The ILK is conducting a research project on a type of refrigeration that differs significantly from traditional refrigeration technologies. The goal is to develop a process that generates usable cold by utilizing the positive enthalpy of solution of salt.

When cooling is required, a cold salt solution consisting of water and salt is to be produced in a timely manner.

The technology developed in this research project uses low-temperature heat at approximately 50°C (e.g., recooling heat, waste heat, solar energy, etc.) as its driving energy. This heat is used to regenerate the system by expelling water from the salt solution. The expelled water vapor is then liquefied and stored. The stored water is available for renewed, on-demand cooling by being mixed back with the salt to form a cold solution.

The project has several positive effects that contribute to sustainability and climate protection:

• No synthetic (environmentally harmful) refrigerants are used for cooling.
• The system to be developed not only generates cooling but also serves as an efficient, loss-free storage solution for the precise, on-demand provision of cooling energy.
• Low-temperature heat—which would otherwise be released into the environment as unused waste heat—is used as the drive energy for regenerating the cooling system.