05.02.202
The Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University, in cooperation with the Czech Academy of Sciences, has launched the most powerful Czech helium liquefier for scientific purposes, with a capacity of 49 liters of liquid helium per hour. It can liquefy up to 70,000 cubic meters of gaseous helium annually. The device will also allow scientists to reliquefy extremely volatile helium gas collected from laboratories, effectively recycling it.
The liquefier will support further development of cryogenic experiments, research into quantum turbulence, and simulations of flows inside the Sun or pulsars.
Liquid helium enables cryogenic laboratories to generate strong magnetic fields using superconducting magnets and to achieve temperatures very close to absolute zero. Under such conditions, scientists study properties of matter that cannot be observed elsewhere in the universe. For example, at the LHC accelerator at CERN, thousands of superconducting magnets are cooled with superfluid helium to −271 °C (about 1.9 K).
Liquid and gaseous helium are both tools and subjects of fundamental research. They are used, for instance, to simulate flows inside stars and pulsars. “Under certain conditions, superfluid helium can flow without internal friction, and its properties can only be explained by quantum mechanics. Quantized vortices and quantum turbulence form in superfluid helium, phenomena we have been studying for more than 25 years,” explains Ladislav Skrbek, a leading Czech low-temperature physicist from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.
The Troja liquefier will serve university and Academy laboratories that require extremely low temperatures for experiments, including cooling superconducting magnets for nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers used in structural chemistry, condensed matter research, nanoparticles, and materials science. Stable high magnetic fields are essential for materials research and can be generated in laboratories only with superconducting coils that require liquid helium.
The new liquefier will supply up to 80,000 liters of liquid helium annually. Around 20,000 liters will be used by Charles University laboratories, 16,000 liters by the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and smaller amounts by other research institutes, including the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, and the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry. Helium will also be delivered for liquefaction from the CEITEC research infrastructure in Brno.
What Is Helium?
Helium, the second most abundant element in the universe, was discovered in 1868. A major breakthrough came in 1908, when Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first liquefied helium at Leiden University, marking the beginning of modern low-temperature physics.
Helium makes up about 25% of the observable universe’s mass. On Earth, it is produced through radioactive decay in the crust and extracted from natural gas. Global annual production is about 180 million cubic meters, with the United States, Qatar, and Algeria among the largest producers.
It is indispensable in low-temperature physics, chemistry, and biology. Only about 10% of global helium consumption is used for scientific research. Larger amounts are used in medicine, especially for cooling superconducting magnets in MRI imaging, in eye surgery lasers, and in cardiopulmonary equipment. About 20% of global supplies are used in semiconductor manufacturing. Helium is also used in Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed rail system and in deep-sea diving mixtures to prevent nitrogen narcosis.
Inhaling helium changes the resonance of vocal cords and alters the sound of the voice, but excessive inhalation can cause oxygen deficiency and suffocation.
