The refrigerator of the future will run on heat, not costly electricity,
according to a team of innovative scientists in
Germany.

The research could be
a boon in hot countries where fridges and air-conditioning systems are vital,
said the group of young scientists, who are working on at the Innovationszentrum
Wiesenbusch Gladbeck (IWG), in cooperation with the University of Applied
Science in nearby
Gelsenkirchen.

"If you’ve
ever had to go behind your refrigerator, you may have noticed that cold makes
heat. That is, the apparatus, which keeps your food cold, is often too hot to
touch. Why, then, can’t heat make cold?” said Rainer Braun, a
professor at IWG.

"Anybody can
produce heat by producing coolness,” Braun said. "But we at IWG are the
only ones producing coolness from
heat."

It is a question of
particular importance in hot countries, where food goes bad quickly and
interiors need air-conditioning. The problem is, though, that cooling is very
energy-intensive, and can put stress on electrical generation systems. So why
not look to the biggest source of energy we have: the
sun?

The principle of solar
cooling, the so-called ammoniac-water absorption technique, has been known since
1810.

In Gladbeck, this idea
has been extrapolated to the idea of using warmth from other processes - the
heat of baking ovens.

The
German scientists have developed a prototype, which very soon could be cooling a
cold storage plant in Morocco this way.

Another pilot facility in
Gladbeck uses the warmth of a gas turbine to air-condition a lecture
hall.

Currently, the IWG is
actively recruiting technology companies to rent space in their cutting-edge
buildings in northwest Germany which include some six universities and schools
of applied science as well as several international
airports.

Braun said: "At the
risk of committing an awful pun, it’s a cool place to do some hot
research."

For a country like
India, this breakthrough may be just what the doctor ordered.

Via Times of India