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

zeroBOG™ Empowers Sustainable Operations

by Lennis Perez and Edward Tay, Sulzer The need for efficient and sustainable management of cryogenic gases extends far beyond traditional LNG applications. Enabling the recovery and reuse of boiloff gases, or BOG, across sectors such as hydrogen, e-methane and ammonia, supports the transition to low-carbon fuels and helps operators...

Liquid Air Comes of Age in Manchester

by Mark Vyvyan Robinson, Business Development Director, Highview Power As electricity systems integrate increasing volumes of renewable generation, the requirement for long-duration energy storage has become a defining challenge of the global energy transition. In northwest England, the city of Manchester and the surrounding Greater Manchester region are now home...

NASA Inches Closer to Martian Laser Communication

by Charlie Danaher, Danaher Cryogenics Bridging Interplanetary Distances Having a conversation between someone on Earth and Mars is not as science fiction as it used to be. That is thanks to scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California and their successful demonstration of the Deep Space Optical...

Vacuum Chambers Answer Quantum Demands and UHV Transfer Needs

by Mel Janecka, Atlas Technologies Quantum computing companies and research facilities often find aluminum and titanium vacuum chambers to be better equipped to maintain purity and ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) status. Plus, the chambers are non-magnetic and perform effectively within cryogenic conditions, critical for keeping qubits stable. Qubits, the basic units of...

Kathleen Amm’s Evolution in Cryo

When Kathleen Amm describes how she entered cryogenics, she does not point to a single defining moment. Instead, her path began with movement. In the early 1990s, she followed her thesis advisor Justin Schwartz from the University of Illinois to Tallahassee as the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory was opening....

WOMEN in CRYOGENICS and SUPERCONDUCTIVITY

Alexandria Burger, Bluefors – Manufacturing Engineer Manager Current projects: My current focus is leading a team to improve manufacturing efficiencies for 2026. These efficiency improvements will not only offset the increasing costs of materials but also allow us to reduce lead times. I also contribute to manufacturing documentation, 6S events,...

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

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

Looking for the thermal conductivity of the high density polyethylene (HDPE) between 1.9 and 10K

I am looking for the thermal conductivity of the high density polyethylene (HDPE) between 1.9 and 10K (or even up to higher temperatures). The best would be to have these data for the HDPE material which sold by the CERN shop, which has a density of 0.95 g/cm3. Pier Paolo...