The cryogenic boil-off from liquid hydrogen can be utilized to harness the endothermic para- to orthohydrogen quantum state conversion, providing cooling, for example to superconducting motors, thereby enabling high efficiency sustainable transportation. Magnetic catalysts, such as Fe2O3, are used to accelerate the rate of parahydrogen conversion to achieve higher cooling rates. However, the...
The storage and handling of liquid hydrogen (LH₂) are critical components of cryogenic hydrogen engineering, particularly as LH₂ is poised to play a pivotal role in future energy systems. At ambient temperature, hydrogen gas consists of approximately 75 % ortho-hydrogen and 25 % para-hydrogen. However, at the normal boiling point of LH₂ (20.3 K), the equilibrium para-hydrogen concentration...
The growing demand for liquefied hydrogen (LH2) results in an increased need for ortho-parahydrogen catalysts. Currently, the LH2 supply chain relies heavily on a single catalyst product: hydrous ferric oxide, commercially available as “Ionex-Type O-P Catalyst” (Ionex) from Molecular Products. On the one hand, this reliance poses a supply vulnerability for liquefaction plants under...
Cryogenic hydrogen plate-fin heat exchangers (PFHXs) with continuous ortho-para hydrogen conversion are crucial for large-scale, efficient hydrogen liquefaction. However, most existing research relies on numerical methods, and detailed experimental data under cryogenic conditions remain scarce. To address this gap, experiments on catalysts-filled plate-fin heat exchangers (CPFHXs) were...
The continuous conversion heat exchanger is a critical component for scaling up hydrogen liquefaction plants while reducing energy consumption. However, existing continuous conversion heat exchangers utilize randomly packed catalyst structures, which suffer from uneven flow and heat transfer, leading to significant challenges such as high pressure drops and low heat transfer and conversion...
Large-scale, low-energy-consumption hydrogen liquefaction technologies are crucial for the widespread adoption of liquid hydrogen. However, fundamental data on continuous ortho-para hydrogen conversion at cryogenic temperatures remain limited. To address this, a series of test platforms has been established to investigate ortho-para hydrogen conversion under a wide range of cryogenic...
