Transforming home refrigeration with efficient and flexible magnetic cooling

制冷是能源密集型的：总体而言，它消耗了英国14%的电力（根据国际制冷研究所（IIR）主席Didier Coulomb的数据，全球电力消耗为17%），英国电网和运输网络每年花费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更为有限。随着最近的《蒙特利尔议定书》基加利修正案（2016年）逐步淘汰氢氟碳化物制冷剂气体，以及关于气候变化的新《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，最大的制冷部分是家用制冷，消耗了英国约5%的电力。全球每年销售约1.8亿台新的家用制冷设备，全球市场每年价值600亿美元。电器制造商面临着激烈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（WEEE指令）该项目侧重于一种颠覆性的新冷却技术，该技术使用可回收的永磁体和特殊金属合金，无气体，在低压下运行，完全安全，并适应不同的全球市场环境。通过利用这项技术的主要优势，我们可以实现电器能源效率的逐步改善-与当今市场上最好的冰箱电器相比，耗电量减少高达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（一个多世纪以来的第一次）一系列新的冷却功能可以启用（如按需冷却和分布式冷却）。Camfridge是从剑桥大学分拆出来的，是一家从事研究的中小企业，是全球领先的磁冷却技术开发商，拥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，在微观结构分析和磁性材料方面拥有所有必要的设施和专业知识。此次合作将解决这一创新新技术商业化的几个障碍：*表明磁冷却解锁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。*展示制冷剂材料的坚固性和寿命，并提供质量控制措施，以改善大规模生产方法。*提高对制冷效率的预期，减少75%的家用制冷耗电量（或相当于将家用制冷设备的效率提高400%）。

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%).