Research led by the University of Oxford could help overturn the current supply crisis of helium, a vital societal resource. The study proposes a new model to account for the existence of previously unexplained helium-rich reservoirs. The findings, published in Nature, could help locate untapped reservoirs of accessible helium. Dr. Anran Cheng (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford), lead author of the study, says, "Our model shows the importance of factoring in the high diffusivity of helium and the long timescales needed to accumulate significant gas quantities, and the fact that the entire geological system acts dynamically to affect the process. This model provides a new perspective to help identify the environments that slow helium gases down enough to accumulate in commercial amounts."

German-based H2FLY has announced success from a liquid hydrogen filling test of its HY4 hydrogen-electric aircraft. The on-ground test at Air Liquide’s Campus Technologies Grenoble in France saw liquid hydrogen fill the aircraft’s new liquid hydrogen storage system, designed and supplied by Air Liquide. Coming as a precursor to future tests in which the storage system will be coupled with H2FLY’s fuel cell system to form a complete hydrogen-electric powertrain, the test comes as a milestone in the steps to achieving hydrogen-powered flight for the Stuttgart company.

Delft Circuits announced its inclusion in the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) project in Antarctica, supporting NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech and other project partners. BICEP has been ongoing for several years and is now seeking solutions for a hardware upgrade to its telescope’s sensitivity as the project digs ever deeper into the cosmos to learn more about the origins of the universe. Consequently, a team at JPL is pioneering a new way to scale the number of detectors on the high optical frequency receivers of the telescope array.

Completing the next phase of testing in preparation for the inaugural Vulcan rocket flight, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) team accomplished tanking demonstrations at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The pathfinder tests filled the Vulcan first stage and Centaur V upper stage with cryogenic propellant on separate days to validate performance of the stages, Vulcan Launch Platform (VLP), Space Launch Complex-41 facilities and ground support systems.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Marine Machinery and Equipment Co., Ltd. (MHI-MME), a wholly owned operating company of MHI based in Nagasaki, have successfully conducted demonstration testing of 100 kW class cryogenic ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) power generation using the world’s first “next-generation oilless cryogenic turbine generator.” The innovative generator adapts the turbine generator featuring a hermetically sealed oilless structure, of the kind used in ORC generation, to cryogenic power generation. The testing demonstrated that with use of liquid nitrogen as the cryogenic energy source it is possible to secure a stable refrigerant cycle and the specified regeneration output without freezing-induced clogging, etc. even under conditions more severe than the low temperatures of conventional LNG (liquefied natural gas) cryogenic generation.

Aerospace Engineering students Alex Clay and Samir Ahmed have spent the past four years at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University manufacturing complex liquid-propellant rocket engines. Now, as they near graduation, there is one last thing they’d like to do: Prepare for ignition. Along with fellow members of the university’s Experimental Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (ERPL), the two have built a state-of-the-art fuel-feed system in hopes of accomplishing that very goal. If successful, the hardware will offer future generations of rocketry students a safe and consistent way to field test their designs — which, according to sophomore Aerospace Engineering student Taylor Koehn, is currently the “most significant bottleneck” in the process of engine building.

BCCK, a leader in engineering, procurement, fabrication and field construction services, has applied patent-pending technology, G2R-Flex®, to provide enhanced propane recovery for a premier midstream group in Ohio’s Marcellus-Utica Basin. Utilizing a skidded BCCK patent-pending design, G2R-Flex® improved current 200 MMSCFD GSP facilities' propane recoveries to greater than 99 percent in ethane rejection and can also be applied to improve performance in ethane recovery.

GenH2, an industry leader in hydrogen infrastructure solutions, announced that the company has signed a partnership agreement with H2 Genesis, a leading liquid hydrogen infrastructure and operations company, to deliver liquid hydrogen across North America. In their first collaboration, GenH2, as manufacturer, and H2 Genesis, as owner-operator, will deploy the GenH2 LS20 Mobile Liquid Hydrogen System, an end-to-end liquefaction and storage system, to several locations in the United States starting with Florida.

As fusion developers around the world race to commercialize fusion energy, TAE Technologies has pioneered the pursuit of the cleanest and most economical path to providing electricity with hydrogen-boron (also known as p-B11 or p11B), an abundant, environmentally sound fuel. Recently, the company announced, in collaboration with Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), a noteworthy research advancement: the first-ever hydrogen-boron fusion experiments in a magnetically confined fusion plasma.

CSA’s annual Young Professionals introduces outstanding engineers, scientists, and technicians (under 40) who are making fascinating contributions to the cryogenics and superconductivity industries. Debuted in the summer of 2006, this spotlight shines on future leaders who show the promise of making a difference in their fields. 

Making advances in science requires the proper tools. Often those tools must be developed by scientists themselves. That’s the story of most science missions studying Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB). Sub-Kelvin coolers developed by Chase Research Cryogenics (CSA CSM) have played a strategic role in many of these missions. Let’s look at two exciting examples.

