Equipment: Helium Recovery Equipment: to Expand the LSU Liquefaction Center

在化学系化学测量和成像项目（CHE）、刺激竞争性研究的建立项目（EPSCoR）以及分子和细胞生物科学系分子生物物理学项目（MCB）的支持下，路易斯安那州立大学的Richard Kurtz教授和他的多学科团队正在开发回收和再利用液氦（一种不可再生资源）蒸发气体的能力。液氦可以实现广泛的低温技术，对超导仪器至关重要。社会必须采取行动，从这些仪器的沸腾中保存和回收氦气，这样才能继续发现新的发现，以改善社会的智力和身体健康。该项目将允许从路易斯安那州立大学化学系的核磁共振（NMR）设施以及先进微结构和设备中心（CAMD）同步加速器光源中回收氦气。从这些设施中蒸发出来的氦气将被收集、压缩并运送到路易斯安那州立大学现有的物理系氦气回收和液化中心进行再液化并返回再利用。路易斯安那州立大学核磁共振设备中的超导磁体和路易斯安那州立大学CAMD同步加速器中的两个超导插入装置每年消耗大量的液氦，目前所有的液氦都被蒸发掉了。该氦气回收项目包括在每个站点安装由气体收集袋、压缩机和回收气体歧管组成的设备，以捕获这些氦气沸腾后再液化和再利用。预期的高回收率将被监测并报告给NSF。这个项目将显著改善我们对这个有限资源的管理，预期的节省将支持多个nsf资助的项目，这些项目受液氦的成本和可用性的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry (CHE), the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Molecular Biophysics Program in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), Professor Richard Kurtz and his multidisciplinary team at Louisiana State University are developing the capability to recover and reuse the boil-off gas from liquid helium, a non-renewable resource. Liquid helium enables a broad range of low temperature technologies and is crucial to superconducting instrumentation. It is essential that the community move to conserve and recycle helium from the boil-off of these instruments so that new discoveries to improve the intellectual and physical wellbeing of society can continue. This project will allow recovery of helium from the LSU Chemistry Department’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facility as well as the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD) synchrotron light source. The boil-off helium gas from these facilities will be collected, compressed, and transported to the LSU’s existing Physics Department Helium Recovery and Liquefaction Center to be re-liquefied and returned for re-use. The superconducting magnets in the LSU NMR facility and the two superconducting insertion devices at the LSU CAMD synchrotron collectively consume a significant volume of liquid helium per year, all of which is currently lost to boil-off. This helium recovery project involves the installation of equipment at each site consisting of gas collection bags, compressors, and recovery gas manifolds to capture this helium boil-off for reliquefaction and re-use. The high rate of recovery expected will be monitored and reported back to NSF. This project will significantly improve our stewardship of this limited resource and the anticipated savings will support multiple NSF-funded programs impacted by the cost and availability of liquid helium.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.