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A Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 73 crew members including NASA astronaut Jonny Kim on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo ©NASA/Joel Kowsky
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Stainless VJP Enable Cryogenic Liquid Supply Chains in Space and on Earth

A Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 73 crew members including NASA astronaut Jonny Kim on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo ©NASA/Joel Kowsky What do space exploration and the Hydrogen Economy have in common? A need to transport large volumes...
July 9, 2025
News

Google and Commonwealth Fusion Systems Sign Strategic Partnership

Credit: Commonwealth Fusion Systems Google and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) today announced a new global milestone, a bold partnership to develop, deploy and scale clean, secure fusion power. Google signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity from CFS’ inaugural ARC power plant, which CFS expects...
June 30, 2025
Image source: Taihan/SuperNode
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Korean Cable Corp Signs Deal Next-Gen Superconductors

Image source: Taihan/SuperNodeA leading Korean cable company has signed a deal with an Irish firm to develop “next-generation” superconducting cables for the offshore wind industry. Taihan will work with Dublin-based SuperNode on the design and roll out of polymer-based transmission cables which promise to “significantly” enhance efficiency and simplify installation...
June 24, 2025
Modifying gas chromatography systems with cryogenic technologies Subscribe for newsletter updates Researchers at Monash University in Clayton, Australia, have developed a new 3D-printed device for gas chromatography (GC), demonstrating its effectiveness in carrying out multidimensional and enantioselective separations. GC has long been central to chemical analysis, particularly for mixtures of volatile compounds. However, its resolution can be insufficient for separating complex mixtures. Scientists have addressed this limitation with techniques such as multidimensional gas chromatography (MDGC) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC), which both require modulation devices. Thermal modulators, among the earliest developed, remain widely used. In this study, the researchers designed a stainless steel 3D-printed device to function as a cold trapping assembly when cooled with liquid CO₂. Its operational principle mirrors that of a longitudinally modulated cryogenic system (LMCS). Cryogenic technologies have precedent in chromatography, offering the capacity to remobilise trapped components, thereby enabling new analytical approaches. When integrated with GC, such devices allow analysts to apply advanced separation techniques. The team detailed the enclosure design and assessed its performance for collecting and rapidly remobilising volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Modulation period precision was evaluated, yielding a maximum error of 8 microseconds and an average variation of less than 1 nanosecond across 10,000 successive modulations. Using a C5–C9 alkane series, the system was shown to effectively trap analytes, with peaks achieving a full width at half height (FWHH) as low as 65 milliseconds. The maximum trapping time was determined using hexane, with the modulator retaining the compound for up to 9 seconds at 100 °C before breakthroughs occurred. The system was also used to investigate the enantioselective separation of limonene, a compound derived from citrus peel oils. Although only one chiral column was used, different column lengths (ranging from 20 cm to 5.0 m) were drawn through the modulator. These effectively acted as enantioselective second-dimension (2D) columns. Injected (R,S)-limonene enantiomers were collected simultaneously and then rapidly transferred to the 2D column. The 3D-printed modulator successfully trapped hexane, enabling modulation periods of up to 8 seconds. This was achieved at oven temperatures of up to 100 °C. While higher temperatures were not tested, the researchers suggest that hexane modulation beyond this point is likely feasible. Ultimately, the study demonstrated the feasibility of comprehensive two-dimensional GC using 3D-printed modulators with a tea tree oil sample. Although 2D retention times exceeded optimal limits for GC × GC under the conditions tested, the authors propose that further refinement of columns and methods could yield improved separation.
News

Modifying Gas Chromatography Systems with Cryogenic Technologies

Clayton Campus, Melbourne, Victoria. Credit: Montash University, Australia Researchers at Monash University in Clayton, Australia, have developed a new 3D-printed device for gas chromatography (GC), demonstrating its effectiveness in carrying out multidimensional and enantioselective separations. GC has long been central to chemical analysis, particularly for mixtures of volatile compounds. However,...
June 24, 2025
ITER conference
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Strong Project Execution and the Latest Big Lift with ITER

Just two months ago, in April, the first of nine vacuum vessel sectors had been lowered into the tokamak assembly pit. A second was inserted this week in a nighttime operation that ended just as the 36th ITER Council was getting started. Delegates were transported on site to witness the accomplishment...
June 24, 2025
AeroDelft First Student Team to Test Liquid Hydrogen Aircraft Propulsion System
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AeroDelft First Student Team to Test Liquid Hydrogen Aircraft Propulsion System

AeroDelft, a fully student-run and student-owned non-profit foundation based in Delft, has become the first student team in the world to design, build, and test an electric aircraft propulsion system (powertrain) using liquid hydrogen as its energy source. The successful test was conducted in collaboration with TNO at their liquid...
June 24, 2025

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Latest in Defining Cryogenics
Defining Cryogenics

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...
March 7, 2016
Defining Cryogenics

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...
November 2, 2015
Defining Cryogenics

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....
September 22, 2015
Latest in Cryo Central
Cryo Central

Air Separation and Liquefaction

by Nils Tellier, PE, President, EPSIM Corporation (CSA CSM) nils@epsim.us All illustrations courtesy EPSIM Corporation Background History of Air Separation and Liquefaction This section builds on a rich history of methods to develop deep refrigeration and cryogenic liquefaction during the 19th Century. You are encouraged to read Cryo Central’s History...
May 29, 2020
Cryo Central

Bose-Einstein Condensate

A Bose-Einstein condensate, first proposed in 1925 by Albert Einstein based on work done by Satyendra Nath Bose (the same Bose from whom the term boson is derived), is a super-cold state of matter in which almost all of the individual atoms have “condensed” down to the lowest possible quantum...
August 10, 2010
Cryo Central

Cold Technology for Pest Control

While it does not reach temperatures cold enough to be called cryogenic, carbon dioxide snow is at the heart of a new way of dealing with unwanted pests. It utilizes a quick freezing process that takes advantage of the properties of carbon dioxide snow and has a number of benefits...
June 18, 2010
Cryo Central

Cryogenic Finishing

The following 3 articles discuss the uses and procedures of various type of cryogenic finishing. 1) By Robin A. Rhodes, Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Cryogenic Deflashing is employed to remove undesired residual mold flash that remains on molded parts after they are removed or ejected from the...
May 28, 2010
Latest in Ask the Experts
Ask the Experts

Assistance with resolving a sealing problem?

We are fabricating piping components for refrigeration service. These components must be leak checked at 15 bar (218 psig). We are using a gas test media that is 25% helium and experiencing difficulty on maintaining a seal on the flanged connections. Do you know anyone or any references that could...
August 1, 2008
Ask the Experts

Cryogenic data on leather and nomex

Could anyone please help me out with the following cryogenics data: Leather — mechanical properties at 77 K or lower Nomex — thermal conductivity @ 4 to 50 K I lost the data I had some time ago and although this should be easily accessible, I can’t find any reference...
August 1, 2008