Ferroelectric polarpolymers will chill your beer, save the planet

Sure, you want to keep that keg of Natural Ice you scored nice and cold, but what did Al Gore say about global warming? According to Professor Qiming Zhang and Penn State University, we can see a more eco-friendly kegerator appliance on the horizon -- courtesy of the growing field of ferroelectric polarpolymers. Instead of relying on gasses similar to Freon, a process which can only be performed with energy-intensive compressors and heating coils, the new kegerators will rely on something called magnetic field refrigeration. In magnetic field refrigeration, electricity is introduced to a polarpolymer, causing the usually disordered molecules of the polarpolymer to become highly ordered. As this happens, heat is dispersed and the material grows cold. When the electricity is switched off this process reverses itself. And this doesn't just mean more fun for the college crowd: someday Zhang predicts this technology will be used in everything from self-cooling gear for firefighters to chilling your CPU.

[Via The Future Of Things]

[essemm @ Sep 13th 2008 1:09PM]

Cool!

[Techie @ Sep 13th 2008 2:04PM]

All I could understand is there's going to be a beer keg inside my PC. So where and when can I get one and how much will it cost. Put me first in the list please.....

[roberto @ Sep 13th 2008 2:15PM]

Cold!

[meike @ Sep 13th 2008 1:17PM]

who puts a keg on a shelf? honestly...

[John @ Sep 13th 2008 5:05PM]

Students obviously

[Matthew C @ Sep 13th 2008 1:18PM]

Air conditioned clothes, maybe?

[austin @ Sep 13th 2008 5:29PM]

"self cooling gear for firefighters"

[Flashpoint @ Sep 13th 2008 1:23PM]

#1 What are the environmnental impacts of kegerators?

#2 Will magnetic cooling be colder than freon?

#3 Will magnetic induction interfere with electronics around the kegerator and if so, can it be shielded?

#4 Can they make one the size of my Whirlpool or Kenmore?

#5 Can it be done inexpensively?

[Josh @ Sep 14th 2008 12:46AM]

1. Save from not putting things that will be damaged by electromagnetism, only as much as the production of the electricity and the polymer allows. Since it's just using electricity and basically plastic, the environmental effects are negligible. The components would presumably cause a lot less problems than CFC/refrigerant disposal. However, the referenced poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene)-chlorofluoroethylene sounds like a CFC to me - though it does say others are available.

2. One would imagine it depends how much current you pump into it and how densely packed the polarpolymer molecules are. If it's usable for fire fighting then it probably is.

3. Depends how strong the magnet is. Realistically, there's not going to be much in your kitchen that would be affected, and it depends on the size of the unit, current draw, etc. The problems of EMI (electromagnetic interference) are becoming less and less as the only real concern is storage media, and we're quickly switching to mostly flash/non magnetic media.

4. Yes, i would have thought so. It's going to be a scalable design by the sounds of it as all you're doing is aligning molecules.

5. This largely depends on the price of the polymer, probably cheap when mass produced but very expensive to start off.

[BobSaget @ Sep 14th 2008 1:05AM]

#1 What are the environmnental impacts of kegerators?
Better than Freon
#2 Will magnetic cooling be colder than freon?
We'll find out soon enough
#3 Will magnetic induction interfere with electronics around the kegerator and if so, can it be shielded?
The majority of temperature related materials/operations have that option
#4 Can they make one the size of my Whirlpool or Kenmore?
Obviously if they can make one for a keg. This question = Fail
#5 Can it be done inexpensively?
First think about what it takes to work with Freon...then what it takes to use polar polymers...less parts [italic]usually[/italic] equals out to less price. Imagine the possibilities if some people would just think in this world.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't see what new innovation they are claiming here"
Read and you might actually find out. Thermoelectric cooling is an option for cooling as is Freon. The innovation is using different material that uses a different technique compared to the other options. Think of it this way...how many ways can you watch a dvd? HD? Blueray? DVD? IPod/Phone? All play media...all in different ways. That's innovation(The term innovation may refer to both radical and incremental changes in thinking, in things, in processes or in services)--FYI.

[Cardbored @ Sep 13th 2008 1:24PM]

Is this similar to the Ben and Jerry's freezer?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1861434

[Mr. Ford @ Sep 13th 2008 11:20PM]

I like how freon is referred to as "exotic".

[maveric101 @ Sep 13th 2008 1:38PM]

al gore? psh.

http://cei.org/pdf/5539.pdf

[Rick @ Sep 13th 2008 2:07PM]

I'll bet you'd swap lipstick with a pig from Alaska!

