China's first domestically developed hydrogen liquefying system with a high daily output of liquefied hydrogen was successfully produced to fuel carrier rockets with domestically produced liquefied hydrogen in the future.
The procedures of start-up, production, automatic shutdown and reheating of the hydrogen liquefaction system has successfully completed as designed, and the system has continuously worked for an accumulated 35 hours and produced 35.55 cubic meters of liquefied hydrogen.
Its designed daily production capacity was 1.7 tons and measured actual daily output of full capacity was 2.3 tons, reaching the anticipated target.
At present, the engines of China's carrier rocket Long March-5B, Long March-7 and other new-generation carriers all use liquefied hydrogen and liquefied oxygen as fuels, whereas most liquefied hydrogen used in China's aerospace industry is produced using foreign equipment.
The system with the current daily output can effectively meet the demands of China's high frequency of launch missions.
By addressing the problems of a series of key technologies, the 101 Institute of the Sixth Research Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which developed the system, realized the localization of over 90 percent of the system, said Wang Chenggang, director of the institute.
Hydrogen is a colorless and odorless gas whose liquefaction requires multiple complicated steps. One of the key technologies that the institute has solved is to maintain the storage temperature of the liquefied hydrogen at - 253 C by minimizing thermal conductivity of the container.
The system will play an important role in supporting the development of hydrogen and oxygen engines for China's aerospace systems and boosting China's hydrogen energy industry by supporting the development of hydrogen storage and transportation and long-distance transportation.
