Liquefaction
Liquefying Hydrogen for Storage & TransportProducing liquid hydrogen in a cool way
Gaseous hydrogen can be cryogenically liquefied to produce LH2 (liquid hydrogen) for ease of storage and transportation. Linde is the world leader of liquid hydrogen production and has decades of experience in the construction of hydrogen liquefaction systems. We have designed liquefiers with capacities ranging from 0.25 TPD to more than 34 TPD in one train.
Key components of our liquefaction plants include aluminum-plate heat exchangers and expansion turbines with dynamic gas bearings, developed and manufactured in our own production centers.
Solutions for small, medium and large liquefaction plants
For small capacity liquefaction plants up to 1000 l/h, a closed helium circuit supplies the refrigeration necessary to cool the hydrogen. Pure hydrogen gas at approximately 20 bar is fed into the vacuum-insulated cold box and, after a certain degree of subcooling at the end of the refrigeration process, it expands through a Joule-Thomson valve into the storage tank. The helium refrigeration cycle and hydrogen liquefaction are completely separated. The main components of the system are the helium compressor with oil purification, the cold box with heat exchangers and helium expansion turbines, the liquid hydrogen tank and filling stations for transportable containers.
For liquefaction capacities over 1000 l/h, the necessary refrigeration for cooling and ortho-para conversion of the hydrogen is attained by means of a hydrogen Claude process, i.e., at the cold end of the process the H2 feed gas can be combined with the H2 from the refrigeration process.
For larger-scale systems, separate cold boxes can be considered - a first box for cooling the hydrogen from ambient temperature to 80 K and a second box from 80 down to 20 K. We also offer further system components, such as hydrogen purification, raw gas compressors, and storage tanks and filling devices.