Thirty years of near room temperature magnetic cooling: Where we are today and future prospects

The seminal study by Brown in 1976 showed that it was possible to use the magnetocaloric effect to produce a substantial cooling effect near room temperature. About 15 years later Green et al. built a device which actually cooled a load other than the magnetocaloric material itself and the heat exch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of refrigeration 2008-09, Vol.31 (6), p.945-961
Main Authors: Gschneidner, K.A., Pecharsky, V.K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ADIABATIC DEMAGNETIZATION
Applied sciences
COMMERCIALIZATION
COMPRESSION
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
Enquête
Exact sciences and technology
Historique
History
Magnetic refrigerator
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Refrigerating engineering
Refrigerating engineering. Cryogenics. Food conservation
REFRIGERATION
REFRIGERATORS
Réfrigérateur magnétique
Survey
Techniques. Materials
Technologie
Technology
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Summary:The seminal study by Brown in 1976 showed that it was possible to use the magnetocaloric effect to produce a substantial cooling effect near room temperature. About 15 years later Green et al. built a device which actually cooled a load other than the magnetocaloric material itself and the heat exchange fluid. The major breakthrough, however, occurred in 1997 when the Ames Laboratory/Astronautics proof-of-principle refrigerator showed that magnetic refrigeration was competitive with conventional gas compression cooling. Since then, over 25 magnetic cooling units have been built and tested throughout the world. The current status of near room temperature magnetic cooling is reviewed, including a discussion of the major problems facing commercialization and potential solutions thereof. The future outlook for this revolutionary technology is discussed.
ISSN:0140-7007
1879-2081
DOI:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2008.01.004