Is Barocaloric an Eco-Friendly Technology? A TEWI Comparison with Vapor Compression under Different Operation Modes
Claudia Masselli 1
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy
2
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Climate 2019, 7(9), 115; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli7090115
Received: 31 July 2019 / Revised: 3 September 2019 / Accepted: 13 September 2019 / Published: 18 September 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environment Pollution and Climate Change)
Barocaloric is a solid-state not-in-kind technology, for cooling and heat pumping, rising as an alternative to the vapor compression systems. The former is based on solid-state refrigerants and the latter on fluid ones. The reference thermodynamical cycle is called active barocaloric regenerative refrigeration (or heat pumping cycle). The main advantage of this technology is to not employ greenhouse gases, which can be toxic or damaging for the environment and that can contribute to increasing global warming. In this paper, the environmental impact of barocaloric technology was evaluated through a Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) analysis carried out with the help of a numerical 2D model solved through a finite element method. Specifically, we propose a wide investigation on the environmental impact of barocaloric technology in terms of TEWI index, also making a comparison with a vapor compression plant. The analysis focuses on both the cooling and heat pump operation modes, under different working conditions and auxiliary fluids. The results revealed that a barocaloric system based on ABR cycle could provide a reduction of the environmental impact with respect to a vapor compression system. The addition of nanofluids contributes in reducing the environmental impact up to −62%.
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Keywords:
barocaloric; solid-state cooling; solid-state heat pumping; acetoxy silicone rubber; nanofluids; ethylene-glycol nanofluids; vapor compression; TEWI
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MDPI and ACS Style
Aprea, C.; Greco, A.; Maiorino, A.; Masselli, C. Is Barocaloric an Eco-Friendly Technology? A TEWI Comparison with Vapor Compression under Different Operation Modes. Climate 2019, 7, 115.
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