A research group led by Ri Ju Hyok, a section head at the Faculty of Heat Engineering, has invented a vaporizer that vaporizes cryogenic liquid oxygen to supply to consumers.
It is an atmospheric source cryogenic vaporizer that turns cryogenic liquid oxygen into gas by cryogenic distillation method.
In practice, the demand for oxygen is unpredictable. To meet this flexible demand, liquid oxygen is usually stored in the cryogenic tank and is vaporized whenever needed. The vaporization of liquid oxygen is conducted by means of a cryogenic vaporizer.
The vaporizer is a vertical heat exchanger, its cross section is of an 8-pointed star type and it vaporizes cryogenic liquid by atmospheric heat.
To determine the optimal parameters of a vaporizer, they studied 4 items: growth process of frost on the surface of the heat exchanger when liquid oxygen is vaporized, the property of frost, the pulse phenomenon in the heat transfer pipe and the destruction of frost on the surface, and the characteristics of air flow in the surrounding of a heat exchanger.
The cryogenic oxygen liquid vaporizer is extruded of aluminum alloy of good conductivity.
As its heat source is based on only the air in the atmosphere, environmental problems such as pollutant emission and noises are not arisen.
It is also applicable to the vaporization of other cryogenic liquids like nitrogen, argon, etc. as well as oxygen.
© 2021 KumChaek University of Technology