Heating & cooling without harmful refrigerants

The aim of the project is to develop a medical refrigerator based on the magnetocaloric effect that guarantees a storage temperature of 4 – 18 °C and uses water as its fluid. Compared to devices that operate with currently available technologies, the refrigerator is to be characterized in particular by higher efficiency.

In the preceding MagMed 1 project, the functional principle based on thermal diodes and a latent heat transport could successfully be confirmed. In particular, a very high specific cooling capacity of 12.5 W/g was achieved – a value that by far exceeds the state of the art.

In MagMed 2, the task will be to demonstrate the long-term stability of the system at high system efficiency. This involves mastering the technical challenge posed by the use of water as the fluid.

The first market to be addressed in this project remains medical technology, which lends itself as a pilot market as it is an application area with sufficiently high sales potential and comparatively low pricing pressure. After a successful market launch, magnetocalorics has the potential to gradually replace compressor technology in many other applications, e. g. households, industry, commerce and transport.

Project partners

• Fraunhofer IPM
• GSI Technology UG
• Philipp Kirsch GmbH (coordination)
• University of Freiburg, IMTEK
• Vacuumschmelze GmbH & Co. KG

Project term
November 2021 – October 2024

Project funding
German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

The aim of the project is to develop a medical freezer that cools 20 to 30 percent more efficiently by using the magnetocaloric effect. In addition to dispensing with gaseous refrigerants that are harmful to the environment, the demonstrator is expected to be more reliable and have a longer service life than current compressor systems.

While current magnetocaloric refrigerator prototypes hardly achieve any energy-saving potential due to their system design, the functional principle based on thermal diodes and latent heat transport used in this project promises to actually achieve the goals.

The first market to be addressed in this project is medical technology, which lends itself as a pilot market as it is an application area with sufficiently high sales potential and comparatively low pricing pressure. After a successful market launch, magnetocalorics has the potential to gradually replace compressor technology in many other applications, e.g. households, industry, commerce and transport.

Project partners

• Vacuumschmelze GmbH & Co. KG
  
• Fraunhofer IPM
  
• Philipp Kirsch GmbH (coordination)

On subcontract: GSI Technology UG

Project term
June 2017 – May 2021

Project funding
German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy