is quite environmentally friendly and can especially be used in developing countries, where the demand for refrigeration equipment is growing rapidly.

To rebuild Einstein and Szilard's refrigerator model, McCulloch's team replaced freon, the greenhouse effect that the refrigerator currently uses, with compressed air for cooling. This refrigerator only requires liquid heating and McCulloch is building a solar collector system to use for this purpose.

In this refrigerator, the scientists filled the pipes with liquid butane (often used in lighters and gas for cooking), then led the steam to reduce the pressure and reduce the boiling temperature of the liquid. From there, make boiling butane. When boiling butane it will absorb the energy around and reduce the temperature inside the refrigerator.

Scientists plan to improve the design by using a variety of gases and predict that this improvement could increase the efficiency of the "Einstein refrigerator" by four times. Since the refrigerator has no moving parts (ie there are no moving parts inside), it will need no maintenance and can be used in rural areas.