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With Helium in Short Supply, Scientists Are Worried

In the basement of the University of New Mexico’s chemistry building, Karen Smith punched in the code to get into the lab she manages. Inside, three white cylinders on blue legs that looked sort of like nine-foot-tall cousins of R2-D2 were humming away. “You’re going to want to stay fairly close...

Cryogenic Pumps for Research

Vanzetti Engineering’s cryogenic pumps have been chosen for the Aria Project of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in partnership with Carbosulcis S.p.A., a company owned by the Sardinia Region. The Aria Project involves the construction of a cryogenic distillation tower in Sardinia, Italy, for the production of high purity...

Air Liquide Inaugurates Liquid Hydrogen Plant in Nevada

Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are essential small molecules for life, matter and energy. They embody Air Liquide’s scientific territory and have been at the core of the company’s activities since its creation in 1902. A world leader in gases, technologies and services for industry and health, Air Liquide’s ambition is...

Artemis I Mission Availability

Editor: Rachel Kraft Image: CREDIT: NASA/KIM SHIFLETT Artemis I WDR (6-20-22) Update: ICPS Propellant Loading Begins The launch control team is filling the Space Launch System’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) with liquid hydrogen (LH2) followed by liquid oxygen (LOX) loading. The core stage LH2 and LOX tanks, meanwhile, are being...

Hydrogen Infrastructure Challenges Rival Aircraft Tech Hurdles

Of all the various renewable energy sources under development, hydrogen represents the so-called “holy grail” in the effort to eliminate carbon emissions from future aircraft, say many scientists. But while the technology exists today to build a hydrogen-powered aircraft, prompting several startup enterprises to develop fuel-cell-based vehicles for the burgeoning...

Airbus Facility to Develop Cryogenic Hydrogen Tank System for Future Planes

Airbus has announced that it is launching a facility based in the United Kingdom, where a new cryogenic hydrogen tank will be developed for its next generation of aircraft. The UK facility in Filton, Bristol has already started working on the technology’s development. The company recently released an Airbus news statement sharing that...

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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...