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NASA’s Cryo Efforts Beyond the Atmosphere

Establishing sustained operations on the moon and Mars presents a multitude of opportunities and challenges NASA has yet to encounter. Many of these activities require new technologies and processes to ensure the agency is prepared for its ambitious Artemis missions and those beyond. One of those challenges is working with cryogenic...

Indirect Cryogenic Grinding Enhances Steel Alloy Properties

The machining process covers many material removal procedures; among them, grinding is one of the most important. Improved grinding is crucial to improve the overall machining process; hence, many researches focused on enhancing the performance of grinding operations by focusing on factors like wear, chattering vibrations, grinding wheel topography, temperature,...

GenH2 Supplies Cryostat CS500 System to University

GenH2 has signed an agreement with the University of Melbourne to provide the Cryostat CS500 simulation platform for cryogenic and hydrogen R&D projects. GenH2’s Cryostat CS500 system is capable of testing a wide range of thermal insulation systems, materials, composites, or panels under both cryogenic-vacuum conditions and real-world conditions. The University...

Air Products to Build Europe’s Largest Blue Hydrogen Plant

Air Products announced it will build, own and operate a state-of-the-art carbon capture and carbon dioxide (CO2) treatment facility at its existing hydrogen production plant in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The facility is expected to be on-stream in 2026, and the resulting “blue” hydrogen product to serve ExxonMobil’s (Esso) Rotterdam refinery...

Maddox Industrial Group Announces Expansion to Gulf Coast

Maddox Industrial Group (MIG), a leader in delivering specialized industrial solutions to the air separation, energy, refining, petrochemical, wastewater, and other industries, has announced its strategic expansion into the Gulf Coast region. This growth is in collaboration with partner, Metalforms LLC (Metalforms), an industrial fabrication, services, and heat transfer solutions...

Can LH2 Preserve Our Last Clean Continent?

Antarctica is vital for cold research, from understanding our fragile climate to tracking local fauna. Energy is critical to this research as it supports expeditions and heating bases. Reliance on diesel import is leaving a dark legacy on the continent, as the buildup of black carbon is causing accelerated rates...

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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...