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https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/capacitor-based-heat-pumps-see-big-boost-in-efficiency/
Various forms of heat pumps—refrigerators, air conditioners, heaters—are estimated to consume about 30 percent of the world's electricity. And that number is almost certain to rise, as heat pumps play a very large role in efforts to electrify heating to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Most existing versions of these systems rely on the compression of a class of chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons, gasses that were chosen because they have a far smaller impact on the ozone layer than earlier refrigerants. Unfortunately, they are also extremely potent greenhouse gasses, with a short-term impact several thousand times that of carbon dioxide.
Alternate technologies have been tested, but all of them have at least one major drawback in comparison to gas compression. In a paper released in today's issue of Science, however, researchers describe progress on a form of heat pump that is built around a capacitor that changes temperature as it's charged and discharged. Because the energy spent while charging it can be used on discharge, the system has the potential to be highly efficient.
[...] For hydrofluorocarbons, the difference in heat content can be controlled by altering the pressure. Compressing a gas will heat it up while lowering the pressure cools it down. However, various other materials undergo similar heating and cooling in response to other external influences, including physical stress, magnetic fields, or electric fields. In many cases, these materials remain solid despite experiencing significant changes in temperature, which could potentially simplify the supporting equipment needed for heating and cooling.
In the new work, done by researchers mostly based in Luxembourg, the researchers focused on materials that change temperature in response to electric fields, generically known as electrocalorics. While a variety of configurations have been tested for these materials, researchers have settled on a layered capacitor structure, with the electric field of the material changing as more charge is stored within it. As charge is stored, an electrocaloric material will heat up. When the charge is drained, they'll draw in heat from the environment.
This has a significant advantage regarding the power needed for the device to operate since the current generated when draining the capacitor can just be used to power something. There's a little energy lost during the round-trip in and out of storage, but that can potentially be limited to less than one percent.
Journal Reference:
Junning Li et al., High cooling performance in a double-loop electrocaloric heat pump, Science, 16 Nov 2023 Vol 382, Issue 6672 pp. 801-805 DOI: 10.1126/science.adi5477
(Score: 4, Interesting) by anotherblackhat on Sunday November 19 2023, @05:15PM (1 child)
20°C might be enough for a home heater/cooler for the economically challenged.
Maybe not ideal, but it would change most environments from too harsh to livable.
If 20°C isn't enough, you could stack them.
It reduces efficiency to stack, but with 64% of Carnot for one, a stack of two would still outperform everything being used today.
I'd accept efficiency slightly worse than modern AC if it didn't break down as often.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2023, @07:04PM
> 20°C might be enough for a home heater/cooler for the economically challenged.
Climate-ist spotted(grin)! Winter air temps here go down to 0F (-18C) so the first stage 20C would barely bring the house inside temp up to freezing--if outside air is referenced. As AC/cooling single stage it might be OK.
For much more money, ground water sourced temp could be used, I've already looked at that for conventional heat pumps. We're on rock, so either extensive rock drilling to make a long trench 4-5 feet (1.5m) deep to get down to constant temperature. Or, drill a deep well--might be cheaper than all that trenching/rock busting.