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Samara Scientists Explore a Cryogenic Engine for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Scientists of the Samara National Research University in Samara, Russia, have started to develop a cryogenic engine that will use liquid nitrogen or liquefied natural gas as fuel. Announced in October, the team hopes that the engine will be able to power environmentally friendly vehicles in specially protected natural areas....

Refrigeration Systems for Quantum, Cryogenic Computing

Advances in quantum computing have been in the news due to the potential for extremely large speedups in solution times of some important applications such as decryption (code breaking), optimization or simulation of molecules and materials in which quantum-mechanical effects are important. Large-scale classical (digital) computers operating at cryogenic temperatures...

Chart Industries Acquires Business Assets from IC Biomedical, Worthington Industries

Chart Industries, Inc., (CSA CSM) announced on November 2 it had completed the acquisition of the microbulk cryogenic tank intellectual property, equipment, and other assets from IC Biomedical (“ICB”), a private entity. Chart acquired the business from IC Biomedical upon ICB’s acquisition of these assets and the cryobiological assets of...

Air Liquide Acquires Majority Stake in Cryoconcept, Strengthens Expertise in ‘Extreme’ Cryogenics

Air Liquide Advanced Technologies (CSA CSM) has acquired 80% capital of the French company Cryoconcept, which specializes in dilution refrigeration technology reaching extremely low temperatures. This transaction enables Air Liquide to strengthen its expertise in the field of ultralow temperature—close to absolute zero—cryogenics, propose a broader offering and accelerate the...

Researchers Discover Technique to Turn Electricity into Hydrogen with Microwaves

A team of Spanish researchers has discovered a new method that transforms electricity into hydrogen or chemical products solely by using microwaves without cables or any type of contact with electrodes. This achievement represents a disruption in the field of energy research and a key development for the decarbonization of...

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Mixed Refrigerant Cycles

Most cryogenic refrigeration systems, both large scale systems and cryocoolers, use helium as a working fluid. There are a number of advantages to helium, not the least of which is that helium remains a fluid down to the lowest achievable temperatures. In order to freeze helium, pressures of over 20...

Fountain Pumps and He II Phase Separators

Helium II (He II), the second liquid phase of the 4He isotope described in this column in Cold Facts Spring 2010 (http://2csa.us/he2), can be modeled as consisting of two interpenetrating fluids. One, the superfluid component, has zero viscosity and entropy and the other, the normal fluid component, has nonzero viscosity...

Turboexpanders

A vital technology in the refrigerators and liquefiers described in Cold Facts Volume 31 Number 3 is that of turboexpanders. These devices are rotating machines in which the process fluid (e.g., helium) does work against the turboexpander while moving from high pressure to a lower pressure and thus is cooled....

Magnets

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...

Energy Storage

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...

Astronomy

ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired,  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere.  On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...

Cryocoolers

What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...