Elastocaloric coolers are not new. There are even some versions that you can buy right now, they usually for niche industrial use and have their own set of problems, namely that they’re not remotely as efficient as vapor compression so it costs more and moves less heat.

The breakthrough here was discovering a different alloy that allows sub-zero temperatures. It doesn’t change the efficiency which is the primary barrier to adoption.

But past cooling devices have not had enough cooling power for commercial use. The HKUST team developed a device that uses a new type of solid refrigerant, a nickel-titanium alloy with a higher nickel ratio. They also use calcium chloride as the working fluid that transfers heat away for cooling. Their design connects multiple alloy tubes together for a cascading effect that amplifies cooling.

In outdoor tests, the desktop device cools a surface down from 24°C to -12°C, and froze water in two hours. Sun Qingping, the mechanical and aerospace engineering professor who led the work, said in a press release that the researchers plan to increase the system’s efficiency and make it more cost-effectiveness by using advanced shape memory alloy materials and trying different system designs.

Cool.

Er, so to speak.

Jesus Christ, whoever wrote this “article” has no idea what they’re talking about. The researchers achieved sub-zero temperatures with a solid refrigerant, which is impressive. It has however absolutely nothing to do with climate change, because the heat still has to go somewhere. And the point that gas refrigerants are horrible greenhouse gases is not generally true anymore. Most new systems use gases as refrigerants that have equal or less impact on the atmosphere than co2 if they’re released into the atmosphere. And that only happens if the loop is damaged, under normal operation it should stay sealed.

First law of thermodynamics…

Maybe cool the planet with it.

Cool.