OPW announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Demaco, a provider of vacuum jacketed piping and other cryogenic equipment for gas producers, research institutions, EPC contractors, and end-users of liquefied gasses within various end-markets. Demaco will become part of the OPW Clean Energy Solutions business unit. 

In a groundbreaking development, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have engineered a significant enhancement to the efficiency of cooling materials to temperatures near absolute zero. Through modifications to a commonly used laboratory refrigerator, they have achieved remarkable reductions in both cooldown time and energy consumption. This innovation holds profound implications for various fields reliant on ultracold temperatures, from quantum computing to astronomy and superconductors.

Equigas, Inc., a North Carolina-based gas equipment distributor, has embarked on an exciting new chapter with its recent acquisition of Correct Cryogenics, a respected cryogenic service provider headquartered in the Southwest US. This strategic move is a pivotal moment for Equigas as it seeks to expand its service offerings and solidify its presence in the US cryogenic and industrial gas markets.

Introduction to BHEX-The Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) is a mission that will discover and measure a black hole’s photon ring, capturing light that has orbited a black hole. BHEX will extend the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) into space, producing the sharpest images in the history of astronomy, whilst operating a space-Earth hybrid VLBI observatory by sending the BHEX radio telescope into space to link down with the existing EHT telescope on Earth.

The Largest Renewable Energy Storage Project-Fives, a global industrial engineering group, has been selected by Zhonglv Zhongke Energy Storage Technology Co. to supply cryogenic equipment for the largest renewable energy storage project on an industrial scale. This project, located in Golmud, Qinghai province, China, is set to be operational by the end of 2024 and marks the first industrial-scale implementation of Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) technology.

The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera in Chile and NASA’s Compact Thermal Imager (CTI) represent cutting-edge advancements in astronomical and Earth science technology. The LSST Camera, soon to be operational at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, will survey the entire southern sky every three nights for a decade, producing detailed data to study dark matter, dark energy and transient astronomical events. In contrast, NASA’s multiple high-resolution infrared cameras and their sensors, already in operation, are designed for specific scientific and practical applications, from monitoring wildfires to studying planetary compositions. These cameras provide high-resolution imaging for wildfire detection and atmospheric studies from the International Space Station.

A type of zero-resistance material called a topological superconductor could lead to error-free quantum computing, but efforts to make such a material have so far come up short. Researchers have now shown that a recently developed fabrication technique that could generate topological superconductors passes a key test [1]. They produced a superconducting layer on top of a topological insulator—a thin sheet of material in which electrical currents are confined to the edges. The technique uses a “seed” of deposited metal that spreads out much like a liquid over the topological insulator’s surface, forming a new crystalline structure. The resulting material exhibits zero resistance, but further tests are needed to determine whether it’s a topological superconductor. Even if it isn’t, the researchers are hopeful that new topological superconductors could be created using the technique.

In the race to unlock the full potential of quantum computing, recent breakthroughs in cryogenic CMOS technology are paving the way for a new era of computational power. At the forefront of this frontier are pioneering efforts by Semiwise and SureCore, in collaboration with Cadence Design Systems, aimed at overcoming critical challenges in developing circuits that operate at near absolute zero temperatures.

NASA, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), SpaceX, and GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U) mission managers met on June 20 to conduct a Flight Readiness Review at NASA’S Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the review, teams provided an update on the mission status and certified the readiness to proceed with final launch preparation activities. 

The United States Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC) has awarded four contracts to Blue Origin, CACI International Inc., General Atomics, and Viasat to develop space 

The EST program, part of SSC's Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power Program Executive Office, aims to create on-orbit crosslink compatibility among future space systems. This will be achieved through a standardized enterprise waveform implemented in a long-range space optical communications terminal that is low in size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C). ESTs are fundamental to the broader Space Data Network, which will establish a space mesh network for enhanced resiliency and information path diversity.

If you’ve ever made the mistake of putting certain fresh fruits or vegetables in the freezer, then you’re already familiar with the effects of freezing on biological tissue. Banana skins turn black and slimy. Whole oranges leak and deflate. Lettuce comes out limp and soggy. The cause of all this spoilage? Ice crystallization.

In a recent article published in Nature, researchers developed a 300-mm cryogenic probing process to obtain high-volume data on spin qubit devices across full wafers. They optimized an industry-compatible process to fabricate spin qubit devices on a low-disorder host material, enabling automated probing of single electrons in spin qubit arrays across 300-mm wafers.

Korean Register has published the "Guide to Selection of Thermal Properties of Cryogenic Insulation Materials" for safe storage of cryogenic fuels, including LNG and liquid hydrogen. Last year, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the '2023 Greenhouse Gas Strategy' with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality in international shipping by 2050. The strategy aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%, striving for 30%, by 2030, at least 70%, striving for 80%, by 2040, and to achieve net-zero emissions by around 2050.

It was a scorcher last year. Land and sea temperatures were up to 0.2 °C higher every single month in the second half of 2023, with these warm anomalies continuing into 2024. We know the world is warming, but the sudden heat spike had not been predicted. As NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt wrote in Nature recently: “It’s humbling and a bit worrying to admit that no year has confounded climate scientists’ predictive capabilities more than 2023 has.”