• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.131-139
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• 2000

A direct hydrogen liquefaction equipment has been developed and tested, which consists of a GM refrigerator, a liquefaction vessel, a radiation shield, a cryostat, and an ortho-para converter with catalyst. The effect of ortho-para hydrogen conversion on the performance of hydrogen liquefaction has been investigated. The time needed for the hydrogen liquefaction process with hydrogen pressure charge of 4 atm was delayed to around 75 minutes, and the liquefied mass flow rate of the hydrogen was about 0.0150∼ 0.0205 g/s when the hydrogen was liquefied with the direct hydrogen liquefaction system considering ortho-para conversion. With ortho-para conversion, the liquefied mass flow rate decreased up to 20%. Considering ortho-para conversion, there were up to 30% increase in the work input per unit liquefied mass flow rate. When the ortho-para conversion was considered, FOM decreased to be about 0.031∼0.045.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.93-100
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• 1998

The ortho-para $H_2$ catalytic conversion equipment has been developed to reduce the evaporation loss from stored liquid hydrogen. The ortho-para $H_2$ conversion heat is evaluated at liquid nitrogen temperature. This problem is of particular interest in the design of the ortho-para $H_2$ converter in a hydrogen liquefaction system. The ortho-para $H_2$ conversion equipment consists of a catalytic converter, a precooler, and a liquid nitrogen bath. 30-90 cc of $Fe(OH)_3$ are employed as a catalyst in the present converter. The conversion heat and conversion effectiveness are evaluated when mass flow rate of hydrogen is in the range of 0.05-l.6 g/min. It is found that the ortho-para conversion heat is increased while conversion effectiveness is decreased as the mass flow rate of hydrogen is increased. Both the ortho-para conversion heat and conversion effectiveness are increased with an increase in the amount of the catalyst.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.180-188
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• 2021

This paper conducted a study on the ortho-para hydrogen conversion in the cryogenic heat exchanger filled with catalysts for hydrogen liquefaction by utilizing the numerical model of plate-fin heat exchanger considering catalytic reaction of ortho-para hydrogen conversion, heat and mass transfer phenomena and fluid dynamics in a porous medium. Various numerical analyzes were performed to investigate the characteristics of ortho-para hydrogen conversion, the effects of space velocity and activated catalyst performance.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.317-324
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• 2007

The conversion reaction of ortho to para hydrogen was studied. The percentage of ortho and para hydrogen is mainly dependent on the equilibrium temperature. Because this reaction is known to be accelerated by the catalyst such as nickel-silicate and ruthenium on silica, we focused in the test and development of the catalysts. We studied metal-silicates because they provide high metal dispersion on support. Nickel-silicate, ruthenium-silicate and mixed-silicate were prepared by the coprecipitation method and used in the reaction at the temperature of liquid nitrogen. The conversion was measured by the difference of thermal conductivity between reference gas and sample gas. The activation condition was important and it affected the activities of the catalysts. Nickel-silicate showed high activities. Ruthenium-silicate also showed relative high activities but mixed-silicate showed poor activities.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2015

During the liquefaction of hydrogen, the ortho hydrogen is converted into the para form with heat release that evaporates the liquefied hydrogen into the gaseous one backwards. The ortho-para conversion catalysts are usually used during liquefaction to avoid such boil-off. In order to compare and analyze the performance of the ortho-para hydrogen conversion catalysts, in-situ FT-IR device was designed and manufactured to measure the para hydrogen conversion rate in real-time. $LaFeO_3$ and $La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}Cu_{0.3}Fe_{0.7}O_3$ perovskite catalysts were prepared by the citrate sol-gel method and their spin conversion characteristics from ortho to para hydrogen were investigated by in-situ FTIR spectroscopy at 17K. It was found that the spin conversion was affected by surface area, particle size, and crystallite size of the catalysts. Thus, the $La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}Cu_{0.3}Fe_{0.7}O_3$ perovskite catalyst that had higher surface area, higher crystallite size, and smaller particle size than $LaFeO_3$ showed the better spin conversion property of 32.3% at 17K in 120min interaction with the perovskite catalysts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.23-26
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• 2009

