Description of capability
- This is basically two Sterling machines back to back.
- You provide heat on one end, it cools on the other end, and exhausts everything else at room temperature.
Key people
Technology Readiness Level (1-9)
1 John’s group has done modeling, but no experimental work so far. Need funding for that.
Needs that this could potentially address
- Liquid hydrogen boil-off mitigation for More economical hydrogen storage:
- During hydrogen boil-off, you take ~10% of the boiled-off hydrogen and burn it to produce heat. That powers the cryocooler, which re-liquefies the remaining ~90% of the boiled-off hydrogen.
- Could probably reduce net boil-off by 5-9x by burning some of the boiled-off hydrogen to reliquefy the rest. Picture a system in a tractor trailer.
- Note: you’d probably need two stages to liquefy this hydrogen.