this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
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Technology

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174
A new cooling technology freezes food without warming the climate (www.anthropocenemagazine.org)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
72 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Imaging if this technology could cool a data centre.

Edit: I was not involved in this project. You are wasting your time asking me questions.

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[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can't. It's a different kind of heat pump.

If it is more efficient than vacuum-compression it's good.

Most refrigerants are extremely toxic and extreme green house gasses. But there are safer alternatives, eg. CO2.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't think shape change materials are all that efficient. The problem being is you still need some mechanism to compress the material again, which obviously uses energy. As you say their main advantage is that they don't use traditional refrigerants. But the trade-off for that is that they are mechanically more complicated and probably for any given amount of cooling will require more electricity.

You can trade those off with renewable energy sources of course so it may still be worth it but technically they are worse efficiency than traditional vacuum pumps.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Some sources claim much higher efficiency. This makes sense to me since you are not limited by your coolant's properties so much and don't have to maintain pressure. But I can't do in depth research for you.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What sources?

The article doesn't list any. All it says is they reached a cooling temperature of -12°C, but has no information on the energy used to achieve that.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Google "elastocaloric heat pump efficiency" thats the technical term.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I'm asking what saurce you have that says that they are more efficient than refrigeration systems because everything I find says the opposite.