Random Question :)

[Broccoli1]

There is a business near where my son rides his MTB and they have a tank of Liquid Nitrogen and he was curious as to what the radiator looking thing is next to that tank.

What is its purpose?

[Mac's Crew]

That looks similar to out autoclave set up at work... I do not know the reason for the radiator, but I know when a 30 ft diameter cap is blown through 3 layers of building and through 3 of those nitrogen tanks you can feel it 8 miles away.

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[Louie1961]

I am sure it is to evaporate the liquid to a gas and get it up to atmospheric temp without freezing up the intended target use of the gas. reverse radiator if you will.

[Welder Dave]

Probably similar function to the Victor CO2 flow meters with aluminum fins to prevent them from freezing. Liquid oxygen tanks also have them and there's usually frost build up on them. Even CO2 cylinders with no regulator can freeze up if you have to empty them because the valve is leaking. Too much flow too fast and they freeze up.

[davec]

I am sure it is to evaporate the liquid to a gas and get it up to atmospheric temp without freezing up the intended target use of the gas. reverse radiator if you will.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Most lab and mfg usage of N2 is as an inert gas for chemical reactions and such. You can store a lot more N2 as a liquid, but of course it is super cold. You want gas, you have liquid, so you evaporate it. You need to absorb a bunch of heat to do that, thus the radiator. Heat flows hot to cold, doesn't care which way that is through a radiator.

[Kelvin]

I am sure it is to evaporate the liquid to a gas and get it up to atmospheric temp without freezing up the intended target use of the gas. reverse radiator if you will.

+1

When you see rockets launch, you'll see big hunks of ice coming off the sides of the tanks where they store the LOX. Plus, they also dump basically an entire water tower's worth of water onto the concrete below the engines to prevent the concrete from vaporizing in the heat of the exhaust, and most of the "smoke" you see is water vapor.

It's pretty crazy how many gallons of LOX you need to burn 640 tons of kerosene...

[Country Metals]

It is actually a security area where a sniper stays to keep people away who want to blow up the tank.

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[Welder Dave]

I thought I heard someway say a million gallons of liquid oxygen on the news for the rocket that just went to the International space station. I know in the past Air Liquide had the contract for Liquid oxygen with NASA. Not sure if they still do but it's a multi-million $$$ deal. The Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding has a pic. of the oval rebar framework for a rocket launch pad. It's huge and looking at the pic. the concrete is probably 20ft.+ thick.

[vwguy3]

It is in fact called a vaporizer. I have seen ones that in the middle of August a a ball of ice.

[Broccoli1]

Thank you all.