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Valcor Releases New White Paper on Cryogenic Launch Vehicle Valves

Launch vehicles, particularly the upper stages, often use cryogenic rocket propellants such as liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and liquid methane because of their high specific impulse and high storage density. The pressurization, control and distribution of these propellants requires sophisticated valving that can operate and seal at these extreme temperatures....

NASA Hall of Fame Inventor, Cold Facts Columnist James E. Fesmire Named GenH2’s Chief Technology Officer

On December 15, GenH2, a leading developer of liquid hydrogen infrastructure solutions, formally announced the appointment of renowned NASA veteran and company co-founder James E. Fesmire as Chief Architect and Chief Technology Officer. In his role, Fesmire will shape GenH2’s technology vision and drive product evolution and expansion. Known for...

Fermilab Sees Record Performance from Next-Generation Accelerator Componen

For several years, three US Department of Energy national labs have worked together to further improve state-of-the-art particle accelerator technology. First tests of a prototype built at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab, CSA CSM) show the effort has paid off, with a new component setting records. The technology under development...

ITER Takes First Steps Toward Cryoplant Commissioning

Every week since the beginning of November, a tube trailer filled with approximately 4,600 cubic meters (750 kg) of compressed gaseous helium delivers its load to the ITER cryoplant in the south of France. At a later stage, the deliveries will become more massive, as helium is delivered in liquid...

Demaco Produces ESS Hydrogen Distribution System

Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the universe and the most important feedstock for life. In Greek, the word “hydrogen” is composed of the terms “hydro” and “genes,” which means water generator. In 1766, the English chemist Henry Cavendish distinguished hydrogen from other flammable gases and identified its properties,...

Ability Engineering Technology Introduces Ultra Precise Cryo Valve to Public

Ability Engineering Technology (AET), an Illinois-based manufacturer of equipment used in cryogenic process applications, has announced the introduction of a standard product line of Cryogenic Valves. According to Matt Resler, Sales Director at AET, “Our cryogenic valves have been successfully used for more than 30 years by our DOE clients, and...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Space Cryogenics

Space cryogenics is, somewhat obviously, the application of cryogenics to space exploration and science. The use of cryogenics in space optimizes the launching of vehicles, provides power and life support to spacecraft and is critical for many scientific observations.Space cryogenics has a number of challenges and has driven both pure...

Exergy

The science of thermodynamics plays a major role in cryogenics. It underlies the various refrigeration cycles, from Carnot to Brayton (Cold Facts Vol. 32 No. 2) and Joule-Thomson, is a fundamental part of the definition of terms such as coefficient of performance (Cold Facts Vol. 31 No. 1) and even...

Cryogenic Treatment

Cryogenic treatment is the process of cooling materials to cryogenic temperatures temporarily to improve their material properties at room temperature. This is distinct from cooling materials down to cryogenic temperatures to take advantage of phenomena such as superconductivity that only occur at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic treatment, sometimes also referred to...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenic Electronics

Randall Kirschman, consulting physicist, Mountain View, California ExtElect@gmail.com Cryogenic electronics—the operation of electronic devices, circuits, and systems at cryogenic temperatures—has been a valuable technology for decades. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics, or cold electronics) can be based on semiconductive devices, on superconductive devices, or on a combination...

Particle Physics: High Energy Physics

Cryogenics and High-Energy Physics 1. From symmetry magazine: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000627: Cryogenics is the study of how materials behave at temperatures near absolute zero. In high-energy particle accelerators, such frigid temperatures reduce the electrical resistance of wires in superconducting magnets, increasing the magnet strength and allowing faster particle acceleration. The same holds...

HTS Degaussing Systems

From the Spring 2009 issue of Cold Facts (Volume 25, Number 2): Thanks to a joint project by the US Navy and a number of industry partners, high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology is now at the heart of an advanced degaussing system aboard the USS Higgins at the naval station...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From http://www.superconductors.org: An area where superconductors can perform a life-saving function is in the field of biomagnetism. Doctors need a non-invasive means of determining what’s going on inside the human body. By impinging a strong superconductor-derived magnetic field into the body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the body’s water and...

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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