Low-Carbon Elastocaloric Fridges And Air Conditioners For Sustainable And Smart HKUST
Low-Carbon Elastocaloric Fridges And Air Conditioners For Sustainable And Smart HKUST
The project suggests a solid-state elastocaloric refrigeration technology that is zero-GHG-refrigerant and 100% recyclable based on phase-transition shape memory alloys, avoiding GHG usage and having high cooling power and efficiency. The project aims to promote HKUST to be the first sustainable campus that uses energy-efficient zero-GHG-refrigerant elastocaloric cooling technology.
What is the problem this project is trying to address?
HKUST’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission (GHG) are significantly attributed to refrigeration and cooling. Conventional vapor-compression refrigeration technology uses GHGs with high global warming potential and notable difficulty in recycling, and the coefficient of performance (COP) is hard to enhance. Therefore, the current vapor-compression refrigeration technology does not meet energy-saving and carbon neutrality standards and should be replaced by more environmentally friendly refrigeration technologies.
How does this project support our sustainable smart campus as a living lab vision?
The proposed elastocaloric fridge and air conditioner avoid the usage of GHG completely and save energy by increasing efficiency. The project applies a special material that can be recycled, making them sustainable and long-lasting. The product sensors can also sense the temperature and adjust the cooling to save energy and improve efficiency.
What's next?
The team is going to improve the cooling power to 500 and 1000 watt and increase the energy efficiency (COP) by using their newly developed TiNiCuCo and NiFeGa shape memory alloys, as well as improving the heat transfer by novel structural optimization.
The team took part in the 9th Hong Kong Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Challenge in June and achieved 3rd place prize in the ‘Mathematics and Physics; Mechanics and Control’ Category, winning 3K HKD.
The team also participated in the “Green PropTech Innovation Challenge”, Hong Kong’s biggest PropTech (Property technology) competition aimed at tertiary or student-founded early-stage startups to showcase their eco-friendly innovations. The team has been shortlisted as one of the ten finalists and is going to have their final pitch on 28th June.