Transforming home refrigeration with efficient and flexible magnetic cooling

冷却是能源密集型的：总的来说，它消耗了英国14%的电力（根据国际制冷研究所主席Didier Coulomb的说法，全球为17%），每年在英国电网和运输网络上花费52亿英镑用于“冷”能源。然而，与电力生产、运输和供热相比，“冷”在国际能源辩论中受到的关注有限。随着《蒙特利尔议定书》基加利修正案（2016年）的通过，逐步淘汰HFC制冷剂气体，以及新的气候变化巴黎协定（2015年），制冷和冷却技术创新现在应该成为优先事项。在英国，最大的冷却领域是家用制冷，消耗约5%的英国电力。全世界每年销售约1.8亿台新的家用制冷设备，全球市场每年价值600亿美元。家电制造商面临着强大的竞争和环境法规的双重挑战，以提高能源效率（生态设计指令）和可回收性（WESTERN指令）该项目专注于一种颠覆性的新型冷却技术，该技术使用可回收的永磁体和特殊金属合金，不含气体，在低压下运行，完全安全，可适应不同的全球市场环境。通过利用这项技术的主要优势，我们可以实现家用电器能效的逐步提高-与当今市场上最好的冰箱电器相比，功耗降低高达75%，同时完全重新定义了家用冰箱的概念。对于消费者来说，这意味着（世纪以来的第一次）可以启用一系列新的冷却功能（如按需冷却和分布式冷却）。Camfridge是剑桥大学的一个分支，是SME的一个研究执行公司，SME是全球领先的磁冷却技术开发商，持有该领域的多项专利。伦敦帝国理工学院是一所世界一流的研究型大学，拥有微观结构分析和磁性材料方面的所有必要设施和专业知识。这项合作将解决这一创新技术商业化的几个障碍：* 表明磁冷却开启了家庭冷却的创新用途，包括按需和分布式功能所需的时间和地点。展示制冷剂材料的耐用性和寿命，并提供质量控制措施以改进大规模生产方法。*通过将家用制冷能耗降低75%（或将家用制冷设备效率提高400%），提高对制冷效率的期望。

Cooling is energy intensive: overall it consumes up to 14% of Britain's electricity (17% globally, according Didier Coulomb, President of the International Institute of Refrigeration - IIR) and £5.2 billion each year is spent on energy for "cold" across the UK grid and transport networks. Yet, compared to electricity production, transport and heat, "cold" has received more limited attention in the international energy debate. With the recent Kigali amendment (2016) to the Montreal Protocol, phasing out HFC refrigerant gases, and the new Paris Accords (2015) on climate change, technical innovation in refrigeration and cooling should now be a priority.In the UK the largest cooling segment is domestic refrigeration, consuming ~5% of the UK's electricity. Worldwide around 180 million new domestic refrigeration appliances are sold annually, in a global market worth $60 billion per annum. Appliance manufacturers face the twin challenges of strong competition and environmental regulation to improve energy efficiency (eco-design directives) and recyclability (WEEE directives)This project is focused on a disruptive new cooling technology, that uses recyclable permanent magnets and special metal alloys, is gas-free, operates at low pressure, is completely safe and is adaptable to different global market environments. By exploiting the major advantages of this technology, we can enable a step-change improvement in appliance energy efficiency - up to 75% reduction in power consumption compared to even the best fridge appliance on the market today, whilst completely redefining the concept of a domestic fridge in the home. For consumers it means (for the first time in over a century) a range of new cooling functions can be enabled (such as on-demand cooling and distributed cooling).Camfridge, a spin-out from the University of Cambridge, is a research performing SME, a leading developer worldwide of magnetic cooling technology, holding several patents in the field. Imperial College London is a world-class research university with all the necessary facilities and expertise in micro structural analysis and magnetic materials. This collaboration will address several roadblocks to commercialisation of this innovative new technology:* Show that magnetic cooling unlocks innovative uses for cooling in home, including cooling when and where it is needed for on-demand and distributed functionality.* Demonstrate robustness and longevity of the refrigerant materials, and deliver quality control measures to improve mass production methods.* Elevate expectations about cooling efficiency by reducing home cooling power consumption by 75% (or equivalently improving home cooling appliance efficiency by 400%).