Magnetocaloric Effect for Energy Conversion Applications

Magneto-thermal energy conversion technology by using magnetocaloric effect has attracted great attention recently due to its energy efficiency and environmentally friendly features. It shows thermodynamically high efficiency and gives technically low carbon emission in comparison with gas compression cooling technology. In this sense, enormous researches have been devoted to establish new applications of magneto-thermal energy conversion, like magnetic refrigeration to replace current cooling systems.<br/>To realize magnetic refrigeration, three core components must be developed in parallel. Those are 1) magnetic refrigeration system of high efficiency, 2) magnetocaloric materials with high performance and durability, and 3) high enough magnetic field which should give strong magnetic field as possible with smallest volume. These core components obviously should be compromised in magnetic refrigeration system. Among these factors, the magnetocaloric materials determine the target temperature of the magneto-thermal energy conversion applications. For instance, one can use this energy conversion as hydrogen liquefaction, quantum computing circumstances, or more familiarly room temperature applications.<br/>Further, in order to study materials that can be used in the magnetic cooling system, the real cooling performance that can only be realized when the material is placed into the cooling system with cycle process should be investigated. For this purpose, the evaluation setups for the magnetic cooling performance in cycle process have been established. Through these evaluation methods, the results on whether the magnetocaloric materials can actually have better magnetic cooling performance in comparison with Gd in the magnetic cooling applications could be confirmed.<br/>In this presentation, the current status of the magnetocaloric materials and effective evaluation methods including the role of magnetic field in magnetic refrigeration system will be focused in detail. Further, the key features and bottle-necks to overcome for the magneto-thermal energy conversion applications will be announced.