The team of Prof. Vanapalli from the University of Twente and the engineers of MEC Stirling Technology from Doetinchem have reached an important milestone in the field of Cryogenic Cooling at the end of 2024. The midsize cryogenic cooler that Prof. Vanapalli and the people of MEC Stirling Technology have been working on together since the end of 2023, achieved a stable cooling capacity of 45 watts at 80 Kelvin at almost 10% of Carnot. The latter is a doubling of the efficiency of the currently available GM/Pulse Tube cooling systems. This project is an example of a successful Public Private Partnership, in which science and industry have worked together on innovations in cryogenic cooling.
Successful
The MEC Cryogenic Cooler is based on the MEC free piston Stirling engine. MEC was the first company in the world to successfully industrialize free piston Stirling technology. More than 20,000 units of the free piston Stirling engines have been produced in the past 15 years. These have not only found their way into on- and off-grid applications for industrial and private use, many research organizations worldwide have also called on MEC technology for their research and projects.
Commercialization
In this way and along this route, contact between MEC and the University of Twente was established a number of years ago. A contact that has now resulted in a concrete, distinctive product. In the course of the coming year, commercialization will start and the first medical and industrial applications based on the MEC cooler can be demonstrated. A major advantage is of course that MEC can build its cryogenic cooler in almost the same way as the MEC Stirling Engine. Also a large part of the reliability data of the MEC Engine is also relevant in cooling mode.
