Helium liquefaction with a 4 K pulse tube cryocooler Original Research Article

Helium liquefaction with a two-stage 4 K pulse tube cryocooler is introduced in this paper. The helium liquefier has a feature of precooling helium gas to be liquefied by using inefficiency of the second stage regenerator in the pulse tube cryocooler. This process reduces enthalpy of the incoming helium gas when entering the condenser and significantly increases the condensation rate. Numerical analysis predicts the precooling heat load on the second stage regenerator, decreases the PTC second stage cooling capacity by only 11% of the heat actually absorbed into the regenerator. A prototype pulse tube helium liquefier was built, which has two precooling heat exchangers on the first stage cold head and the second stage regenerator. It continuously liquefies helium with a rate of 4.8 l/day under normal pressure while consumes 4.6 kW power input.