Electrochemically Driven Phase Transformation for High Efficiency Heat Pumping

To reduce energy consumption and improve energy utilization in space conditioning, advanced heat pumping technologies are needed. The chemical looping heat pump (CLHP) is a promising ther-modynamic cycle that has theoretically shown the potential to achieve a cooling coefficient of performance (COPc) increase of over 20% relative to conventional vapor compression systems. In this paper, the key process of the CLHP is experimentally demon-strated, and the system performance and non-ideal behavior are predicted using the component-level models. The results show the feasibility of electrochemical phase change of a working fluid; the peak COPc was 7.64 with a cooling capacity of 3.6 mW (cooling den-sity of 2.57 W m-2) at both sink and source temperature of 23 degrees C based on laboratory experiments. The COPc can theoretically reach up to 13 at a temperature lift of 15 degrees C as long as an electrochemical cell can achieve a greater degree of conversion.