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Sustainable Cooling: Electrocaloric Cooling Breakthrough

Posted on January 30, 2024January 30, 2024 by dishanth

As heatwaves intensify across the globe, the demand for air conditioning and refrigeration skyrockets. The ballooning demand for cooling strains energy infrastructure and escalates emissions from vapor compression systems. These conventional refrigerators and AC units rely on greenhouse gases and inefficient mechanical compressors that have reached their efficiency limits. With little room for improvement, vapor compression technology cannot sustainably shoulder doubling cooling demands. Scientists urgently search for climate-friendly innovations before the warming world overheats.

In a breakthrough discovery, researchers at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) pioneer a radically different cooling approach harnessing the electrocaloric cooling effect. This phenomenon describes particular ceramic materials that heat up or cool down when electric fields flip on and off. By cleverly leveraging this conductivity toggle, the LIST team designed an assembly that can pump heat without noisy, energy-draining compressors.

Electrocaloric cooling is a fascinating phenomenon where certain materials experience a reversible temperature change when an electric field is applied. In simpler terms, you can directly use electricity to manipulate their temperature, creating a cooling effect. This opens up exciting possibilities for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly cooling technologies.

The regenerative system developed by LIST alternates layers of electrocaloric capacitors with liquid coolant. Switching an electric field pulls heat from the fluid into the capacitors, cooling the system. Cutting voltage then dissipates the heat, so the cycle repeats. The smooth back-and-forth between hot and cold replaces high-maintenance mechanical parts with solid-state reliability. Scientists calculate that electrocaloric cooling efficiency leapfrogs vapor compression refrigeration by directly shuffling heat instead of wasting effort compressing refrigerants.

Since fluids naturally stratify by temperature, no added energy input is required to cycle hot and cold. The passive electrocaloric cooling generator minimizes electricity demands by exploiting thermodynamics rather than fighting against them. With game-changing energy savings over traditional refrigerator designs, this electrocaloric cooling technology paves the way for truly sustainable cooling.

Seeking real-world integration, LIST researchers collaborate with manufacturing partners to develop prototypes. The original discovery featured a single electrocaloric part, which limited heat transfer speed. The current regenerator assembly overcame this by interleaving many capacitors with parallel coolant channels. This boosts heat pumping capacity for powerful, real-world performance. Ongoing enhancements also aim to lower costs and extend operating lifetimes to enable widespread commercialization.

While the immediate goal focuses on eco-friendly refrigeration, the applications likely won’t stop there. Any process generating unwanted heat could benefit from electrocaloric cooling technology. Air conditioners, electronics cooling, industrial processes and even solar energy storage represent prospective opportunities. Because electrocaloric cooling systems thrive when miniaturized, microchip-level cooling also offers possibilities for computing breakthroughs.

For example, electrocaloric cooling films could provide on-chip cooling for high-performance computer processors, enabling faster computing speeds. Electrocaloric cooling systems can also be used to condense water vapor in air conditioning and dehumidification applications. This could allow environmentally-friendly refrigerants like water instead of HFCs to be used in vapor compression HVAC.

Additionally, the flexibility of electric-powered cooling lends well to renewable energy integration and smart grid load balancing. Electrocaloric heat pumps powered by wind or solar electricity during times of excess generation could store thermal energy for later dispatch while synchronizing supply and demand on the grid. With materials and system configuration innovations, electrocaloric cooling technologies show promise for revolutionizing thermal management across many sectors.

Despite enormous promise, unanswered questions remain regarding large-scale manufacturing and durability. However, early indications suggest the regenerator’s simple solid-state design will prove reliable over long stretches. By dodging complex mechanical components, the approach naturally steers towards sustainability. Cooling demand will only climb higher as climate change continues, but creative solutions like the LIST electrocaloric cooling regenerator offer hope we can innovate our way to a cooler future.