GenH2, an industry leader in hydrogen infrastructure solutions, announced the launch of its groundbreaking LS20 mobile liquid hydrogen system, an end-to-end liquefaction and storage system. The innovative, mobile liquefaction unit offers a space-optimized, fully integrated liquid hydrogen solution to be used in a range of applications from transportation to energy backup, to accelerating the use of liquid hydrogen through pilot projects and testing. It will also be utilized as a lab setting for testing material, insulation, thermodynamic properties and use cases for its applications.

The Need for Vibration-Free Cryogenics The measurement of local gravitational fields requires continuous, high precision and extremely stable measurements. In 1968, the development of the superconducting gravity meter (SG)[1] vastly improved the state of the art. In contrast to mechanical quartz or metal springs, SGs use a superconducting sphere levitated in an ultra-stable magnetic field generated by persistent currents in a pair of superconducting coils. This cryogenic design enabled sensitivities that can exceed 10-10 m/sec2 (i.e., 0.01 ppb of the earth’s gravitational field) and drifts less than 60 nm/sec2/year. Many gravity measurements (hydrology, volcanology, geothermal energy and postglacial rebound) require durations that last years, and, in many cases, decades. To fulfill this need, extremely long hold time cryostats were developed to maintain the SG at operational temperatures close to 4 K. Special techniques were also developed to prevent cryocooler-induced accelerations from contaminating the geophysical signals of interest. While most superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) measurement systems[2] do not require multiyear measurement times, they benefit from improved cryogenic systems that minimize or eliminate the expenditure of liquid helium.

Necessity of mK-Cryogenics-During the past years, advances in both lithography and millikelvin cryogenics have supported and enabled vast improvement in the sophistication of experimental research on electrical circuits that display uniquely quantum mechanical behavior. It comes as no surprise that dilution refrigerator measurement systems have moved beyond basic physics research contraptions, and into central focus in the new era of quantum engineering. Achieving millikelvin temperatures remains a prerequisite for many of the leading hardware candidates for quantum computing with solid-state devices. For example, superconducting quantum circuits need temperatures low enough to keep microwave thermal photon populations on the chip negligible. In addition, the amplifiers that are typically required to achieve high-fidelity dispersive readouts are also based on superconductors and operate at the lowest noise temperatures allowed by physical limits.

Introduction-Cryogenic detectors have higher sensitivity and better energy resolution than alternative sensors, making them an attractive option for space exploration and essential for observing low energy photons in the near- or far-IR, X-ray and submillimeter ranges.[1] Since NASA’s first cryogenic missions in the early 1980s, increasingly complex space detectors have required continuous advancement in cryogenic technology.[2]

The first time I saw the first prototype of the Dylan Energy system, I thought of old Doc Brown and Back to the Future. Remember them? Doc invented something called the ‘Flux Capacitor.ʼ With the Dylan Energy system and our partners, we are capable of consuming 400 tons daily of municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly referred to as landfills, and producing 576 mW of electricity during a 24-hour period of time. This includes medical/drugs/sharpies; municipal and urban waste; industrial, pesticides and their containers; biomass; animal housing; coal; ashes from incinerators; sewage; galvanic sludge; organic sludge from petrochemical; materials with low radioactivity; used oils; batteries; tires; waste of explosive material; hazardous industrial waste; and plastics (with no restrictions).

Back to the Future movie fans may remember the term “flux capacitor” as a fictional device that allows for time travel. That device still doesn’t exist, but a University of Central Florida storage technology does use a different type of flux capacitor developed by NASA. While trying to find a way to store renewable energy (like solar and wind) and then use it when needed, UCF Pegasus Professor Jayanta Kapat and researchers Marcel Otto and Ladislav Vesely found that NASA’s Cryogenic Flux Capacitor (CFC) could be part of the solution.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) officially opened its new campus to support the development and deployment of commercial fusion energy. The ceremonial event included visits from U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator Edward Markey, U.S. Representative Lori Trahan, Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, along with a host of state and local leaders.

Honeywell Aerospace is confident that an EU-funded consortium it is leading can deliver a “commercially viable” high-power fuel cell powertrain for regional aircraft applications. Ground tests of the entire 1MW propulsion system – including an electric motor – will be performed in 2026 under the Clean Aviation-backed Newborn project. Although the system will only be taken to technology readiness level (TRL) 4 – or TRL5 for most components – Ondrej Kotaba, principal scientist at Honeywell Aerospace, insists the program is focused on eventual commercial applications.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District is executing a sustainability project funded by the Section 212 Program to install an upstream diffuser system at Wolf Creek on the Cumberland River in Jamestown, Kentucky. The district is partnering with power preference customers, the Southeastern Power Administration, and Tennessee Valley Authority to construct a cryogenic facility downstream of the dam and install 50,000 linear feet of oxygen diffuser lines that reach into Lake Cumberland.