Ceramic tubes are quickly manufactured using specialized software and a smart extruder, and cool the environment through water evaporation; the method was presented at the ACM SCF '25 conference and could reduce load on the power grid during heat waves
Dr. Ofer Berman, a new faculty member in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technion, presented at the SCF '25 international conference a new-old concept of refrigeration and air conditioning – evaporative cooling – and the manufacturing process required for its widespread implementation. SCF is the ACM Computerized Manufacturing Conference.
Cooling and air conditioning systems are essential today, especially in the face of climate change and heat waves, but their operation places a heavy burden on power grids and increases air pollution. In addition, while these systems cool homes, factories and other enclosed spaces, they emit hot air outside.
Dr. Berman, a graduate of the Industrial Design Program in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, after his doctorate at the Technion, went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the Technion-Cornell Jacobs Institute, in the Matter of Tech lab headed by Dr. Thijs Roumen. He recently returned to the Technion as a faculty member in the Industrial Design Program, where he completed his doctorate under the supervision of the program head, Prof. Ezri Terzi. During his postdoctoral research at Cornell Tech, under the supervision of Prof. Thijs Roumen, Dr. Berman developed the CeraPiper – An innovative method for the rapid and inexpensive production of porous ceramic tubes that cool the environment by evaporating water inside them. The team also included Eitan Ziss, who developed the software that supports the manufacturing process – a process that provides the user with a high degree of control over the thickness of the ceramic, the size of the pores, and their distribution.
CeraPiper It is a complete manufacturing process in which the aforementioned ceramic tubes are manufactured using dedicated software developed by the researchers and the use of a smart extruder. This method allows them to be produced in different sizes and shapes within a few seconds – an optimal combination of high production speed, which is not possible with 3D printing, and flexibility and modularity of shape and size, which are not obtained in serial production in a mold. The porous ceramic allows the water in the tube to evaporate and cool the environment effectively, thus achieving “passive air conditioning”. The tube can be twisted and further shaped after it leaves the compression machine, while it is still soft and flexible. Since the raw material is ceramic, it can be returned to the machine and reshaped in the event of a manufacturing error or wear.
Process CeraPiper Recently presented at the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) SCF '25 conference.
The research was supported by the Bowers Undergraduate Research Experience, AOL, and the Cornell University Foundation. Dr. Berman's postdoctoral research was supported by the Sydney Vivian Koenigsberg Foundation and the Technion-Cornell Jacobs Institute.
Cornell-Tech (Cornell Tech) is the future campus of Cornell University in New York, established in collaboration with the Technion following an initiative by the City of New York to promote applied research and entrepreneurship in the AI era. The campus, located on Roosevelt Island, trains hundreds of students each year and fosters a vibrant technology ecosystem that has produced over 134 startup companies since 2012, most of which operate in the city. As a groundbreaking academic and technological center, the institution is creating profound economic change in the regional high-tech sector and shaping the next generation of leaders in the world of innovation.
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Strictly toxic comments, which also indicate that their writers didn't bother to read the original article.
It is true that the evaporative cooling method has existed for thousands of years, but this is the starting point of the research, which I understand is mainly concerned with an *industrial* production method.
There are many questions that you should ask, and it's not without reason that there is a distance between a university research paper and a mature product.
Personally, I found value in knowledge.
The word passive is misleading, the principle of cooling using water evaporation is at least as old as the bricks that were built in the Haifa refinery facilities… There may be an innovation in increasing the surface area of the evaporation surfaces, but electricity is needed to move the water to the surfaces, so it is not truly passive, and indeed dry air is needed.
Again, a bombastic headline empty of content
Extremely poor
After the Six-Day War, Arabs from the territories worked in our agriculture. They constantly filled water in a jar from clay and only drank from it. The water was cool even on hot, humid days.
It has already been said about this: "Good morning Eliyahu"!
Because who knows how long the method has existed?
Of a close one by dripping water on a trellis?
As someone who lives in the south, in warm areas,
First we used a barbed wire fence,
Which led to the construction of the "Desert-Cooler",
So the "patent" is known even without the publication of tube printing,
I forgot to write in my previous reply,
The evaporation is passive, but how do you wet the ceramic? With water pumps. Ultimately, if you really want something effective and noticeable, an air conditioner is the best option right now in terms of both electrical and volume efficiency.
They didn't invent anything, with all due respect, 2000-3000 years ago they were cooling houses like this in the Iraq and Iran region.
Even the machine is something that has existed for decades. I personally touched such machines when I visited factories.
It's simply a shameful article and a shame about the money wasted on his "research" and his doctorate.
Is that what they call it: "evaporation cold"?
I read about passive cooling in buildings and apartments in a book published many years ago by Professor Baruch Givaoni from the Construction Research Station at the Technion.
Book Title: Man, Climate and Architecture
Think about it back then.
I exaggerated a bit with the title, which is a shame, because it makes everything you publish now seem less serious – this method of cooling (water evaporation) preceded the air conditioner as we know it, and was in industrial use about a hundred years ago.
At most, the researchers have developed another method for producing a tube for evaporation.
Suitable for places with dry weather, in Israel the humidity will have almost no effect
Amazing. A significant development indeed.
But it depends on the (lack of) humidity in the air.