Competition for fridges and heat pumps: Thermogalvanic cell is three times more efficient
Competition for fridges and heat pumps: Thermogalvanic cell is three times more efficient
After struggling to read the linked source paper, it kind of sounds like a heat battery.
You create a reversible reaction to store and release heat with electricity.
The image shows a solution being moved from a hot side to a cold side, but instead of using pressure to store and release heat, you use a chemical reaction.
Was hoping this would not require moving parts, but it might be better that it does, because you can move the heat further with high efficiency this way. Maybe even a better way to use geothermal energy to move heat.
Scientists have enhanced thermogalvanic refrigeration, a cooling method that leverages electrochemical reactions.
By tweaking the solutes and solvents used in the electrolyte solution, the researchers were able to improve the hydrogalvanic cell’s cooling power. They used a hydrated iron salt containing perchlorate, which helped the iron ions dissolve and dissociate more freely compared to other previously tested iron-containing salts such as ferricyanide. By dissolving the iron salts in a solvent containing nitriles rather than pure water, the researchers were able to improve the hydrogalvanic cell’s cooling power by 70%.
The optimized system was able to cool the surrounding electrolyte by 1.42 K, which is a big improvement compared to the 0.1 K cooling capacity reported by previously published thermogalvanic systems.
I wonder how difficult it would be to maintain this - could you even send an HVAC tech? Or would you need an electronics or chemical tech? Might be decades before we see this in a workplace, school, or home.
notebookcheck? haha
You'd be surprised, but they actually cover battery tech relatively more often than most of tech media, albeit they never go in very deep in their article.