Denmark develops an environment friendly refrigerator

An environment friendly refrigerator, noiseless and using much less energy. This may be the future in all homes. The research centre Risø has started the process of developing a new refrigerator, which may revolutionise the refrigerator market.

The new refrigerator uses magnetic ceramic materials exploiting the rise in temperature when being magnetised and the fall in temperature when being demagnetised.

“I really believe that this is something important. The technology may revolutionise the refrigerator market because it is a good and real alternative to the traditional refrigerator,” says senior researcher Nini Pryds to the news magazine Ingeniøren.

Nini Pryds is drawing the attention to the fact that the new refrigerator has some good environmental advantages, because you may use water or spirits as cooling means in stead of heavy greenhouse gasses. Moreover, the refrigerator uses 2-3 times less energy than refrigerators in energy class A or D as known today.

The technology is already well known in the US. However, here ceramic materials are not used as they do at Risø. And this exactly may be of great importance, because ceramic materials are chemically stable and have long lives.

The Danish industry giant Danfoss has shown great interest in the method and is contemplating whether the technique may be utilised for freezers and air conditions. However, it may take a couple of years before a proto type will be developed.