Forschungsverbund wants Saarland to be a pioneer
for climate-neutral and energy-efficient cooling systems
Elastocalorics: The term hides a phenomenon that could revolutionize cooling technology. If you pull a wire of nickel-titanium into the length and then relax it again, it becomes hot and cool again. In the future, it will be possible to cool many times more energy-efficiently and above all more climate-friendly, so that this technology has been declared by the EU Commission and the US Department of Energy as the most promising alternative to previous processes. The fact that Saarland could become the leading region of elastocalorics is also due to a very special project by researchers from Saar University, htw saar, the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology and the Montanstiftung Saar.
The journey from an ingenious idea to a broad application is long and takes a very long time, often several decades. In between lies hard development work and the search for the right cooperation partners in order to ultimately have a broadly applicable, market-ready technology. Such an idea is hidden behind the term ‘elastocaloric’. ‘When a metal wire is pulled from a super-elastic nickel-titanium alloy and relieved again, it heats up and cools down again, currently reaching temperature differences of around 40 degrees. The principle can be used in many different areas for heating, cooling, air conditioning and energy recovery", explains Dirk Bähre, professor at Saarland University. Together with his colleagues Mana Mojadadr, Paul Motzki, Jörg Strese and Michael Vielhaber, he manages the DEPART!Saar transfer room.
17 million euros are earmarked for this newly established research and development network under the funding line ‘T!Raum – TransferRäume für die Zukunft von Regions’ of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The first approved phase, with a duration of three years, will start at the beginning of 2023. The aim of the network is to bring the new, forward-looking technology "Elastocalorik" to technical implementation much faster than usual and to contribute directly to economic stimulus and job creation in the region. To this end, the newly established research and development network, the DEPART!Saar transfer room, will bring together scientific institutions and industrial partners working together to implement elastocaloric systems.
“If I want to build complex systems on this principle, I have to think a lot: How do I get the heat from the metal? How does the drive, which keeps the moving parts in motion, work? How long does such a system last? What about recycling, what do the air flows look like, who builds the electronics?”, Paul Motzki lists only a few questions that arise during development. This makes one thing very clear: A single person, no matter how ingenious, cannot possibly build all the components in such a way that a market-ready technology comes out in the end. "In Saarland, however, we can bring all parts of this chain together", explains the scientist, explaining the central concern of DEPART!Saar.
Stefan Seelecke, one of the co-founders of this technology, is also responsible for the fact that Saarland can become the centre of elastocalorics. In 2011 he joined Saarland University with two doctoral students from the USA; meanwhile, around 80 employees are researching innovative technologies such as elastocalorics in his field. As part of a DFG priority program, he and his working group developed the world's first machine demonstrator of this technology to show how future plants can work.
Why elastocalorics is of such great relevance can be impressively substantiated: "Over 10% of the world's energy needs, around 2000 terawatt hours, are spent on building cooling alone. In contrast to common conventional cooling methods, elastocalorics is much more efficient and also more climate-friendly", explains the scientist. If conventional methods provide two to three kilowatt hours of cooling energy per kilowatt hour of supplied electrical energy, the first elastocaloric research materials have already been able to demonstrate more than ten times the efficiency. And the global warming potential of this technology is exactly zero, as no climate-damaging coolants will be released into the atmosphere when operating with solids. In addition, the technology can not only be used to cool, but also to develop future heat pump systems for energy-efficient heating.
"Our aim is to bring this potential to all relevant areas of application in the future – in addition to building air conditioning, industrial cooling, e-mobility and the household appliances sector, thus creating many new jobs", Paul Motzki outlines one of the goals of DEPART!Saar. In the coming years, partners from the domestic industry will be brought on board in order to build up a complete cycle from material production and recycling to the production of innovative systems in the region and to establish Saarland as a technology pioneer. "In ten to twenty years, we want to be able to say: The best elastocaloric cooling systems come from Saarland. We have all the prerequisites for this", Dirk Bähre is sure.
The relevance for a climate-friendly cooling technology is likely to increase in the future in view of rising global temperatures. In addition to the cooling and air-conditioning of buildings, the increasing number of data centers and the progressive industrialization also require higher cooling capacities.
The importance of the project is also underlined by the Saarland Minister of Science Jakob von Weizsäcker: “Elastocalorics, which enables remarkably energy-efficient cooling with elastic materials, has great application potential. The million-dollar funding of the BMBF for DEPART!Saar is a great award for the team and the tech location Saarland. I am thrilled that marketable applications for this fascinating technology can now be developed in Saarland."
"With this great news from Berlin, Saarland can further develop a revolutionary cooling technology to market maturity, which can be used worldwide in the future," he said. Minister for Economic Affairs and Innovation Jürgen Barke. “With this groundbreaking discovery, our research location is positioning itself in the Champions League of Future Technologies and opening up opportunities for the location to achieve a large value-added dimension. The fact that this project is equipped by the federal government with such a high volume of funding confirms us: The scientific excellence of the Saarland works at an international top level. We can be very proud of our researchers who bring tremendous momentum to technological progress.”
President of the University Manfred Schmitt stresses the good networking of the Saarland research landscape: “The fact that such a lighthouse project was successfully acquired in a highly competitive scientific competition, which aims to bring a completely new cutting-edge technology to market maturity, impressively shows that the Saarland can cope with a successful structural change with a strong research landscape and that the federal government, as a funder, is also convinced of this. The cooperation between Saarland University, htw saar and – as a joint institution – ZeMA also underlines the importance of universities as research institutions and engines for a successful economic region.”
The project "DEPART!Saar“ shall, within the framework of the F:örderlinie “T!Raum – TransferRäume für die Zukunft von Region” (T!Raum – TransferSpaces for the Future of Regions) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with over 17 million euros for a maximum duration of nine years. The funding for the first approved phase (2023-2025) amounts to around 5.3 million euros.
For more information:
Prof. Dr. Dirk Bähre
Tel.: (0681) 3024375
E-mail: d.baehre@mx.uni-saarland.de
Prof. Dr. Paul Motzki
Tel.: (0681) 85 787 545 E-mail: p.motzki@zema.de
Prof. Dr. Stefan Seelecke
Tel.: (0681) 30271341
E-mail: stefan.seelecke@imsl.uni-saarland.de
Press release Saarland University, Editorial Office Thorsten Mohr, Nov. 2022
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