ROTATING DISC ATOMIZATION OF GADOLINIUM AND GADOLINIUM-YTTRIUM BINARY ALLOYS FOR HYDROGEN LIQUEFACTION VIA MAGNETO-CALORIC COOLING

摘要

Fuel cell electric vehicle technology could be enabled by the delivery of liquid hydrogen to fueling stations. For this technology to be viable the cost of hydrogen liquefaction must be decreased via technological solutions such as magneto-caloric refrigeration. A rotating disk atomization system, with a rotating quench bath, has been employed to produce 150-250 μm spherical powders of pure Gd and a series of rare earth binary alloys, Gd_xY_(1-x). These alloy powders are intended for use as the magneto-caloric refrigerant in the porous packed bed of a multi-stage hydrogen gas liquefaction system. Atomization parameters and resulting powder size distributions, chemical analysis results, and morphology will be discussed. Saturation magnetization of unalloyed Gd powder matches that of bulk Gd and alloy magnetization properties are commensurate with bulk alloys, demonstrating suitability for magneto-caloric refrigeration systems.