Source Happy Eco News

Intel is using hot water to cut natural gas use in its factories

Posted on January 29, 2024January 29, 2024 by dishanth

Intel’s new manufacturing plant in Leixlip, Ireland, which cost $18.5 billion to build, is replete with technologies touted for conserving energy and water including programmable, all-LED lighting and a water reclamation and filtration system that could save 275 million gallons a year.

One of its more unusual features, however, is an approach that’s often overlooked: capturing heat generated by equipment in the facility and funneling it into production processes rather than expelling it through cooling towers. This was accomplished by the installation of recovery chillers that capture heat created by Intel’s high-temperature manufacturing processes and pipe it in the form of heated water to other places at the facility.

Intel estimates these heat recovery measures will allow it to significantly cut the natural gas it must buy to run operations at the site, Fab 34. It will use nine times as much recovered energy than what is generated by other fuels, the company projects. That so-called “waste heat” can be used for tasks such as preheating the ultra-pure water Intel needs for semiconductor fabrication or keeping buildings at the site warm during cooler weather, said Rich Riley, principal engineer in Intel’s corporate services development group.

“If we didn’t have that heat, we would need that much more gas to facilitate the [heating, ventilation and air-conditioning] operations,” Riley said. “This is an overall reduction of natural gas consumption.”

Over time, Intel’s plan is to build on heat recovery and other energy efficiency measures by updating them with industrial equipment, such as heat pumps, that run on electricity.

Intel’s near-term energy-related sustainability goals include reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 10 percent by 2030 from a 2019 baseline (it has achieved 4 percent as of fiscal year 2022); and conserving up to 4 billion kilowatt-hours cumulatively.

An untapped source of energy efficiency

Intel hasn’t disclosed the potential impact on its carbon emissions this heat recovery at Fab 34 effort could have, but a retrofit using water-to-water heat pumps in Fab 10 (also in Leixlip) will save an estimated 18.3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. It will reduce Scope 1 emissions by about 4,760 metric tons, but Scope 2 emissions will increase by about 1,627 metric tons because of the electricity needed for the heat pumps.

Industrial energy remains a thorny challenge for corporate sustainability teams: An estimated 20 percent to 25 percent of energy consumed globally by industrial sources is still predominantly powered by coal and natural gas, according to the International Energy Agency.

The potential energy cost savings of using recovered waste heat for industrial processes, district heating applications or to generate electricity could reach up to $152.5 billion annually, slightly less than half the value of the natural gas imported by the European Union in 2022, according to a McKinsey report published in November. The analysis estimates the global recoverable heat potential is at least 3,100 terawatt-hours.

“In our view, if you want to decarbonize, heat recovery and waste heat is one of the most economical levers available,” said Ken Somers, a McKinsey partner who was one of the report’s authors. One barrier to adoption has been low natural gas prices, but tariffs and supply shortages have prompted companies to rethink their dependence, he said.

The industrial heat pump technology needed to move heat from where it’s generated to where it’s needed in a production process is also maturing. The potential for manufacturers of chemicals, consumer products, food and pharmaceuticals to use this approach is growing as a precursor to the electrification of production systems, said Patricia Provot, president of thermal production equipment manufacturer Armstrong International.

“If your plan is to fully decarbonize, your first step is to get rid of steam and use hot water, and then try to recover as much of that waste heat as possible and put it back into the system,” Provot said.

Source GreenBiz Group Inc

Imagining the climate-proof home in the US: using the least energy possible from the cleanest sources

Posted on August 17, 2021August 16, 2021 by dishanth

Dealing with the climate crisis involves the overhauling of many facets of life, but few of these changes will feel as tangible and personal as the transformation required within the home.

The 128m households that dot America gobble up energy for heating, cooling and lighting, generating around 20% of all the planet-heating emissions produced in the US. Americans typically live in larger, more energy hungry dwellings than people in other countries, using more than double the energy of the average Briton and 10 times that of the average Chinese person.

