Comparing superconducting and permanent magnets for magnetic refrigeration

We compare the cost of a high temperature superconducting (SC) tape-based solenoidwith a permanent magnet (PM) Halbach cylinder for magnetic refrigeration.Assuming a five liter active magnetic regenerator volume, the price of each type ofmagnet is determined as a function of aspect ratio of the regenerator and desiredinternal magnetic field.

It is shown that to produce a 1 T internal field in theregenerator a permanent magnet of hundreds of kilograms is needed or an area ofsuperconducting tape of tens of square meters. The cost of cooling the SC solenoidis shown to be a small fraction of the cost of the SC tape. Assuming a cost ofthe SC tape of 6000 $/m2 and a price of the permanent magnet of 100 $/kg, thesuperconducting solenoid is shown to be a factor of 0.3-3 times more expensive thanthe permanent magnet, for a desired field from 0.5-1.75 T and the geometrical aspectratio of the regenerator.

This factor decreases for increasing field strength, indicatingthat the superconducting solenoid could be suitable for high field, large coolingpower applications.