The first milestone in magnetic cooling has been achieved.  Between 5 and 10 degrees of cooling – this was the success criteria for the first milestone in a project involving magnetic cooling at Risø National Laboratory – Technical University of Denmark (DTU). And the figure is currently at 8.7°C – this means that a refrigerator at room temperature (20°C) can be cooled to almost 11°C.

More than DKK 21 million in new funding has made it possible to appoint three PhD students this year to work on the MagCool project, and two more PhD students are to be appointed this autumn, reveals the entity’s press release. Christian Bahl will also be joined by another two postdoctoral students in 2009. “It is probably not realistic to think that magnetic cooling technology will be used in consumers’ homes right away”, says Bahl, adding, however, that he believes it will ultimately spread to the rest of society.

On a global scale, there are at least ten other teams working on similar projects involving magnetic cooling, but the field has not yet become a major focus area. The concept of magnetic cooling has been known for many years, but using the technology at room temperature is something relatively new.