This sizable contribution is now coming under the scrutiny of Joe Biden’s administration, which recently put forward a raft of measures to build and upgrade 2m low-emissions homes. “Decarbonizing buildings is a big task but it’s an essential task,” said Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rapid change will be needed to avoid disastrous climate change. To get to zero emissions by the middle of the century, the sale of fossil fuel boilers will have to end within five years, all new buildings will have to run on clean electricity by 2030 and half of all existing buildings will have to be fully retrofitted by 2040, a recent landmark International Energy Agency report warned.

“The appliances we use at home have tended to be overlooked but they are contributing a significant amount to climate change and we need to address that,” said Mike Henchen, an expert in carbon-free buildings at RMI. “That will touch people’s lives – our homes are our refuges, the places we know best. But hopefully the change will also make people’s homes more comfortable, safer and healthier, as well as reduce the climate impact.”

So what will the climate-adapted homes of the future look like?

Designing the home to use less – and cleaner – energy

Changes on both the outside and inside of our structures will shape the future of climate-proof homes. According to Alejandra Mejia Cunningham, building decarbonization advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, homes will have to follow three interlocking mantras: “using the least energy possible from the cleanest sources at the right time”.

Solar panels on roofs will become more common while, in rented or apartment accommodation, community solar schemes could provide an alternative. Solar panels can also be married with home batteries to help store excess energy which, along with proper insulation, will help keep a house functioning even during the sort of lengthy power blackouts Texas experienced earlier this year.

Such a scenario opens up the possibility of utility companies operating an automated network of homes, as is the case in parts of Vermont, to manage demand and supply, rather than rely on hulking centralized infrastructure. “Having solar panels, batteries and water heaters all orchestrated and distributed makes the home a part of the energy system and can provide a lot of savings,” said Henchen.

Power use will become smarter and more automated, with technology helping spread energy use throughout the day to work in tandem with a grid powered by variable wind and solar, rather than cause big surges in demand that require the burning of gas or coal.

New tools for heating and cooling the home

Another energy efficient move will be to properly insulate homes. In fact new homes could be pre-fabricated in factories and fitted on site to reduce gaps where heat can escape.

Deep reductions in emissions will involve revamping the major appliances in the home, such as the water heater, furnace and air conditioning unit. As these items become older, they become wasteful and they will need to be replaced by more efficient appliances that run off clean electricity.

Some of these replacements will be relatively innocuous, such as the installation of heat pumps, which will be in the basement or on the side of the house. Heat pumps work on principles similar to a refrigerator, shifting heat from outdoors indoors and vice versa. They can heat and cool your home and can also heat your water with an efficiency rate four times greater than a gas-powered version.

The changes you’ll notice in everyday life

Other changes will be more obvious in day-to-day life, such as replacing incandescent lightbulbs with LEDs, installing low-flow shower heads and phasing out gas stoves in favor of electric induction stovetops.

Such a change may be unnerving to dedicated home cooks but proponents point to the swifter heat-up time, reduced indoor air pollution and negated risk of injuries to the hands of curious children.

“People will get used to technology like induction cooktops. There are already top chefs out there giving out the message that they don’t have a worse performance than gas,” said Rohini Srivastava, a buildings expert at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

The phase-out of gas will also remove the need for a carbon monoxide detector in the home, although in the western US, air purifiers may become a standard feature in an age of growing wildfire smoke.

At what cost?

All of this will cost money – about $70,000 for the average American household to decarbonize, according to Rewiring America. And broader, systemic changes will need to take place to make housing denser and centered around transit lines and walkable communities to reduce car use, as well as a concerted effort to make homes resilient to the storms and fires spurred by the climate crisis.

Climate advocates are calling for a slate of government support to aid this transition – San Francisco is currently working out how to make the $5.9bn switch to electrify all its homes currently powered by gas – but stress that the public will need to view the changes as painless.

“The only way we will be able to do this is if the home feels just as comfortable and user-friendly as it has always been” said Cunningham. “You need to be able to take hot showers, be cool in summer and warm in winter and not know the difference in terms of how that is all powered.”

Source The Guardian