QuantaCool Corporation

Advanced Thermal Management Solutions

Company Profile

What We Do

QuantaCool Corporation seeks to develop and optimize its proprietary microchannel heat pipe (MHP^TM) technology, for the passive cooling of high-intensity heat sources to remove and dissipate large quantities of heat, which are passively rejected to ambient cooling media.   Working proof-of-concept devices have been built, demonstrating the feasibility of the MHP cooling concept.  Our custom computer simulation code and access to an instrumented laboratory test facility gives us the tools to design and optimize MHP systems for specific cooling requirements.  

How We Work

We work in concert with device manufacturers to design and specify the micro-channel heat exchangers and other components, and contract-source or license the design of these components for the customers.  To obtain the best heat transfer, devices should be built or bonded directly onto the MHP heat sink outer surface.  Heat sinks, cooling fluids and external cooling units would be assembled during device manufacturing or system installation.

We welcome opportunities for collaboration or partnerships with customers, academia, and consortia, to leverage the many benefits of MHP technology.  If you are interested in working with QuantaCool, please contact us.

Target Markets

• Data Centers:  MHP technology can benefit data centers by enabling direct removal of heat from the server processors (CPUs) to ambient air or cooling water, dramatically reducing, or possibly eliminating the need to air-condition the server rooms.  Electricity consumption can be significantly reduced or, where centers are limited by power availability, server / computing capacity can be increased correspondingly, deferring the need to invest in new facilities.   Potential additional benefits are more compact centers via higher server / rack densities, cooler and thus more efficient / faster operation of the CPUs, reduced noise, and the recovery of waste heat for space heating purposes.

• Concentrating Photovoltaics (CPV) Solar Power:  One of the biggest PV cost drivers is cell efficiency, which falls with increasing temperatures.   State-of-the-art PV cells are 2 - 3 times more efficient than the cells use flat-panel, but are very expensive.  CPV systems use lenses or mirrors focus the sunlight onto small area, allowing cost-effective use of the more efficient cells.   The concentration factor or solar module cost reduction is primarily limited by the ability to operate within the PV cell temperature limits.  The superior cooling offered by MHP technology enables an order of magnitude higher concentration factor, significantly reducing the PV cell cost of modules; this could make solar electricity competitive with conventional power without subsidies.  

• Cooling of military high-power electronics:  MHP technology can enable more-compact and robust cooling solutions, reducing system size and weight, improving the performance and reducing the vulnerability of vehicles, aircraft, and ships.

• More compact cooling of high-power lasers:   High-powered solid-state lasers are used by the military, industrial welding/cutting, and medical sectors.  These lasers are optically "pumped" by high intensity LED light sources, which require cooling.   State-of the art lasers use liquid-cooled microchannel cooling systems which require bulky and maintenance-intensive water cooling and circulation systems.  The evaporative cooling principle and proprietary heat exchanger designs reduce the coolant recirculation rates by 2 orders of magnitude, enabling a much smaller cooling package and reduced power requirements.

• Safer cooling and storage of spent nuclear fuel:  Spent nuclear fuel continues to release a large amount of heat for several years, before it can be processed for ultimate disposal.  The current technology for storing spent nuclear fuel is to immerse it in on-site above-ground tanks cooled with pumped cooling water.   These systems are vulnerable to extended power interruptions (as the Fukushima disaster demonstrated) or aerial impact / attack.   By applying suitably designed MHP cooling principles, spent nuclear fuel could be safely stored and passively cooled underground, eliminating the vulnerability to external attack or loss of cooling due to natural disasters.