Linde Engineering, the German energy equipment supplier including for LNG, said its Linde Kryotechnik subsidiary had signed a contract to supply the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, with two identical helium cryogenic refrigeration systems.
The Pullach, Germany-based company has already supplied systems providing more than 50 percent of the refrigeration capacity required for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built, allowing physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics.
The accelerator sits in a tunnel 100 metres underground at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
“CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is the largest cryogenic system in the world,” explained Lars Blum, Managing Director of Linde Kryotechnik.
“We have been delivering sophisticated refrigeration systems to CERN since 1986. To be selected for the most significant upgrade of the LHC since its start-up in 2008 speaks to our track record in reliable and efficient solutions, even in the most complex research environments,” stated Blum.
Capacities
The Linde company explained that each refrigeration system will have a capacity of 3.25 kilowatts at 1.9 Kelvin (-271 °C), which is close to absolute zero. The plants are required for a High-Luminosity upgrade to the LHC.
The LHC collides tiny particles of matter (protons) at an energy of 13.6 TeV (Tera electron Volt) center of mass in order to study the fundamental components of matter and the forces that bind them together.
“The upgraded LHC will make it possible to study these in more detail, increasing the number of collisions by a factor of between five and seven,” the company explained.
For each of the plants, Linde will deliver a compressor system, a surface cold box measuring 14 metres in length and 3.5 meters in diameter, an underground cold box with a length of seven metres and a diameter of 2.5 metres and a vacuum-insulated piping network to connect the two cold boxes.
The surface cold box will cool the helium to 4.5 Kelvin (-269 °C), and the second cold box about 90 metres underground will provide the required 1.9 Kelvin (-271 °C).
Linde will also be responsible for installation and final commissioning. The handover to CERN is scheduled for mid-2026.
