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posted by takyon on Wednesday March 13 2019, @07:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the squeeze-pop dept.

Phys.org:

It can be used to cool or heat the air in a room or to cool or heat liquids. And it looks like something that Q—the tech specialist and gadgeteer in the James Bond films—might have come up with. The prototype device, which has been developed by a research team led by Professors Stefan Seelecke and Andreas Schütze at Saarland University, is able to transfer heat using 'muscles' made from nickel-titanium. Nickel-titanium or nitinol, as it is often known, is a shape-memory material that releases heat to its surroundings when it is mechanically loaded in its superelastic state and absorbs heat from its surroundings when it is unloaded. This unusual property is the reason why nitinol is also referred to as a 'smart alloy' or as 'muscle wire." This effect has been exploited by the Saarbrücken researchers who have developed an environmentally friendly heating and cooling system that is two to three times more efficient than conventional heating and cooling devices.

The researchers say the device also works without the usual refrigerants that damage the environment.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 14 2019, @04:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 14 2019, @04:04AM (#814051)

    "the usual refrigerants that damage the environment"

    Stay away from the usual suspects which were designed to take your money and damage the environment at the same time. First they gave us R12, which causes great damage to the environment. Then they designed the most useless (as a refrigerant) gas R134 that causes great damage to the environment. And then changed that with slightly less useless refrigerants. So that older equipment will have to be replaced every few years (planned obsolescence), making them much more money than they would have.

    All this was done while better, natural refrigerants that barely cause any damage to the environment exist. Think R290, R600a etc. They are Propane and Iso-butane. Very efficient, safe and environmentally friendly.