[William @ Sep 13th 2008 4:41PM]

It's ironic how that report is filled with "One-Sided, Misleading, Exagerrated, Speculative and wrong" information.

[maveric101 @ Sep 13th 2008 7:16PM]

my point is both sides exaggerate and all out lie. which is true for many things, like Democrats vs. Republicans.

[Tim @ Sep 13th 2008 1:44PM]

Natty Ice FTW

[a ham sandwich @ Sep 13th 2008 2:44PM]

god i HATE natty ice. lol :)

[Sam @ Sep 13th 2008 4:27PM]

Natty Ice FTL, my friend. I'd sooner use it for antifreeze than drink it.

[Ian @ Sep 13th 2008 6:32PM]

yea naty ice FTL keystone FTW!!! in cheap beer that is

[Mr. Ford @ Sep 13th 2008 11:26PM]

This is like arguing over which fat, ugly girl is better in bed. Who really wants to find out?!?

Please drink good beer.

[Colin Potter @ Sep 14th 2008 12:34AM]

Stella, Heineken, MGD, and MOLSON CANADIAN

FTFW

[J-Rad @ Sep 13th 2008 1:44PM]

Who was sober enough to come up with this?

[skoochy @ Sep 13th 2008 1:48PM]

Hmm... when the source to this blog is another blog removed from the original source, a lot of disinformation results.

1) Greenpeace should have a field day since they are talking about using PVCs as being "eco friendly".

2) The device itself will get cooler but your stuff won't, without "appropriate heat exchangers" which at this time, equate to fluids (liquid or gas) and tubes and coils... just what they are claiming is a problem in current refrigeration technologies. OK, you lose the compressor. But usually the motor that drives the compressor also drives the pump for the heat exchangers, so you'll still need the motor.

3) Currently they get 22.6 degrees F of temperature differential. Let's see, if it's a 95 degree day, I can have my beer at 70ish degrees. Hmm, refreshing! When British people come for a visit, a nice room temperature pilsner will be within ecologically sound reach.

[Shyam D @ Sep 13th 2008 2:13PM]

1.) PVC is nothing compared to FREON
2.) Compressors also add a lot of heat into the system. While effective, their overall efficiency is limited by natural physics to less then 30%. Cooling methods relying on electric properties do not have these natural physical limitations and could theoretically ( no one has proven otherwise ) reach 100% efficiency.

3.) Wrong, The system would be able to maintain a constant 22.6 degree temperature differential with it's own environment. That means if your beer is at 70 degrees, so is the polymer and when activated would give a relatively instantaneous temperature differential of 22.6 degrees to 70, which equates to about 47.4 degrees. This process could be repeated over and over again until the desired temperature is reached. A compressor does the same thing. It can't provide a massive differential but rather slowly moves down in temperature with a smaller constant differential.

[kevgnyc @ Sep 13th 2008 2:08PM]

is google down? heck is going on?

[Rick @ Sep 13th 2008 2:11PM]

There is still no free lunch according to the Three Laws of Thermodynamics. It still costs something cool the brew. This device will just eliminate some of the thermodynamic inefficiency from the process.

I doubt if this type device will sell well in Alaska. Someone should bring this topic up in the Vice-Presidential debates and see if Sarah understands it.

[KarlW @ Sep 13th 2008 3:00PM]

The laws aren't really laws. They're principles. We agree with them as a foundation, because if they weren't true, the universe would be messed up.

They're pretty solid, but like everything in science, they could be overturned at any point. For example, we thought time moved in one direction. Then virtual particles (and, unrelated, the delayed choice quantum eraser) came long and kicked out that idea by borrowing energy from the future (which is cool, so long as you give it ALL back). They borrow energy, create themselves with it, anhiliate each other, and all the energy is returned. On average, there is no energy expenditure. However, those particles cause pressure differences which can move things. At the nanoscale, it's quite a big problem, and could be used to create nanomechanical devices which require no power.

Nobody wants to say the laws of thermodynamics are wrong, because as above, on the face of it, they look solid. So was the idea that time only went in one direction - however, we now know that information in the present can change the past.

[David MacMillan @ Sep 13th 2008 3:34PM]

You can turn thermal entropy (heat) into electrical entropy (using electricity) without violating the second law.

[F @ Sep 13th 2008 4:09PM]

If you think about it, it's really a shame that we need to use energy to REMOVE enegy (ie lower the temperature, or the average kinetic energy) of a substance. If we could figure out a way to tap the energy contained in the substance we want to cool, in theory we wouldn't need to add any energy at all.

