Liquid Hydrogen

Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form.

To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below hydrogen's critical point of 33 K. However, for hydrogen to be in a full liquid state without evaporating at atmospheric pressure, it needs to be cooled to 20.28 K (−423.17 °F/−252.87°C). One common method of obtaining liquid hydrogen involves a compressor resembling a jet engine in both appearance and principle. Liquid hydrogen is typically used as a concentrated form of hydrogen storage. As in any gas, storing it as liquid takes less space than storing it as a gas at normal temperature and pressure, however the liquid density is very low compared to other common fuels. Once liquefied it can be maintained as a liquid in pressurized and thermally insulated containers.

Liquid hydrogen consists of 99.79% parahydrogen, 0.21% orthohydrogen.

Read more about Liquid Hydrogen:  History, Spin Isomers of Hydrogen, Uses, Properties

Famous quotes containing the words liquid and/or hydrogen:

    “Awake,
    My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
    Heaven’s last best gift, my ever new delight,
    Awake, the morning shines, and the fresh field
    Calls us: we lose the prime, to mark how spring
    Our tended plants, how blows the citron grove,
    What drops the myrrh and what the balmy reed,
    How nature paints her colors, how the bee
    Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.”
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    All you of Earth are idiots!... First was your firecracker, a harmless explosive. Then your hand grenade. They begin to kill your own people a few at a time. Then the bomb. Then a larger bomb, many people are killed at one time. Then your scientists stumbled upon the atom bomb—split the atom. Then the hydrogen bomb, where you actually explode the air itself.
    Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1922–1978)