Invitation to join the IIR working group: Solid-state cooling and heating

The working group is composed of experienced leadership: a chairman, Prof. Dr. Andrej Kitanovski (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Slovenia), a vice-chairman, Prof. Dr. Luo Ecrang (Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), a Scientific Committee and a Board of Industries.

The group's activities include the formation of scientific panels and an industry council to disseminate knowledge at an international level. The 28-member working group is composed of experts, professionals, engineers and technicians who are recognised in the refrigeration sector. They will regularly collaborate on conferences, organise workshops, produce publications and draft recommendations. The first official meeting of the working group took place online in January 2023 with the organisers of the next IIR international conference on the same topic, Thermag 10.

Objectives and the topics of the working group

1. The first objective of the working group is to promote international research collaboration in the areas of solid-state cooling, heat pumps, and energy harvesting, with the aim of providing energy-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions for a variety of applications.
2. The second objective is to establish technology transfer through collaboration between research institutes and various industries, and to report on the progress of developments towards real market applications.
3. The third objective is to comprehensively promote energy efficient solutions for solid state cooling, heating and energy harvesting that can have an important impact on efficient energy conversion, decarbonisation of various sectors and the circular economy.

The working group will focus on all existing and future domains of solid-state cooling, heating, and energy harvesting:

• Caloric technologies for heating and cooling (i.e. caloric cooling, heat pumps)
• Caloric technologies for energy harvesting, (i.e. pyroferroic heat-to-power conversion)
• Thermoelectric technologies for heating and cooling
• Thermoelectric technologies for energy harvesting
• Spincaloritronic technologies for cooling, heating, and energy harvesting
• Solid-state cryocoolers and liquefaction
• Other solid-state technologies for heating, cooling, and energy harvesting.

Join our working group

We invite all IIR members interested in these issues to join our working group. Members of the working group must be either individual members or representatives of IIR member companies. To join, send an email to wg_ssch@iifiir.org.

As a member of the working group, you will receive many exclusive benefits and services, including access to specialised events and publications, as well as the opportunity to actively participate in research and development in these important areas.

We hope you will join our working group and help promote energy efficient solutions for cooling, heating and solid-state energy harvesting.

For more information on the activities of this working group, visit the IIR website.