[Rick @ Sep 13th 2008 7:40PM]

Nano, schmano! We are talking about a cooler for a beer keg not an attachment to a detector on the LHC. We aren't trying to cool down a Black Hole in Switzerland or France.

So in the macro beer world the Laws of Thermodynamics still hold.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_laws_of_thermodynamics

[Shyam D @ Sep 13th 2008 2:15PM]

1.) PVC is nothing compared to FREON
2.) Compressors also add a lot of heat into the system. While effective, their overall efficiency is limited by natural physics to less then 30%. Cooling methods relying on electric properties do not have these natural physical limitations and could theoretically ( no one has proven otherwise ) reach 100% efficiency.

3.) Wrong, The system would be able to maintain a constant 22.6 degree temperature differential with it's own environment. That means if your beer is at 70 degrees, so is the polymer and when activated would give a relatively instantaneous temperature differential of 22.6 degrees to 70, which equates to about 47.4 degrees. This process could be repeated over and over again until the desired temperature is reached. A compressor does the same thing. It can't provide a massive differential but rather slowly moves down in temperature with a smaller constant differential.

[muddipanda @ Sep 13th 2008 3:32PM]

Yet the proper use of computers and the internet still eludes you.

If PVC isn't that bad, you should tell Greenpeace to stop going after Apple's iPods and maybe concentrate more on countries still allowing use and production of freon (there still are some) and HFCs. It comes down to scale. Commonplace use of something that does a little damage is probably worse than very little use of something that does a lot of damage.

When you lower the temperature of the polymer, the heat has to go somewhere... without a heat exchanger, it would go into your beer. So assuming the heat is removed, it will take some time for your beer to lower to that temperature. That would depend on the efficiency of the heat exchanger, which to be more efficient, would also require energy. Thus your system's overall efficiency won't be near 100%. And according to the source, the polymer actually HEATS up when the power is removed, so it does not stay at the new lower temperature.

Just what the ORIGINAL article says (not the one to which this blog links).

[Jonah @ Sep 13th 2008 3:35PM]

...I'm not sure I want Electromagnetic fields in my computer, even if they do keep it cold.

[andres @ Sep 13th 2008 7:26PM]

you should remove your power supply promptly

[MadMike @ Sep 13th 2008 3:50PM]

I like the idea of the self-cooling turnout gear for firefighters. If you've ever been in a nice brick row home fire, you know how hot it gets and the 1300F that TOG protects us against isn't shit.

[Ryan Svoboda @ Sep 13th 2008 3:54PM]

I'm looking into building a kegerator with Peltier modules, which are solid state cooling devices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling

I don't see what new innovation they are claiming here

[andres @ Sep 13th 2008 7:26PM]

have fun with your horrible efficiency

[Reader @ Sep 13th 2008 8:44PM]

Awesome, as andres said, have fun pumping in a thousand watts of electricity for ass cooling. Peltier coolers suckkkkk...

[BobSaget @ Sep 14th 2008 1:37AM]

Read and you might actually find out. Thermoelectric cooling is an option for cooling as is Freon. The innovation is using different material that uses a different technique compared to the other options. Think of it this way...how many ways can you watch a dvd? HD? Blueray? DVD? IPod/Phone? All play media...all in different ways. That's innovation(The term innovation may refer to both radical and incremental changes in thinking, in things, in processes or in services)--FYI.

[John @ Sep 13th 2008 5:09PM]

It can't be that cool if it's in a fridge.

[pfromg @ Sep 14th 2008 4:37AM]

I dont think they should start nicking polymers from the north pole. Santa needs them.

[Wahoomcdaniel @ Sep 14th 2008 12:12PM]

I'm looking forward ot the PC cooling applications.

[c1k1r1 @ Sep 14th 2008 8:26PM]

I work in commercial HVA/C. I know a little about how a coil and condinser works. All I can say is that SOME of you people are complete idiots. You should realy stop pretending to know what you are talking about. You people know who you are that im talking to. There is one main thing you should keep in mind, the object is not to cool the air. It's to pull the heat out of the air. At the moment freon is the most effective and cheapest way to do that. As it stands you may pay up to 8k for just the equipment when you have a new A/c put in. Imagine if you used even more expensive materials to make and run that equipment the price could go up another 1-5k. When it comes down to it isn't cheeper realy better?

[The Drunken Blogger @ Sep 16th 2008 4:16PM]

I always wanted to "Have My Keg And Keep It Cool Too"! This is so cool and can't stand it. A kegarator! Wow!