{"id":1917043,"date":"2026-05-04T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1917043"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:00:00","slug":"barocal-can-cool-your-food-and-drink-by-squeezing-a-hunk-of-plastic-crystals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1917043","title":{"rendered":"Barocal can cool your food and drink by squeezing a hunk of plastic crystals"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/GettyImages-1371981344.jpg?resize=1200,800″]<\/p>\n

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Refrigerators today run on the same basic technology as they did more than 100 years ago. You\u2019d think we could have come up with something better by now.<\/p>\n

And we have, but nothing has been able to dethrone cheap, reliable vapor compression \u2014 the process that\u2019s keeping your milk cold today. One startup hopes to change that.<\/p>\n

Barocal has developed an entirely new way of heating and cooling using nothing but an inexpensive solid material. Early prototypes are already as effective as existing refrigerator compressors, and the technology promises to use significantly less energy. Oh, and there\u2019s no risk of leaking climate-warming gases, something that has plagued vapor compression.<\/p>\n

To prepare the technology for market, Barocal has raised a $10 million seed round, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch. Investors in the round included World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and IP Group.<\/p>\n

Barocal\u2019s core technology stems from research performed by Xavier Moya, the startup\u2019s founder. \u201cI\u2019ve always been very interested in technologies for heating and cooling,\u201d he told TechCrunch. He traces it back to his youth in Spain, where he would spend hours studying in a small, hot room. \u201cI really remember when air conditioning came to the house \u2014 it was like wow!\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

As a professor of materials physics at the University of Cambridge, he focused on refrigerants of all kinds, though he became particularly fascinated by solid materials could capture and release heat simply by squeezing and stretching them. In one of his favorite demonstrations, he asks people to take an deflated balloon, hold it to their lips, and repeatedly stretch and relax it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you stretch it, it gets hot. And then if you wait, when you let it go, it feels cold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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That same principle applies to the class of materials Barocal has developed, which is related to an organic material widely used in a range of industries, from plastics to paints. Normally, the molecules inside the material rotate freely. But when they\u2019re compressed, the molecules stop rotating. Since heat, at its most basic level, is the movement of atoms and molecules, the reducing that movement causes the material to give off heat. Removing the pressure allows the materials to absorb heat.<\/p>\n

Barocal uses these materials to transfer heat. In a refrigerator, for example, the material will pump heat from inside the fridge to outside, lowering the temperature for the food within. To transfer heat, the company flows water past the materials and then out to a radiator.<\/p>\n

Because the materials are solids, gas leaks don\u2019t pose a problem. In conventional refrigerators, the gaseous refrigerants either degrade the ozone later or warm the climate, depending on the type. Greenhouse gas-based refrigerants have become a particular concern since they can warm the climate over 1,000 times more than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

Though Barocal\u2019s technology can work at any scale, the company is studying large HVAC and refrigerators first, systems where the startup\u2019s efficiency gains will make a noticeable dent in a customer\u2019s bottom line. \u201cWe are looking at bigger commercial systems where I think we can we can make a bigger impact faster,\u201d Moya said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/GettyImages-1371981344.jpg?resize=1200,800″] Refrigerators today run on the same basic technology as they did more than 100 years ago. You\u2019d think we could have come up with something better by now. And we have, but nothing has been able to dethrone cheap, reliable vapor compression \u2014 the process that\u2019s keeping your milk cold today. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,62],"class_list":["post-1917043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-techcrunch-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1917043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1917043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1917043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1917043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}