4/5/2005flare cryogenics, rlschmitt1 argon refrigeration supply purity

4/5/2005 FLARE Cryogenics, RLSchmitt 1

Argon

• Refrigeration

• Supply

• Purity


Argon Refrigeration

•Heat load summary

•LN circulation

•LN supply


Heat Load Summary

• Tank heat load 0.05%/day 47kW• Flash during filling, assuming

5 psig supply 6kW• Vapor displaced during filling1.5 kW

• Total with 1.25 factor 68 kW


LN Supply Perspective

• Flare Usage 34 tons/day

• Fermilab usage 45 to 78 tons/day

• CHL liquefier 100 ton/day

• 12 trucks or 5 railcars per week

• LN cost at Fermilab $62/ton

• 2002 budget price for 100 ton/day liquefier $2.9 million


Nitrogen Circulation

Argon condensers inside tank

Nitrogen storage

•Condensers inside tank to minimize argon handling•Redundant pumps, heat exchangers, etc.•Nothing extraordinary•Needs further development to improve cost estimate•Present estimate $460k


LN Supply Tasks

• Five liquefier vendors contacted recently• Failures

– Power failures– Mechanical breakdowns– LN leak inside detector tank– Supply interruptions

• Detector Tank loses 25 tons argon/day without cooling

• Zero backflow vent system needed


Argon Supply

• Praxiar quotation in January 2004

• $37 million, truck delivery, ~1ppm

• RR cars would be less expensive

• Oxygen concentration is negotiable, 1ppm is proven without extraordinary effort

• Could use multiple suppliers


Argon Receiving

• Procedure proven at Dzero, NWA and E706– Connect to truck– Test carefully, accept or reject– Testing includes oxygen concentration,

electron lifetime, possibly other tests

• Pump through purifier into intermediate tank

• Test and pump into detector tank


Receiving Further Development

• Failure scenarios– Adding contaminated delivery to main tank– Spill during connection

• Further development– Piping Schematic– Instrumentation requirements– Estimated time to connect and test


Sources of impurity

• Argon Supply

• Surfaces– Tank shell– Cable insulation– Other material

• Leaks and permeation– Mechanical seals

• Dead volumes


Argon Purifiers

• Purifying equipment would probably run for the life of the project as well as during filling

• ICARUS used Messer Oxisorb, proprietary regeneration

• Air Liquide offers a packaged liquid purifier, $400k. Regeneration would consume $800k of argon during filling. Possibly can recover most of it.

• Praxair offers gas purifier for $600k• Earnhart(Trigon) offers regenerable adsorbent• All of these should be evaluated further


High Purity Specifications • Rough tank purging

– High capacity intermediate system?– Further purging?– High purity system with high regeneration?

• Specification for leak testing• Specification for tank surfaces, tank cleaning,

procedures during detector construction, cable insulation

• Specification for all argon handling equipment and piping

• Further development needed


Purification Testing

• Testing is needed to prove high purity can be achieved without evacuation and with reasonable fabrication requirements

• Outgassing in vacuum has been studied, but how is the rate affected by an Argon atmosphere or temperature?

• Testing can be done on a reasonable scale


Effort estimates

• Purity issues, a man-year of process engineering, plus technician and drafting support

• M&S budget to avoid re-inventing parts that are commercially available, $100k

• Refrigeration and Supply, two man-months of engineering to improve cost estimate

4/5/2005flare cryogenics, rlschmitt1 argon refrigeration supply purity

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