General characteristics of hydrogen and the ratio change of the two forms of hydrogen(ortho-hydrogen and para-hydrogen) as a function of the temperature were introduced. The unique characteristics of hydrogen, such as a wide range of flammability limits, low minimum ignition energy, low maximum inverse temperature, and hydrogen embrittlement were introduced. The process of producing the liquid hydrogen using pre-cooling and expansion engine and ortho-para conversion using the catalyst were introduced. Finally, the characteristics and the considerations as a propellant for liquid rocket were reviewed.

• International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
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• v.6
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• pp.124-135
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• 1998

A thermodynamic cycle analysis is performed for refrigerator-precooled Linde-Hampson hydrogen liquefiers, including catalysts for the ortho-to-para conversion. Three different configurations of the liquefying system, depending upon the method of the o-p conversion, are selected for the analysis. After some simplifying and justifiable assumptions are made, a general analysis program to predict the liquid yield and the figure of merit (FOM) is developed with incorporating the commercial computer code for the thermodynamic properties of hydrogen. The discussion is focused on the effect of the two primary design parameters - the precooling temperature and the high pressure of the cycle. When the precooling temperature is in a range between 45 and 60 K, the optimal high pressure for the maximal liquid yield is found to be about 100 to 140 bar, regardless of the ortho-to-para conversion. However, the FOM can be maximized at slightly lower high pressures, 75 to 130 bar. It is concluded that the good performance of the precooling refrigerator is significant in the liquefiers, because at low precooling temperatures high values of the liquid yield and the FOM can be achieved without compression of gas to a very high pressure.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 2018

The improved high-performance Fe-based perovskite-type oxides ($La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}M_xFe_{1-x}O_3$, M = Cu, Cr, Ni) were synthesized by a citrate method and characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD and NMR spectroscopy analyses. The characterization analyses revealed that the stoichiometric amounts of lattice oxygen were existed in all of perovskite samples except for a nickel-doped perovskite. Fe-based perovskites exhibited a surprising result for ortho-para $H_2$ spin conversion reaction, indicating two orders of magnitude higher conversions and conversion rates than commercial $Fe_2O_3$. It was considered that this conversion difference might be attributed to the presence of oxygen vacancies in Fe-based perovskites prepared in this study.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.389-400
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• 1997

A thermodynamic cycle analysis is performed for refrigerator-precooled Linde-Hampson hydrogen liquefiers, including catalysts for the ortho-to-para(o-p) conversion. three different configurations of the liquefying system, depending upon the method of the o-p conversion, are selected for the analysis. After some simple and justifiable models are introduced, a general analysis program to predict the liquid yield and the figure of merit(FOM) is developed with incorporating the commercial computer code for the hydrogen properties. The discussion is focused on the effect of the two primary design parameters-the precooling temperature and the high pressrure of hydrogen. When the precooling temperature is in the range between 45 and 60 K, the optimal high pressure for the maximal liquid yield is found to be in the range between 100 to 140 bar, regardless of the o-p conversion. However, the FOM can be maximized at slightly smaller values of high pressures. It is remarkable to observe that the lower precooling temperatures are favorable since both the liquid yield and the FOM can be obtained without compressing hygrogen to extremely high pressures.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2020

The present study discussed the thermodynamic analysis of the hydrogen liquefaction process to build a hydrogen liquefaction pilot plant with a small capacity (0.5 ton/day). A 2-stage Brayton cycle utilizing LNG/LN2 cold energy was suggested to be built in Korea for the hydrogen liquefaction pilot plant with a small capacity. Thermodynamic analysis on the effect of various variables on the efficiency of hydrogen liquefaction process was performed. As a result, the CASE in which the ortho-para conversion catalyst was infiltrated inside the heat exchanger showed the best process efficiency. Finally, thermodynamic analysis was performed on the effect of turbo expander compression ratio on the hydrogen liquefaction process and it was confirmed that an optimal turbo expander compression ratio exists.