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Into the Fast Lane for Quantum Innovation

The nascent quantum technology supply chain has reached an inflection point as companies large and small – among them household names like Google, Microsoft and IBM as well as a new wave of ambitious start-up ventures – shift gears to translate their applied research endeavours into at-scale commercial opportunities in...

Viewing Fast Vortex Motion in a Superconductor

S. Nakamura et al. [1] Peering into the vortex. Top: Vortices form in a superconducting film (gray) in the presence of an external magnetic field provided by a coil. The field generates a shielding current in the film (pink). An infrared pulse transmitted through the superconducting film provides information about the vortices’...

KLM Partners With ZeroAvia For Liquid Hydrogen-Powered Demo Flight

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has agreed to perform a flight demonstration of ZeroAvia’s ZA2000 hydrogen-electric engines in 2026. “We’re going to do a groundbreaking demonstration flight between two airports using liquid hydrogen fuel,” KLM CityHopper MD Maarten Koopmans says at the Farnborough Airshow. “KLM wants to be a front-runner in this field, and taking...

BHEX Leverages Cryogenics to Capture Black Holes

Introduction to BHEX-The Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) is a mission that will discover and measure a black hole’s photon ring, capturing light that has orbited a black hole. BHEX will extend the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) into space, producing the sharpest images in the history of astronomy, whilst operating a...

Looking Backward and Forward

Since 2018 I have been writing this column on pioneers in cryogenics. So far, a total of 30 people have been profiled. With this column taking a slightly different direction in the future (more below), it’s worth asking if these pioneers had anything in common. Here are a few common...

Equigas’ Strategic Acquisition is a Catalyst for Innovation

Equigas, Inc., a North Carolina-based gas equipment distributor, has embarked on an exciting new chapter with its recent acquisition of Correct Cryogenics, a respected cryogenic service provider headquartered in the Southwest US. This strategic move is a pivotal moment for Equigas as it seeks to expand its service offerings and...

Latest in 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...

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....

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

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...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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