In a cryogenic combined cycle power plant electric power drives a cryogenic refrigerator to store energy by cooling air to a liquid state for storage within tanks, followed by subsequent release of the stored energy by first pressurizing the liquid air, then regasifying the liquid air and raising the temperature of the regasified air at least in part with heat exhausted from a combustion turbine, and then expanding the heated regasified air through a hot gas expander to generate power. The expanded regasified air exhausted from the expander may be used to cool and make denser the inlet air to the combustion turbine. The combustion turbine exhaust gases may be used to drive an organic Rankine bottoming cycle. An alternative source of heat such as thermal storage, for example, may be used in place of or in addition to the combustion turbine.

Disclosed techniques include controlled liquefaction and energy management. A gas within a first pressure containment vessel is pressurized using a column of liquid. The gas that is being pressurized is cooled using a liquid spray, wherein the liquid spray is introduced into the first pressure containment vessel in a region occupied by the gas. The liquid spray keeps the pressurizing to be isothermal. The gas that was pressurized is metered into a second pressure containment vessel, wherein the metering enables liquefaction of the gas. The gas that was pressurized is stored in a gas capacitor prior to the metering. The gas that was liquefied in the second pressure containment vessel is pushed into a holding tank, wherein the holding tank stores a liquefied state of the gas, and wherein the pushing is accomplished by the pressure of the gas that was metered into the second pressure containment vessel.

The invention relates to a cooling system (1) comprising at least: a Stirling heat pump (2) designed to cool an inlet gas (G.sub.e) down to a cryogenic temperature so as to form a cryogenic liquid (L), a primary electric motor (3), intended to put said Stirling heat pump (2) into operation, a primary pump (4) intended to cause said cryogenic liquid (L) to circulate under pressure, and a cooling means (5) intended to cool said primary electric motor (3) with the aid of the cryogenic liquid (L) output by said primary pump (4). The invention is particularly suitable for the production of a cryogenic liquid and the applications thereof.

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for efficient cooling within air liquefaction processes with integrated use of cold recycle from a thermal energy store.

A method for generating liquefied gas is provided. The method includes receiving air, refining the air to create refined air, performing liquefaction on refined air to form liquefied gas, and transferring at least one constituent liquefied gas of the liquefied gas to a storage tank in a lighter than air aircraft. The constituent liquefied gas(es) is configured to serve as an energy source for the lighter than air aircraft. The method may include distilling the liquefied gas to obtain liquid nitrogen and one or more other constituent gases. The liquid nitrogen may be configured to store at least 250 kilojoule per liter of energy. Additionally, the air may be refined to create refined air by compressing the air, separating water from the air, scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air, and/or filtering dust from the air. The method may be carbon-neutral or carbon-negative.

The invention relates to a liquid air energy storage system. The storage system includes a cryocooler, a dewar, and a Sterling engine. The cryocooler cools a tip of a cold head to cryogenic temperatures, the cryocooler further includes a heat sink to reject heat from the cryocooler and a cold head that protrudes into a dewar through a cryocooler cavity, the cold head to condense ambient air to create liquified air in the dewar. The dewar holds the liquified air at low temperatures, the dewar having the cryocooler cavity and a Stirling cavity. The Stirling engine drives an electric generator, the Stirling engine further including a cold finger protruding into the dewar through the Stirling cavity, the cold finger to move the liquified air from the dewar to a Stirling heat sink; the Stirling heat sink to expand the liquified air; and the electric generator to generate output electricity.

A method and system for producing liquid air wherein liquid refrigerant is cycled between two core tanks maintained at a temperature sufficient to liquify compressed air passed through condensing tubing in the interior of the core tanks. Liquid refrigerant is cycled by alternating high pressure gas from a high pressure tank to one of the core tanks, which forces liquid refrigerant from this tank through an expansion device to expand a portion of the liquid refrigerant to absorb heat in the other core tank, the resulting refrigerant gas being driven into a low pressure tank. A compression device transfers the refrigerant gas from the low pressure tank to the high pressure tank and maintains the pressure in the high pressure tank. Connections between the low and high pressure tanks and the core tanks are reversed with each cycle.

Various systems and methods for suppling cryogenic refrigeration to supercomputing applications such as quantum computing operations are provided. The disclosed systems and methods are flexible, efficient and scaleable to meet the cryogenic refrigeration requirements of many supercomputing applications. The disclosed systems and methods include: (i) a liquid nitrogen based integrated refrigeration system that integrates a nitrogen refrigerator with a refrigeration load circuit; (ii) a closed loop liquid nitrogen based refrigerator that provides cooling to the refrigeration load circuit via indirect heat exchange between liquid nitrogen in a nitrogen refrigerator and a separate refrigerant in a closed-loop refrigeration load circuit; and (iii) a liquid air based integrated refrigeration system that integrates an air intake system with a refrigerator and a refrigeration load circuit.

A method for producing liquefied gases includes providing an internal combustion engine with at least one cylinder and an exhaust manifold, providing a flow circuit, which includes the cylinder and connects an air inlet to the exhaust manifold, conveying air along the flow circuit according to a flow direction from the air inlet towards the exhaust manifold, compressing the air along a portion of the flow circuit, and liquefying at least one gaseous component of the compressed air.

Provided herein are systems and methods for the processing of exhaust gases of industrial processes in order to reduce or eliminate emission of pollutants (including carbon dioxide) and store energy in the form of cryogenic liquids. Advantageously, the provided systems and methods utilize advanced heat exchanger systems to reduce or eliminate the net power required for operation. The heat exchangers are used both to reduce effluent gases to liquid temperatures as well as reheat previously cooled and separated gases, which can generate electricity via a turbo generator. The described systems and method may also produce cryogenic liquid products (Argon, Krypton, liquid Oxygen, liquid Nitrogen, etc.).