He Recovery
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Due to ongoing shortages and rising helium prices, we purchased and began renovations for a helium recovery system in late 2019. The system arrived in 2020 and we began
operation in early 2021. The recovery system is currently recycling the helium boil-off from six superconducting magnets in the department. The current setup produces roughly 5100 L of liquid He per year and delivers about 2800 L of liquid He to the six magnets with a recovery rate of 95%.
Our helium recovery system uses a CryoMech liquid helium plant. This includes
- an atmospheric pressure recovery bag,
- a recovery compressor,
- medium pressure storage tanks,
- an automatic helium purifier,
- a LHeP22 helium liquefaction plant with a 150 L collection dewar.
The manifolds that connect the magnets to the He collection circuit are based on the setup at Yale’s NMR facility.
More details below.