Helium liquefier ATL

Our Advanced Technology Liquefier (ATL) is a novel helium liquefier that can easily be operated in a laboratory without any sophisticated installation requirements. A touch-screen panel allows easy control of the automated system. The ATL can use both helium gas from a high-pressure cylinder and recycled gas from a cryogenic experiment.

The helium is automatically liquefied at very high efficiency thanks to the liquefier’s outstanding design. The plants feature an average rate of 10 L/d (ATL-80) and 22 L/d (ATL-160), respectively. Depending on the mode of operation, these rates can even be higher.

As the ATL unit can simply be rolled to the cryogenic experiment, the liquid helium can be directly transferred. This saves time and reduces helium losses.

We also offer standardized set-ups for gas recovery to complement our ATL.

Helium gas purifier ATP

The Advanced Technology Purifier ATP30 can purify up to 30 liters of helium gas per minute. This makes it the system of choice for providing clean helium gas to our ATL liquefiers. ATP-cleaned helium gas boasts an ultra-high purity of 99.9995% or better. Like the ATL, the ATP is fully automated and can regenerate in 5 hours. One ATP is normally sufficient to deliver enough clean helium gas for two ATL160 liquefiers.

Helium gas recovery

To adapt the ATL to your helium experiment, we offer three different schemes for helium gas recovery: direct recovery, medium pressure recovery and high pressure recovery. The direct recovery system is the simplest set-up and thus your easy entrée to gaining the benefits of the ATL80 or ATL160. The medium and high pressure recoveries are more sophisticated and provide solutions for the recycling of up to 100% of your helium.

Direct recovery

With the direct recovery scheme, the vaporized helium gas from the instrument is directly guided to the ATL to be used for liquefaction. An optional back-pressure controller keeps the system’s pressure on a constant level and prevents influences on the instrument from pressure fluctuations. A fast boil-off, which occurs for example during the transfer of liquid helium, can lead to gas losses, since the direct recovery does not provide any storage capacity. These losses are easily refilled by connecting a helium gas cylinder in addition to the ATL.

Medium pressure recovery

The medium pressure recovery scheme includes a dynamic storage of the helium gas boil-off. One buffer tank collects the gas directly from the instrument and a second tank is used to store the gas under medium pressure. The storage capacity is the gas equivalent of 10 liters of liquid helium. Thus this set-up is also suitable to recover boil-off peaks. Depending on the instrument’s boil-off characteristics a recycling rate of 95% or better can be achieved.

High pressure recovery

The high pressure recovery is the most sophisticated recovery scheme. It can store much more helium gas than the medium pressure set-up. This type of recovery line uses a gas balloon, a helium compressor, pressure cylinders, and the ATP purifier to provide a solution for the recycling of nearly 100% of your gas. Because it also recycles helium during large or random boil-offs, this recovery scheme is particularly suited for laboratories with several helium instruments.