Barocal Cools Food and Drinks by Squeezing Plastic Crystals
▼ Summary
– Barocal has developed a new heating and cooling technology that uses an inexpensive solid material instead of vapor compression, and early prototypes are as effective as existing compressors while using less energy.
– The technology is based on research by Xavier Moya, who discovered that certain solid materials release heat when compressed and absorb heat when pressure is removed.
– Barocal’s solid materials eliminate the risk of leaking climate-warming gases, which is a problem with conventional vapor-compression refrigerators.
– The startup has raised a $10 million seed round from investors including World Fund and Breakthrough Energy Discovery to prepare the technology for market.
– Barocal is initially targeting large HVAC and commercial refrigeration systems, where its efficiency gains can make a significant impact on customer costs.
Refrigerators have relied on the same core technology for over a century. It is remarkable that, despite decades of innovation in nearly every other field, the humble vapor compression system remains the undisputed king of keeping things cold. But a Cambridge-based startup believes it has finally built a worthy challenger.
Barocal has pioneered an entirely new method of heating and cooling that uses only an inexpensive solid material. The company’s early prototypes already match the performance of current refrigerator compressors while promising to consume significantly less energy. Perhaps most importantly, the system eliminates the risk of leaking potent climate-warming gases, a persistent environmental liability of traditional refrigeration.
To bring this technology to market, Barocal has secured a $10 million seed round, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch. The investment is backed by World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, and IP Group.
The science behind Barocal originates from the work of founder Xavier Moya, a professor of materials physics at the University of Cambridge. His fascination with cooling technology dates back to his youth in Spain, where he studied in a small, sweltering room. “I really remember when air conditioning came to the house , it was like wow!” he recalled.
Moya’s research focused on solid refrigerants that can absorb and release heat simply by being squeezed or stretched. He often demonstrates the concept with a deflated balloon. “If you stretch it, it gets hot. And then if you wait, when you let it go, it feels cold,” he explained.
Barocal’s materials belong to a class of organic compounds used widely in plastics and paints. Under normal conditions, the molecules within rotate freely. When compressed, that rotation stops. Because heat at a molecular level is simply movement, halting that motion forces the material to expel heat. Releasing the pressure allows it to absorb heat again.
The company uses this cycle to pump heat. In a refrigerator, the solid material moves heat from the interior to the outside, cooling the contents. Water flows past the material and carries the heat to a radiator. Because the working substance is a solid, there are no gas leaks to worry about. Conventional refrigerants can either damage the ozone layer or, in the case of modern greenhouse gases, warm the planet more than 1,000 times faster than carbon dioxide.
While the technology can be scaled for any application, Barocal is initially targeting large HVAC systems and commercial refrigerators. These are the markets where efficiency gains will have the greatest financial impact for customers. “We are looking at bigger commercial systems where I think we can make a bigger impact faster,” Moya said.
(Source: TechCrunch)
