Can the Magnetocaloric effect be used for heating liquids?

[Jyrioffinland]

TL;DR Summary

Can the magnetocaloric effect be used for heating liquids? Could it be used for an ecologically and economically viable source of energy like a heat pump, generating heat from cold-ish materials?

There's a recent article about cooling hydrogen in an industrial scale with the magnetocaloric effect.

Read the article here

But where does the heat go there? Can it be used for heating liquids? Could it be used for an ecologically and economically viable source of energy like a heat pump, generating heat from cold-ish materials?

I tried to contact the author, Dr. Tino Gottschall at the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory at HZDR but got no answer. You got one?

 

[Andrew Mason]

TL;DR Summary: Can the magnetocaloric effect be used for heating liquids? Could it be used for an ecologically and economically viable source of energy like a heat pump, generating heat from cold-ish materials?
There's a recent article about cooling hydrogen in an industrial scale with the magnetocaloric effect.
Read the article herehttps://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/984338

But where does the heat go there? Can it be used for heating liquids? Could it be used for an ecologically and economically viable source of energy like a heat pump, generating heat from cold-ish materials?

The idea is somewhat analogous to refrigeration using a gas compressor.

1. A strong magnetic field applied to a suitable block of metal adds internal energy (increases its temperature). This is analogous to what a compressor does to the refrigerator gas.
2. While in the magnetic field, the block is placed in thermal contact with a cooler reservoir (eg. liquid nitrogen) and the temperature of the metal block decreases to that temperature. This is analogous to what the condenser in a refrigerator does to the refrigerator gas (the gas circulates through the coil on the refrigerator and heat flow from the coil to the surrounding air).
3. The metal block is then placed in thermal contact with the thing to be cooled further and the magnetic field is turned off. The block then cools rapidly to a temperature significantly lower than the liquid nitrogen. As it cools, heat flow occurs from the thing to be cooled (hydrogen in this case) to the metal block lowering the temperature of the hydrogen. This is analogous to the Joule-Thompson cooling effect due to sudden expansion of the refrigerant gas and circulation around the space to be cooled

The advantage of the magnetic cooling principle is that it works at much lower temperatures than a conventional gas refrigerator can operate at.

It could be used to heat something but it does not appear to be more efficient in heating than resistance heating. So I expect it would be easier and much cheaper just to use conventional electric resistance heating.

AM