Project description
Driving next-gen elastocaloric cooling systems
The increasing demand for cooling systems requires efficient and eco-friendly alternatives to traditional vapour-compression refrigeration systems. Solid-state cooling technologies like elastocalorics (EC) show promise with new high-performing materials. However, current electrical drives are too bulky and heavy for future mobile cooling applications. The ERC-funded DEAcool project aims to design electro-active-polymer (EAP) actuator technology for EC systems, pioneering lightweight, compact and efficient cooling solutions. To do so, it will investigate the interaction between EAPs and EC materials to develop novel EC cooling system concepts. It will then produce demonstrators to validate their use in demanding compact, lightweight cooling and textile integrated systems.
Objective
While the global demand for cooling is rising exponentially with growing data center capacities and space cooling demands in highly populated regions (China, India, Indonesia), there is no alternative to inefficient and environmentally harmful vapor-compression systems. The search for more efficient and sustainable cooling solutions has drawn attention to novel solid-state cooling technologies like magneto-, elasto-, or electrocalorics. Specifically, elastocalorics (EC) research is showing promising results with the development of new highly-efficient materials (material COPs over 30) and several functional system devices pushing achievable cooling powers, temperature spans and system efficiencies (COP: coefficient of performance).
To drive EC cooling and heating systems, either hydraulic actuators or electrical motors are used, depending on the scale and target application. To reach maximum efficiency on system level, electrical drives show most promise, yet all available drive technologies today present a bottleneck regarding the cooling systems’ construction space and weight. For future mobile cooling applications like transportation of foods and medical products, size and weight critical applications like e-mobility and aerospace or visionary cooling (or heating) textiles and wearables, alternative drives for EC systems are needed.
With this project, we will for the first time use electro-active-polymer (EAP) actuator technology in EC systems and lay a foundation for future lightweight and highly integrable efficient cooling solutions. To achieve this goal, we will 1) create base knowledge on the interaction between EAPs and EC materials, 2) develop new EC cooling system concepts using EAP actuators and 3) realize several proof-of-concept demonstrators for validation in a) applications demanding compact/lightweight cooling (medical, automotive/aerospace) and b) textile integrated systems.
This project will push the frontiers of sustainable and efficient cooling.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering thermodynamic engineering heat engineering
- engineering and technology materials engineering textiles
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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66123 Saarbrucken
Germany
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