• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.349-358
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• 1999

Thermodynamic cycle analysis has been performed to maximize the liquid amount for various hydrogen liquefaction systems using GM(Gifford-McMahon) refrigerator. Since the present authors' previous experiments showed that the liquefaction rate was approximately 5.1mg/s in a direct contact with a commercial GM refrigerator, the purpose of this study is to predict how much the liquefaction rate can be increased in different configurations and with improved heat exchanger performance. The optimal operating conditions have been analytically sought with real properties of normal hydrogen for the single-stage GM precooled L-H(Linde-Hampson) system, the two-stage GM direct contact system, the two-stage GM precooled L-H system and the two-stage helium GM-JT (Joule-Thomson) system. The maximum liquefaction rate has been predicted to be only about 7 times greater than the previous experiment, when the two-stage precooling is employed and the effectiveness of heat exchangers approaches to 99.0%. It is concluded that the liquefaction rate is limited mainly by the cooling capacity of the current GM refrigerators and a larger scale of hydrogen liquefaction is possible with a greater capacity of cryocooler at 60-70 K range.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Applied Superconductivity and Cryogenics Conference
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• 1999.02a
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• pp.194-197
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• 1999

Thermodynamic cycle analysis has been performed to maximize the liquid amount for two hydrogen liquefaction systems using two-stage GM(Gifford-McMahon) refrigerator. the optimal operating conditions have been analytically sought with real properties of normal hydrogen for the two-stage GM direct contact system and the two-stage GM precooled L-H (Linde-Hampson) system. In the precooled system, there existed optimal values for compressed mass flow and compressed pressure to maximize the liquefied mass. It was recommended to use a cryocooler, which had a large precooling capacity between 70 and 100K.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.284-291
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• 1997

A hydrogen liquefaction equipment by direct cooling has been designed and built at KIST. Cool-down characteristics and liquefaction performance of the equipment have been investigated. The hydrogen liquefaction equipment consists of a GM refrigerator, a liquefaction velssel, a radiation shield and a cryostat. It is found that the hydrogen starts to be liquefied in the liquefaction vessel after 40~50 minutes of cool-down from the gas state of 270K. The effect of natural convection phenomena of charged gas in liquefaction vessel on the cool-down characteristics is evaluated by comparing with those in vacuum of liquefaction vessel. It is seen that the cool-down time of a liquefaction vessel is substantially increased in vacuum environment of liquefaction vessel. The experiments have been performed for 1~5 atm of hydrogen pressure to investigate the influence of hydrogen pressure on the liquefaction rate and figure of merit(FOM). It is found that both liquefaction rate and FOM are increased as the charged hydrogen pressure is increased.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 1996

A direct cooling equipment for hydrogen liquefaction has been developed and tested. A direct cooling equipment consists of a liquefaction vessel, a radiation shield, a cryostat and a GM refrigerator. The cool-down and warm-up characteristics of the liquefaction apparatus have been investigated in detail. It is found that the hydrogen starts to be liquefied in the liquefaction vessel after 45 minutes of cool-down. The cool-down and warm-up tests of helium gas are also performed. The cool-down and warm-up characteristics of helium gas are found to be very different from those of hydrogen gas, since helium is not liquefied under the present operating conditions. When the liquefaction vessel is evacuated, natural convection phenomena of charged gas in liquefaction vessel can be removed. It is seen that the cool-down time of liquefaction vessel is substantially increased in vacuum environment.