Revitalizing a Century-Old Innovation: Pascal Advocates for Modernizing Heat Pump Technology

When the trial outcomes were revealed, they left Adam Slavney and Jinyoung Seo perplexed. Their research focused on a novel category of materials aimed at enhancing the efficiency of refrigerators, air conditioners, and heat pumps—an ongoing quest for the cooling technology sector. The data they collected from the materials they were evaluating were unexpectedly dissimilar.

“Why are these results not what we expected? What did we alter?” Slavney shared with TechCrunch. “We suspected something might be amiss after about three months, but it took us a year or two to gather solid evidence.”

This evidence now forms the foundation of Slavney’s startup, Pascal, where he serves as CEO, and Seo as CTO. The company recently secured $8.5 million in a follow-up to its seed funding round, co-led by Sazze Partners and LB Investment, with KDB Silicon Valley also joining the round, which was disclosed exclusively to TechCrunch.

Slavney asserts that refrigerators and heat pumps utilizing Pascal’s innovative material could operate approximately 20% more efficiently than current models. (Both technologies are fundamentally similar.) The startup has initiated collaboration with a major beverage corporation for a pilot project involving this technology.

“This funding round materialized quicker than we anticipated due to the customer contract we secured,” Slavney said. Pascal aims to deliver its initial prototype early next year, with plans for a more refined batch of refrigerators expected in 2028.

Researchers have been on the lookout for improved refrigerants for almost as long as refrigerators have been in use. Recently, the focus has shifted towards finding compounds that are environmentally friendly. While such alternatives do exist, they must perform at least as effectively as current refrigerants.

“For the past 35 to 40 years, we’ve been dealing with the refrigerant issue in a reactive manner,” Slavney remarked. Older refrigerants like Freon damaged the ozone layer, while newer options like R-134a are still severe contributors to greenhouse emissions. “It feels like an endless cycle,” he added.

One promising alternative is a class of materials known as solid-state refrigerants. Being solid in nature, they cannot escape into the atmosphere, thereby alleviating the environmental concerns associated with traditional refrigerants. These solid-state options have the potential to improve the efficiency of refrigeration and heat pump systems, functioning much like conventional refrigerants: by releasing heat when compressed and absorbing heat when the pressure is relieved.

Before their unexpected breakthrough, Slavney and his team at Harvard were examining these materials. “We were attempting high-pressure measurements, which required gas. We switched gases and noticed a difference, leading us to ask, why?” Slavney explained.

Following extensive experimentation, the team stumbled upon a new route towards solid-state refrigeration. Instead of compressing a solid material, Pascal’s heat pumps compress carbon dioxide into a cartridge filled with a unique sponge-like medium, which is proprietary to the company.

As the compressed carbon dioxide permeates this porous material, its molecules start to collide with the walls, generating energy and warmth. A heat exchanger dissipates some of this heat. Flipping the process allows the material to draw energy from the heat exchanger and transfer it to the carbon dioxide.

In Pascal’s design, two cartridges are operational simultaneously. One absorbs heat from the interior of the refrigerator while transferring it to the carbon dioxide, while the other takes heat from the carbon dioxide and releases it to the external environment, with the flow reversing as the cartridges reach their temperature limits.

“Our material is exceptionally durable,” Slavney noted. “We’ve cycled it as much as 300,000 times, equivalent to about a year of operational use.”

This complete system efficiently moves heat compared to other solid-state refrigerants, allowing Pascal to avoid high-pressure operation that is typically required by other technologies in this category.

“We are utilizing conventional systems for this process,” Slavney stated. “This gives us confidence that we can produce it economically, promoting widespread adoption.”