Advanced Barocaloric Systems for Sustainable Commercial Cooling Applications

Project Information

BAROCAL

Grant agreement ID: 101218476

DOI

10.3030/101218476

EC signature date 4 June 2025

Start date 1 July 2025

End date 30 June 2027

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 2 447 375,00

Coordinated by

Barocal Ltd
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BAROCAL (Advanced Barocaloric Systems for Sustainable Commercial Cooling Applications)

Reporting period: 2025-07-01 to 2026-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Founded in 2019 in Cambridge (UK), Barocal is revolutionizing the heating and cooling industry with cutting-edge technology based on solid barocaloric materials. This innovative approach offers a low-emission alternative to traditional vapor-compression methods by utilizing barocaloric materials and applying pressure to change temperature.
Barocal aims to lead the market in eco-friendly heating and cooling technologies, leveraging its scientific leadership.

Committed to developing ultra-high energy efficiency, low-emission systems, Barocal’s solutions benefit customers, the industry, and the planet. The company’s solid refrigerants are safe, have zero global warming potential, and aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 75% compared to the market standard by 2026, achieving 2-3 times higher energy efficiencies.

Barocal’s R&D efforts have resulted in a prototype with a high Coefficient of Performance (COP), comparable to traditional vapor compression units. Currently, the company is developing technology, targeting a temperature range of 40 degrees, and a cooling power of 1000 Watts. The prototype aims to transition commercial air-conditioning units into more efficient and cost-saving systems, featuring a modular design for wider applicability and installation. Barocal's journey involves engineering and material science challenges, with application focus tailored through collaborations with OEM partnerships. The commercial ambitions include demonstration projects to test the units in real-life scenarios, providing crucial customer data on return on investment, and de-risking planned scale-up.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Barocal moved into our own premises in September 2025, which were empty labs requiring to be fully kitted and are now fully fitted and operational. Using the enhanced funding, we expanded our headcount to 20, in line with the growth plans described in the Description of Action. The team has developed several new low-cost high performing barocaloric materials, developed several advanced methodologies that permit full characterisation of barocaloric materials, and designed, built and tested key engineering components that underpin high-system performance and low-cost of manufacturing.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We developed a new technology that permits applying high pressures to ultra thin-wall pressure vessels that are based on composite materials. By switching from thick-wall pressure vessels that are based on structural steel, we have achieved highly flexible and modular heat exchangers with small values of thermal resistance that permit cooling powers in the kilowatt regime and above.

We achieved rapid pressurisation and depressurisation of our barocaloric refrigerants by assembling a new hydraulic system. Using this system in combination with our ultra-thin-wall pressure vessels and our new barocaloric refrigerants we demonstrated temperature differences of 60 K when applying and removing our standard operating pressure.

We have developed a pre-commercial prototype modular design for commercial cooling applications.