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

The Most Powerful MRI Scanner in the World Delivers Its First Images

In September, the 11.7 Tesla MRI of the Iseult project, the most powerful in the world for human imaging, has just unveiled its first images. They validate the entire process that has enabled, thanks to multiple technological breakthroughs, the transformation of an “outstanding” magnet, delivered in 2017 to the French...

Book Review: The Safe Use of Cryogenic Technologies by Robert Done

It is becoming common for large-scale scientific projects to include cryogenic systems provided by other countries. Examples of this include CERN, the European Spallation Source, ITER and the PIP II project at Fermilab (CSA CSM). While these contributions are quite valuable, one of the big challenges in such projects is...

Cool Fuel: Hydrogen, Lenses and Lasers, Oh My!

The bar for getting the suffix of PhD after your name is high – you have to fundamentally change the philosophy in a field. As a faculty member responsible for training some of these individuals, I’m sometimes faced with the conundrum that advancing the philosophy implies that I have to...

Groundbreaking Alternative to Invasive Breast Cancer Surgery Now Available in Monroe NJ

Patients in Central New Jersey with early-stage breast cancer can now access a highly effective treatment that does not require traditional invasive surgery. Performed at Princeton Radiology's Minimally Invasive Care Center in Monroe Township by interventional radiologist Kenneth R. Tomkovich, MD, the procedure, called cryoablation, uses a small needle and...

INEOS Announces over €2 Billion Investment in Green Hydrogen Production

INEOS has announced that it is to invest more than €2 billion into electrolysis projects to make zero carbon, green hydrogen across Europe. Its first plants will be built in Norway, Germany, Belgium with investment also planned in the UK and France. The announcement was made on October 18. INEOS,...

Heating Up Quantum Science Education with Laser Cooling

A series of interactive workshops developed by Columbia University physicist Sebastian Will and STEMteachersNYC will give educators tips and tools to cover quantum science in their classrooms. If you imagine a laser, you might think of beams of light popping balloons or slicing through a metal slab like butter. Lasers...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Joule-Thomson Effect

The Joule-Thomson (JT) effect is a thermodynamic process that occurs when a fluid expands from high pressure to low pressure at constant enthalpy (an isenthalpic process). Such a process can be approximated in the real world by expanding a fluid from high pressure to low pressure across a valve. Under...

Current Leads

One of the challenges of using superconducting magnets is the connection of the magnet to a room temperature power supply. This is accomplished via current leads. The trick is that current leads should ideally have a low heat leak, since they connect room temperature to cryogenic temperature, while at the...

Multilayer Insulation

Multilayer insulation (also referred to as superinsulation) is a key component in the reduction of heat leak to cryogenic systems due to thermal radiation. MLI consists of a series of uncooled reflective surfaces placed in the vacuum space between two surfaces, one warmer than the other. Generally speaking, for ideal...

Latest in Cryo Central

Wind Tunnels

Dr. Robert Kilgore The development of the cryogenic wind tunnel is one of many significant breakthroughs in both cryogenics and wind-tunnel technology made during the past millennium. Interest in the development of high-speed commercial and military aircraft resulted in a review of problems of flow simulation in transonic wind tunnels...

History of Cryogenics

From the Fall 1999 issue of Cold Facts magazine Millennium Breakthroughs A variety of CSA members give different perspectives on the past millennium: What were the most significant breakthroughs in cryogenics during the past millennium? Prof. R.G. Scurlock, Kryos Technology, scurlock@soton.ac.uk (“Breakthrough” = way through obstacles — Oxford English Dictionary)...

Cryobiology

Andreas Sputtek Past President Society for Cryobiology sputtek@uke.uni-hamburg.de or http://www.sputtek.de/. The word cryobiology (from the Greek words “cryo” = cold, “bios” = life, and “logos” = science) literally signifies the science of life at low temperatures. In practice, this field comprises the study of any biological material or system (e.g.,...

Cryogenic Insulation

James E. Fesmire Cryogenics Test Laboratory NASA Kennedy Space Center james.e.fesmire@nasa.gov Introduction In today’s world, the use of cryogenics and low-temperature refrigeration is taking a more and more significant role. From the food industry, transportation, energy, and medical applications to the Space Shuttle, cryogenic liquids must be stored, handled, 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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