Magnetic Heat Circulator Based On Self-Heat Recuperation

It has become people’s common interest to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) to counter global warming. The combustion of fossil fuel for heating is associated with great exergy loss and therefore emits a large amount of CO2. Recently, heat recuperation technology that provides only work to the process and involves no combustion was suggested. By compressing gas at its highest temperature in the process for heat elevation, the energy consumption for heating can be largely reduced compared to conventional heat-recovery technology. However, there are some processes which compressors cannot be used.

In this research, magnetocaloric effect is used to elevate heat instead of compression. The temperature of the heat is elevated and decreased by magnetization and demagnetization of ferromagnets near its Curie temperature, respectively. We propose a magnetic heat circulator with double tube wheel. In this heat circulator, the working material (the ferromagnet) circulates and exchanges heat with the fluid for self-heat recuperation. The ferromagnet circulates in an inner pipe and the fluid flows in the outer pipe. Input work for magnetization and recovered work from demagnetization was calculated and compared to experimental results.