Magnetocaloric as Solid-State Cooling Technique for Energy Saving

Abstract

Magnetocaloric is an emerging cooling technology arisen as alternative to vapor compression. The main novelty introduced is the employment of solid-state materials as refrigerants that experiment magnetocaloric effect, an intrinsic property of changing their temperature because of the application of an external magnetic field under adiabatic conditions. The reference thermodynamic cycle is called active magnetocaloric regenerative refrigeration cycle, and it is Brayton-based with active regeneration. In this chapter, this cooling technology is introduced from the fundamental principles up to a description of the state of the art and the goals achieved by researches and investigations.