[mattb314]

> Joules-Thomson effect is what allows for refrigeration

I don't think this is true. The "simple" model of refrigeration taught in highschool is just a carnot cycle running backwards, and this can be modeled with an ideal gas. The author of the post covers this the section on "the Thermodynamics 101 Answer"[1], where all you need to drop the temperature of a gas is to let it do work on the piston.

That's not to say that JT is not useful, just that we can explain a theoretical refrigerator without it.

[1] https://mattferraro.dev/posts/joule-thomson#the-thermodynami...

[chermi]

Yes, you can explain refrigeration with ideal gas. But...

You need non-ideal gas (attraction) to get temperature inversion. Then you just need compressor and voila, look at PT charts to find what temperature range you need. With ideal gas reverse carnot refrigerator your refrigeration effect is bounded on low temperature side by the available low temperature source.

So yes, you can refrigerate with ideal gas, but it's not very helpful in warm areas or if you need to get something super cold.