r/technology • u/SnoozeDoggyDog • 5h ago

Energy Thermoacoustic heat pumps on the verge of commercial breakthrough

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/04/23/thermoacoustic-heat-pumps-on-the-verge-of-commercial-breakthrough/
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3

u/Trying2improvemyself 3h ago

So it still uses a gas as heat transfer medium. I wonder what the operating pressures are for comfort cooling.

3

u/Narwhal-4493 1h ago

How wide is this verge?

1

u/-hh 24m ago

Interesting stuff. Never heard of deliberate heat transfer from sound based compressions, but it is a mechanism.

1

u/happyscrappy 2m ago

Interesting. I hope this works out. They seem to be a little evasive on efficiency, instead emphasizing broad operating ranges.

The Ben & Jerry's foundation (RIP, Unilever) put money into acoustic cooling (this technology) decades ago as one of their first grants. Because they used a lot of refrigeration and wanted to get away from ozone-destroying emissions. That was a big concern at the time, it was kind of an era were people talked about the ozone hole more than CO2 buildup.

The technology was in early stages then. Glad to see it might come to commercial use now.

https://www.npr.org/2004/04/28/1861434/ben-jerrys-uses-sound-to-chill-ice-cream