Air Liquide JV to develop helium refrigeration in China
9th January 2021
CHINA: Air Liquide and Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) have established a joint venture to promote the development of helium refrigeration equipment in China.
Helium refrigerators produce the very low temperatures needed to provide the superconducting conditions required in many scientific instruments such as superconducting power equipment, superconducting accelerators, superconducting magnets, fusion devices or other scientific laboratories.
Under this upcoming joint venture, Air Liquide will bring its mastery of extreme cryogenics and its know-how in the design and manufacturing of helium refrigerators while HFIPS, a leading Chinese research centre, will share its mastery of specific cryogenics applications and deep understanding of research needs and organisations in China.
Air Liquide has wide experience in the design, production, and installation of high-capacity gas liquefaction and refrigeration systems. This includes the supply of helium liquefaction and refrigeration systems to scientific laboratories and Universities on every continent (CERN in Switzerland, SSRF and SINAP in China, SLAC in the USA, ESS in Sweden, IBS in Korea, etc.).
Air Liquide has also supplied high-capacity helium cryogenic equipment for the biggest fusion projects of the last 30 years (Tore Supra in France, JET in UK, SST-1 in India, KSTAR in Korea, JT60-SA in Japan, ITER in France…). Helium liquefiers for industrial applications were also manufactured by Air Liquide for third-party clients like RasGas in Qatar.
