January 24, 2013 
Advanced adsorption chiller uses nanomaterial to be up 50 percent more efficient
RICHLAND, Wash. - A new, energy-efficient air chilling system could keep troops on the front lines cool while using about half as much diesel as current systems. The system's decreased fuel consumption could also save lives by reducing attacks on American soldiers who deliver fuel to field operations.
The D.O.E.'s Pacific Northwest National Lab will gain up to $2.8 million over 3 years to develop the system, the Department of Defense, Navy and DOE's Advanced Research Plans Agency-Energy, also known as ARPA-E, announced Wednesday. PNNL's plan was among 5 awarded a total of $8.5 million to enhance the efficiency of battlefield heating and air conditioning systems by 20 to 50 percent.
"PNNL is looking forward to adapting its ongoing research into advanced, energy-efficient cooling technologies and apply it toward important military needs," said PNNL Lab Fellow and plan leader Pete McGrail. "Our team has a strong emotional connection to the success of this project, as it could help prevent American soldiers from being injured or killed while moving fuel in dangerous supply convoys around the battlefield."
PNNL is partnering with Oregon State University and Power Partners, Incorporated of Athens, Ga. on the project.
PNNL's system will be a next-generation adsorption chiller that is specially designed to be smaller, lighter, more efficient and operate under the extreme temperatures experienced at bases on the frontlines, also called forward operations. The chiller will use a novel nanomaterial called a metal organic framework, or MOF. MOFs are crystal-like compounds made of metal clusters connected to organic molecules, or linkers. Together, the clusters and linkers assemble into porous 3D structures. PNNL developed a MOF that can hold up to 3 times more water than the silica gel used in today's adsorption chillers. This helps make PNNL's test adsorption chiller system much smaller and lighter. This plan will build on advances in adsorption cooling technology PNNL has already made under ARPA-E's Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices, or BEET-IT, program.
Further enhancements for this plan will include breakthroughs in microchannel heat exchanger technology and enhancements in the MOF's thermal properties. Both advances will help reduce the size and weight of the chiller further and squeeze out more cooling efficiency.
"This will be the most advanced adsorption cooling system ever developed, and these advances are needed to meet very demanding military requirements," McGrail said.
PNNL's military system will run off of waste heat coming from a diesel generator. This could reduce the diesel fuel use needed to cool field military installations by up to 50 percent. The planned 3-kilowatt unit will weigh about 180 pounds and take up about eight cubic feet.
This isn't the 1st time the 2 systems have received support. PNNL began developing its MOF adsorption chiller for commercial buildings in 2010, when PNNL received ARPA-E backing for the BEET-IT, program. PNNL also received ARPA-E backing in 2011 to adapt the adsorption chiller to heat and cool electric vehicles with minimal impact on driving distance.
Tags: Energy, Fundamental Science, Energy Efficiency, Energy Conservation, Chemistry, Nanoscience
Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Lab address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. PNNL employs 4,500 staff, has an yearly budget of nearly $1 billion, and has been managed for the D.O.E. by Ohio-based Battelle since the laboratory's inception in 1965. For more information, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
