COOLPOL - Cooling with Electrocaloric Polymers (EIC Pathfinder Challenges)

Electrocaloric cooling is based on a reversible temperature variation in specific materials as a result of electrical field variation. LIST recently showed that a few grams of electrocaloric ceramics can generate 20.9 K temperature span and 4 W cooling power. This project investigates cooling with electrocaloric polymers, which have even higher cooling potential. Arkema, world leader in electroactive polymers, will investigate electrocaloric polymers able to reach over 5K temperature variation. KEMET, an European industrial partner, will prepare thousands of multilayer capacitors based on optimized electrocaloric polymers. The USTUTT recently demonstrated the most efficient charge recovery circuit and will build electronics to increase the system efficiency. Finally, thanks to its extensive experience in making electrocaloric coolers, LIST will assemble the multilayers and the electronic modules in a proof-of-concept aiming at reaching a cooling power of 1 kW and a system efficiency of 60%. If successful, this project will revolutionize cooling.