Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAFResearchers from Fraunhofer IAF, Fraunhofer IPM and Fraunhofer IKTS have received the 2023 IEEE JESTPE First Place Prize Paper Award for their work on ultra-efficient power electronics for electrocaloric heat pumps. The paper was written as part of the Fraunhofer lighthouse project ElKaWe (Electrocaloric heat pumps).
IEEE JESTPE First Place Prize Paper Award for Fraunhofer researchers
09/13/2024 / Award for ultra-efficient power electronics for innovative heat pumps
Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Mönch and his co-authors have received the 2023 IEEE JESTPE First Place Prize Paper Award.
The IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics (JESTPE) has honored Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Mönch from Fraunhofer IAF and his co-authors from the Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied Solid State Physics IAF, for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM and for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS with the First Place Paper Award 2023. The researchers were awarded the prize for their paper “A 99.74% Efficient Capacitor-Charging Converter Using Partial Power Processing for Electrocalorics.” The work presents results from the ElKaWe project and contributes to the realization of future solid-state heat pumps that are highly efficient and climate-friendly and do not require refrigerants or compressors.
Heat pumps are extremely efficient heat generation systems and a central component of the heating transition. In the Fraunhofer lighthouse project ElKaWe, six Fraunhofer Institutes are working on the development of innovative electrocaloric heat pumps as an alternative to the currently predominant compressor technology. They operate without harmful refrigerants and are expected to achieve higher efficiencies in the future. In the ElKaWe project, Fraunhofer IAF is responsible for the development of control electronics for electrocaloric heat pumps.
Ultra-efficient circuit topology
In the award-winning paper, the researchers developed and optimized power electronics based on ceramic components specifically for electrocalorics. To achieve this, they have realized an ultra-efficient circuit topology for voltage converters with 99.74 percent electrical efficiency. The GaN-based multilevel DC/DC converter far surpasses the current state of research into the electrical control of these innovative heat pumps. This will help ensure that competitive performance can be achieved at the system level in the future.
The efficient electronics will be used to control an electrocaloric heat pump demonstrator in the ElKaWe project. Research into power electronics for electrocaloric heat pumps will be continued over the next four years by a new research group at the University of Stuttgart led by Prof. Stefan Mönch in the recently launched EIC Pathfinder project COOLPOL.
The award-winning research was carried out as part of the Fraunhofer lighthouse project ElKaWe (Electrocaloric Heat Pumps). The project meeting took place on September 10th at Fraunhofer IAF.
As part of the project meeting, a lab tour demonstrated how the electrical control system charges a ceramic and electrocaloric segment and causes a cyclic temperature change.
Scientific publication
“A 99.74% Efficient Capacitor-Charging Converter using Partial Power Processing for Electrocalorics” by Stefan Mönch, Richard Reiner, Kareem Mansour, Patrick Waltereit, Michael Basler, Rüdiger Quay, Christian Molin, Sylvia Gebhardt, David Bach, Roland Binninger, and Kilian Bartholomé
(IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, Vol. 11, Issue 4, pp. 4491-4507, doi: 10.1109/JESTPE.2023.3270375)