Researchers from Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have developed a new approach for identifying isomeric and isobaric metabolites using high-resolution ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and cryogenic infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The complex structure of metabolites has made their identification challenging, and analytical standards are often required to confirm their presence in a sample. However, the new approach can separate isomeric metabolites in a matter of milliseconds and provide highly structured IR fingerprints for their unambiguous identification. Additionally, this approach allows for the automatic identification of metabolite isomers by comparing their IR fingerprints with those in a database, thereby eliminating the need for analytical standards.

The pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions continues as does the search for ‘greener energy solutions’ and one of the consequences of this is significant growth in the use of Liquid Natural Gas for marine applications. LNG has long been regarded as a sustainable fuel and has gained significant traction as a viable alternative for a wide range of commercial transport applications, including marine and shipping. It is estimated that 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide is generated by maritime traffic, which is why the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is increasingly looking to reduce CO2 emissions. While LNG is a much ‘greener’ fuel than the highly viscous diesel fuels typically used to power container ships and cruise liners, it does present significant challenges to fuel systems and pumps, specifically dealing with extreme (cryogenic) temperatures.

Helium is a gas with properties that make it useful for many different purposes, from cooling to providing lift in airships. By understanding the basics of its cryogenic principles, we can understand how this gas works and its various uses. The aspects of cryogenic science emerged in early 19th-century experiments by Faraday and Joule. Cryogenics involves subjecting materials to extremely low temperatures, usually below -150° C.

Energy Sector and Metallic Materials
Simultaneously improving known materials and exploring new alternative material options for applications in demanding environments for the energy sector (offshore wind power, solar power, biomass power, fission and fusion, geothermal power, hydroelectric power) is one of the leading engineering research endeavors today[1]. A unique combination of high corrosion resistance, toughness, strength, machinability, and wear resistance is required for materials used in energy applications.[2] Metallic materials used in the energy sector can be classified into ferrous and non-ferrous alloys. The most commonly used ferrous alloys in the energy sector are various grades of stainless steels, structural steels, duplex steels, low alloy and high alloy steels[1-5]. When selecting non-ferrous alloys, it is important to consider the application and its environment. Generally, the commonly used non-ferrous alloys are copper alloys, titanium alloys, aluminum alloys and nickel alloys[1-5].

Quantum Sensing: Necessity for low temperature and low vibrations-Most quantum states are only visible and controllable when the thermal energy KBT is comparable or smaller than the energy difference ΔE between the quantum states. Therefore, to see the quantum properties of materials or devices, they often need to be cooled to and maintained at millikelvin temperatures. In the last ten years, we have seen great progress in improving the accessibility to millikelvin environments via advanced cryogenic platforms offered by industry. On the basis of these platforms, the application can be developed that would allow probing quantum states of materials or devices, for example by means of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) techniques. However, for low temperature SPM techniques, besides the low temperature, low vibrations are also essential. First, the interaction distance between probe and quantum state needs to be maintained and second, in case of force-sensors like M(R)FM, the sensor needs to be decoupled from force-noise due to accelerations. It is to this end that quantum sensing will require progression towards low temperature and low vibration environments to use quantum-enhanced probe sensors for opening a new paradigm of Scanning Probe Microscopy: qSPM. 

A new JPL- and Caltech-developed detector could transform how quantum computers located thousands of miles apart exchange huge quantities of quantum data. Quantum computers hold the promise of operating millions of times faster than conventional computers. But to communicate over long distances, quantum computers will need a dedicated quantum communications network.

PBS Velka Bites has been in the cryogenic business for more than 35 years. Today, its cryogenics engineering capabilities include everything from preliminary calculation through design, manufacturing and assembly, to testing and user optimization of its cryogenic products. Since the late ’80s, PBS has been developing and supplying cryogenic turbines for the liquefaction of helium. Both liquid and gaseous helium applications must meet extremely demanding technical requirements not only in the design and construction phase but also in terms of production processes, final assembly and testing. PBS became one of the few companies in the world able to independently provide all these stages of cryogenic device production under one roof. The company’s offering of cryogenic devices has gradually expanded to include turbines and compressors, designed to work with other gases utilized in modern cryogenics. To date, all cryogenic products of PBS have been used for inert gas applications, but their design applies to other gases as well. Today, PBS is a major supplier of cryogenic turboexpanders, compressors, pumps and cryogenic drive units for the world's leading manufacturers of cryogenic products. 

