Active Magnetic Regenerative Liquefaction (AMRL) uses solid magnetic working refrigerants cycled in and out of high magnetic fields to execute an efficient active magnetic regenerative liquefaction cycle that avoids the use of gas compressors. Numerical simulation modeling of high performance AMRL designs indicates certain achievable designs have promise to simultaneously lower installed capital costs per unit capacity and to increase thermodynamic efficiency from an FOM of ~0.35 (best FOM of conventional systems) toward 0.5–0.6.
EENW, in conjunction with Pacific Northwest National Lab, is pioneering the advanced development of multi-layered and multi-staged designs through extensive numerical modelling and proven laboratory results culminating in many world's-firsts related to AMRL technology.
Our proprietary designs leverage large adiabatic temperature changes of carefully crafted rare-earth magnetic alloys that work in highly-tuned synchronicity to provide the cold temperatures and cooling powers required for liquefying gases of any type.
Cross-section of an eight layer regenerator designed to reach 120 K (for LNG production). Patent Pending.
EENW is a leading expert in AMRL technology:
- Staged or layered designs
- Liquid Hydrogen production scalable from as small as 3700 gal (1 tonne) per day up to more than 110,000 gal (30 tonnes) per day
- Liquid Natural Gas production scalable from as small as 3900 gal (6 tonnes) per day up to more than 60,000 gal (90 tonnes) per day
- Rare-earth alloy refrigerants composed of the most affordable and available rare-earth elements reducing capex costs to below conventional plants
- In-house made monolithic porous regenerators that meet strict aerospace standard
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Magnetic field induced adiabatic temperature changes for eight layers of a natural gas liquefier or hydrogen pre-cooling stage
Passive force balancing of an active magnetic regenerative liquefier
R. Teyber, K. Meinhardt, E. Thomsen, E. Polikarpov, J. Cui, A. Rowe, J. Holladay, J. Barclay, 2018, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Investigation of bypass fluid flow in an active magnetic regenerative liquefier
J. Holladay, R. Teyber, K. Meinhardt, E. Polikarpov, E. Thomsen, C. Archipley, J. Cui, J. Barclay, 2018, Cryogenics
Propane Liquefaction with an Active Magnetic Regenerative Liquefier
K. Meinhardt, E. Polikarpov, E. Thomsen, J. Holladay, K. Brooks, J. Cui, J. Barclay, 2018, Cryogenics
EENW utilizes a complex numerical model to simulate consecutive AMRL cycles. The coupled 1-D non-linear partial differential equations solved by finite difference numerical techniques with all materials’ and fluids’ temperature, pressure, flow, magnetic field dependence updated each micro time step provides a very accurate representation of an AMRL device. The numerical model is used to guide liquefier designs to optimize cooling power and efficiency.
Temperature profiles of each of the four stages of an AMRL cycle produced by EENW's proprietary numerical model. These results we compiled from an 8 hour run of the simulation using an 8-Core @ 2.7 GHz per core computer. These data are a snap-shot after 250 AMRL cycles post proper device cool-down.