Magnetic cooling attracts attention

German company Magnotherm has made a significant advancement in the development of refrigerant-free cooling systems, demonstrating that magnetocaloric materials can be protected by applying a copper coating and corrosion inhibitor to the alloys used in technology that is claimed to be 40 per cent more energy efficient than vapour compression.

After three months of continuous operation, the materials showed no signs of degradation or mechanical failure when used with water as the heat exchange medium. This achievement brings La-Fe-Si (lanthanum-iron-silicon) alloys – a key component of Magnotherm’s technology – one step closer to commercialisation.

Magnotherm was founded in 2019 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Darmstad and has secured €6.3 million in financing to support the series production of refrigerators using magnetic cooling technology.