Hydrogen has been touted as the fuel of the future, but challenges remain in improving the storage efficiency of liquefied hydrogen fuel for large scale commercial transport and storage. Researchers from South Korea have conducted experiments and simulations to investigate the heat flows and phase changes within a cryogenic fuel tank using multiphase thermal flow simulations, with the goal of designing safe and efficient cryotanks. 

The Second Target Station (STS) is the future of forefront neutron scattering science at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which started with the first neutron scattering measurements in the 1940s at the X-10 Graphite Reactor and continues today at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). STS will be a 700 kW, 15 Hz pulsed-spallation neutron source designed to provide the world’s highest peak of brightness cold neutron beams, meeting the demand for neutron scattering resources for physical, chemical, biological, geological, materials and human health sciences. The STS will utilize one out of every four proton pulses from the SNS accelerator, delivering the 1µs pulses to a rotating water-cooled tungsten target and producing neutrons by the spallation process. To convert high energy spallation neutrons to high brightness cold neutron beams, two compact liquid hydrogen moderators are located adjacent to the target’s peak neutron production zone and surrounded by light water premoderators and beryllium reflectors to increase neutron flux. 

Shortly after SpaceX's massive Starship launched from Texas on its first full test early Thursday, the 400-foot stack of hardware began to tumble until it broke apart in a fiery explosion over the Gulf of Mexico. The overall demonstration mission – a test of the new rocket's ability to ignite and clear the pad's 500-foot tower – was successful. At liftoff, however, several of the rocket's 33 Raptor engines failed to fire up as planned. Then came the more than a minute-long tumble at roughly three minutes into flight, which kicked off just after the rocket's Starship upper stage and Super Heavy booster failed to separate.

There is so much that we do not yet know about neutrinos. Neutrinos are very light, chargeless, and elusive particles that are involved in a process named beta decay and that can help us to understand the origin of matter in the universe. Beta decay is a type of radioactive decay that involves a neutron converting into a proton, emitting an electron and an antineutrino. Beta decay is very common– it occurs about a dozen of times per second in a banana. There might also be an ultra-rare kind of beta decay that emits two electrons but no neutrinos. Nuclear physicists around the world are searching for this neutrinoless-double beta decays (NLDBD) in different nuclei. The interest in these decays arises from their potential to reveal unsolved mysteries related to the Universe’s creation of matter. They can also provide hints towards our understanding of the currently unknown mass of neutrinos.

The Impact

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) can search for these rare NLDBD processes using different nuclei. Scientists rely on complementarity among searches using different nuclei to have a better understanding of the underlying physics in the process. Complementarity in physics involves theories that contrast with each other but that both explain part of the same phenomena. CUORE recently searched for NLDBD using a nucleus that had not previously been studied with CUORE, Tellurim-128. The researchers have so far found no evidence for NLDBD. However, they show that the half-life of Tellurim-128 to decay by NLDBD is longer than 3.6 septillion years (ultra-rare decays have very long half-lives). This lower limit is about 30 times higher than those from prior experiments using the same technique. This new search pushes forward scientists’ knowledge on these rare nuclear decays. This opens another path to our understanding of the origin of matter in our Universe.

In 2020, the world was introduced to Dhawan-I, a 3D printed cryogenic engine made by Skyroot Aerospace. Three years later, the Indian company has been working on a more powerful model, unveiling to the public the new and improved Dhawan-II, which is said to have successfully completed testing. Like its predecessor, this engine is also 3D printed. Skyroot’s cryogenic rocket engine uses two rocket propellants: liquid natural gas (LNG) and liquid oxygen (LoX), which require temperatures below -150 °C for storage and operation. The tests were conducted at Solar Industries’ propulsion test facility in Nagpur, India.

CERN’s new visitor and education center, Science Gateway, due to open this autumn, will welcome up to half a million people each year. Project leader Patrick Geeraert describes how this iconic project came about, how it will operate, and what it aims to achieve.

The Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University announced the launch of a new joint battery center at SLAC. It will bring together the resources and expertise of the national lab, the university and Silicon Valley to accelerate the deployment of batteries and other energy storage solutions as part of the energy transition that’s essential for addressing climate change.

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.

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."

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.