UNIQUE FEATURES OF LIQUEFACTION OF HYDROGEN AND NATURAL GAS USING MAGNETIC REFRIGERATION

摘要

Broad use of hydrogen and natural gas as fuels and energy carriers will provide better energy security,rnreturn major economic, environmental, and health benefits, and will minimize the climate change impact ofrngreenhouse gases emissions. Hydrogen and natural gas couple into any realistic sustainable model of the “natural gashydrogen-rnelectricity economy” in an integrated and critical manner. In the transportation sector, liquid natural gasrn(LNG) and/or liquid hydrogen (LH_2) are required as on-board fuels for heavy-duty vehicles such as class 7/8 trucks,rntransit buses, and marine vessel and train engines because of their relatively higher volumetric energy density andrngravimetric energy density compared to compressed gaseous storage. Several technical and market barriers arerninhibiting widespread use of LNG and/or LH_2 in the transportation sector to date. The market barriers include lack ofrndistributed refueling infrastructure, cost of small-scale liquefaction, and affordable on-board storage, lack of customerrnknowledge of cryogenic fuels, and the costs of end-use devices such as efficient engines and fuel cells for vehicles.rnCost-effective and more efficient production, storage, transport and distribution of LNG and/or LH_2 present arnchallenging technical barrier to a reliable and robust fuel supply infrastructure. This paper presents advances inrnmagnetic liquefaction technology that apply to small-scale liquefiers for LNG or LH_2. Discussion of several uniquerndesign features such as improvements in liquefier efficiency from bypass flow of heat transfer fluid obtained fromrnextensive modeling of the performance of a dual-regenerator magnetic refrigerator.