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

H2FLY Pioneers Emissions-Free Flight with Successful Liquid-Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft

Stuttgart-based innovator H2FLY has achieved an unprecedented breakthrough in aviation history by successfully conducting the world’s first piloted flight of an electric aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen. This remarkable milestone marks a pivotal moment in the journey towards sustainable aviation, showcasing the immense potential of hydrogen-based technology in revolutionizing the...

HeLIUM Cryogenics Redefines Cryogenic Technology

In an era where technological innovation is not just an advantage but a necessity, HeLIUM Cryogenics™, stands at the vanguard, continually pushing the boundaries of whatʼs possible in cryogenic technology. Presently, a significant milestone is being marked in HeLIUMʼs journey as it unveils its latest innovation: a new line of...

LCLS-II’s ‘First Light’ Revolutionizes X-ray Science

The LCLS-XFEL at SLAC National Accelerator Lab has launched its upgraded version, LCLS-II, generating its first X-rays. This advancement is set to revolutionize research, offering unparalleled capabilities for studying quantum materials with remarkable precision. Scientists worldwide are queued up to explore various applications, from improving computing and communication technologies using...

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...

Commonwealth Fusion Cryo Team’s Just-in-Time Engineering

High temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes, which have emerged over the last decade, are enablers for new technologies. Specifically, high temperature superconducting magnets to enable commercial fusion energy are arguably the most tantalizing and potentially impactful. Fusion energy would be a long-envisioned source of firm, safe, carbon-free electricity whose successful development...

Bearing Fruit: Deep Apple Therapeutics Launches to Screen AI-Generated Virtual Libraries

A cryo-EM and GPCR expert, a virtual screening pioneer, and a virtual chemical library creator walk into a bar. The result is not the opening line of a joke but rather the founding of a start-up that will rapidly discover novel small-molecule therapeutics through the virtual screening of AI-generated virtual...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Two-Phase Flows

Two-phase flows are those flows in which there is a mixture of two physical states (solid, liquid or vapor). In cryogenic applications, such flows are almost always a mixture of a cryogenic liquid along with its corresponding vapor. A mixture of liquid helium and helium vapor would be a typical...

Supercritical Fluids

A supercritical fluid is defined as a substance whose temperature and pressure exceed those of its critical point. Every pure substance has a critical point that is defined in thermodynamic space by a critical temperature and a corresponding critical pressure. For example, the critical point for helium has a critical...

Brayton Cycle

The Brayton cycle is one of the many thermodynamic cycles used to generate cooling at cryogenic temperatures. Strictly speaking, when referring to cooling we should call this the reverse Brayton cycle as the original Brayton cycle describes the process of power generation or propulsion via a gas turbine. In many...

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?

CATEGORIES