Cold Facts Digital – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

Hyundai Nexo Sets Hydrogen Fuel Cell Distance Record

Celebrity explorer Bertrand Piccard drove Hyundai’s Nexo SUV 484 miles across France in November, setting a new world record for the longest distance traveled in a hydrogen-powered vehicle on a single tank. Within the category of zero-emissions options, the hydrogen fuel cell is constantly being eclipsed by electric power. But...

Jefferson Lab Scientists Are Designing Accelerators that Could Help Clean the Environment

Physicists at Jefferson Laboratory are working on two accelerator designs they hope could change water treatment. It’s been 30 years since a pilot project in Miami-Dade County found that blasting wastewater with electrons could clean it up—from microorganisms to harsh chemicals. Fay Hannon is designing a low-energy, portable accelerator for...

Cryogenics Secures Volatile Car Batteries in Transit

Early in December, researchers from Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick UK, in collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover engineers, froze batteries with liquid nitrogen. Research suggests this would allow lithium car batteries—costly and dangerous to move—to be transported safely in a much cheaper and environmentally friendly way.

Electronic Map Reveals ‘Rules of the Road’ in Superconductor

In a study published in the American Physical Society journal Physical Review X (PRX) in early December, Rice University physicist Ming Yi and colleagues offer up a band structure map for iron selenide, a material that has long puzzled physicists because of its structural simplicity and behavioral complexity. The “roadmap,”...

Tour ITER in Virtual Reality

ITER, the world’s largest fusion tokamak, is currently under construction in southern France. Now, operational facilities are under construction including the First Plasma plant and tokamak building. The consortium, comprising representatives from 35 nations, has introduced an interactive worksite tour to keep the public informed on site progress and encourage...

European Space Agency Approves Record Budget To Meet New Challenges

European Space Agency (ESA) members approved a record $15.97 billion budget in late November in Seville, Spain, to secure Europe's position in space exploration as the United States and China press ahead. Funding will allow ESA a full series of programs and additional scientific work including increased Earth observation to...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Dewar

A dewar is a type of cryostat named after Sir James Dewar, the researcher who first developed the concept of a vacuum insulated container with silvered walls to reflect thermal radiation. Dewar was the first to liquefy hydrogen, and he created the device to store his discovery. The thermos bottle...

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon Cryocoolers

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers are two of the most commonly used cryocoolers in cryogenics. Both devices have a significant industrial base and operate at a wide range of temperatures and capacities. The thermodynamic cycles for both of these cryocoolers are quite similar. The Stirling cycle consists of a compressor,...

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

A significant commercial application of cryogenics is the liquefaction, transport and storage of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is generally 95 percent methane with a few percent ethane and much lower concentrations of propane and butane. LNG liquefies at 111.6 K. Unlike many applications of cryogenics, the motivation for...

Latest in Cryo Central

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...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Need help comparing chest freezers and upright freezers

Currently we use in our Biobank an upright -80 freezer to store all our samples. We are planning to buy a fully automated bio-repository storage that will do the picking of samples under restricted conditions. But in the meantime I foresee that we have to pick the samples manually. The...

Need recommendations for cryogenic vials

I am looking into standardizing our range of bio storage tubes (cryogenic vials). These will be for both blood and tissue samples and their derivatives. Any recommendations, comments on Micronics, Nalgene, Nunc and or others that are suitable for long term -80 C and -196 C storage, DNA/RNA suitable, would...

We need a custom machine for flash freezing of water

We are an ice making company and have started a new project, which is related to flash freezing of water. It is based on cryogenics technology and we need a custom made machine. I would kindly ask you to pass me a few companies who would be interested in such...

Looking for a pump suitable for cold liquids

I would like to construct a small cooling circuit (appr. 50 x 50 cm) pumping liquid at a temperature down to -120°C from a cold reservoir to the specimen to be cooled. The tubes and connections are not a problem, but does somebody know a pump (suction/compression for circulation) suitable...

CATEGORIES