Successfully developed cooling methods for magnetic refrigerators

Researchers at the General Electric (GE) multinational science and technology group have successfully developed a new cooling technology applied to refrigerators by using magnetic fields. This method promises to be able to apply refrigeration on the refrigerator to improve the power consumption by 20 to 30% compared to the current method while being more environmentally friendly.

>>>Video: Cooling technology by heat

Refrigerators are very popular household electrical appliances in families. Until now, despite receiving many improvements to make operation more efficient, refrigerators are still one of the most power-consuming devices in the home. The cooling principle of most refrigerators is still based on CFC chemicals and always transmits significant amounts of heat to the surrounding environment.

Magnetic cooling is not a new idea. In the 1880s, German physicist Emil Warburg discovered the magnetocaloric effect (effect from heat ) - The effect when some materials tried to change the temperature when exposed to magnetic fields. At that time, people began to think about applying effects from heat to cooling technology.

Later, the magnetic cooling system was redeveloped in the 1930s by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, USA and has achieved some success. in cooling technology in the 1980s.

However, technology has not been able to apply to civil refrigerators because in order to lower the temperature, one must use superconducting magnets that require a large amount of power to operate.

Nearly a decade ago, a group of GE researchers from the US and Germany collaborated to continue developing cooling technology based on a variety of special magnetic materials. New methods are always used to lower the temperature. Until five years ago, a GE engineer named Michael Benedict successfully built a cooling model that could bring the temperature down to 1 degree centigrade. However, the size of the device is still too large.

Recently, material scientists from the research group have happened to achieve a major breakthrough, discovering that nickel and manganese alloy magnets can operate at room temperature. By arranging magnets into 1 50-stage cooling chain. Initially, the team was able to reduce the temperature of a flow of 45 ° C hot water. According to Benedict, the team member described that the device is only the size of a small trolley.

The research leader, Venkat Venkatakrishnan, said: "There are no people in the world who can implement cooling methods through many stages. We believe that the team will be the first to be able to shrink the deck. Magnetic cooling machines, we will also be the first to enter the phase of magnetic cooling cooling ".

The team presented the system to an expert from the US Department of Energy, a specialist of the White House and the US Environmental Protection Agency. The team is continuing to shape the next phase and hopes to cool it from 56 degrees Celsius while still using the lowest amount of power.

The team's ultimate goal is to be able to apply magnetism technology to completely replace chemical cooling technology on existing refrigerators. Venkatakrishnan adds: "We have spent more than 100 years looking for ways to make the refrigerator work more efficiently. Now we are looking for ways to improve it further for the next 100 years."