Kurt Engelbrecht, Dan Eriksen, Christian R.H. Bahl, Rasmus Björk, Jørgen Geyti, Jaime A. Lozano, Kaspar K. Nielsen, Finn Saxild, Anders Smith and Nini Pryds from DTU Energy Conversion have jointly been awarded ' Best Paper of the Year' by the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Refrigeration ( IJR ).
The article ”Experimental results for a noval rotary active magnetic regenerator. Vol.35(2012)1498-1505” is thus selected as the best article of over 500 articles submitted in the period May 2012-April 2013.
The award, donated by Elsevier Ltd, publisher of the Journal for the Int. Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), consists of a prize of USD 1500 and a certificate, but the authors of the article will have to be patient in collecting the prize and the certificate, as they will be awarded during a celebration for award winners during the International Congress of Refrigeration in Yokohama/Japan in 2015.
The wait can seem a bit long, but the main author of the article, senior researcher Kurt Engelbrecht, is still happy for the award.
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The prototype consists of a magnet with areas of high and low magnetic fields, through which magnetocaloric materials rotates. A liquid is pumped around in the system to draw out the resulting heat and cooling from the system.
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"The article was a long time coming, as it describes three to four years of research and work to make a prototype in magnetic cooling, including modeling, material research, design, construction and experiments. And unlike many other articles, it gives a detailed design consideration and experimental results over a range of operating conditions," says Kurt Engelbrecht.
"When you write these kinds of articles, you may find it exciting yourself, but you never know how the readers will receive it. They can be indifferent to an article, I think is very important. The award for best article means a great deal, because it show that people find what we do worth reading about."
The prize is also a tribute to research done by DTU Energy Conversion into magnetic refrigeration. The International Journal of Refrigeration targets the entire refrigeration industry where magnetic refrigeration represents only a very small part. The award can be viewed as a “well done” pat on the back from a curious industry. There is a strong focus on reducing energy consumption of refrigerators, as a large proportion of the world's electricity consumption is used for cooling, and DTU Energy Conversion is seen as frontrunners in the field of research in magnetic refrigeration.
So far, senior researcher Kurt Engelbrecht and his colleagues continue as usual, as 2015 is a long time away, and the research does not end just because an article has won an award. The section is already working on the next improved prototype in magnetic cooling.
"It's a nice feeling having won the award, but we still have many improvements to make. So far it is business as usual.”