Cryogenic Tests of 30 m Flexible Hybrid Energy Transfer Line with Liquid Hydrogen and Superconducting MgB2 Cable

Abstract

Recently we reported about first in the world test of 10 m hybrid energy transfer line with liquid hydrogen and MgB2 superconducting cable. In this paper we present the new development of our second hybrid energy transfer line with 30 m length. The flexible 30 m hydrogen cryostat has three sections with different types of thermal insulation in each section: simple vacuum superinsulation, vacuum superinsulation with liquid nitrogen shield and active evaporating cryostatting (AEC) system. We performed thermo-hydraulic tests of the cryostat to compare three thermo-insulating methods. The tests were performed at temperatures from 20 to 26 K, hydrogen flow from 100 to 450 g/s and pressure from 0.25 to 0.5 MPa. It was found that AEC thermal insulation practically eliminated completely heat transfer from room temperature to liquid hydrogen in the 10 m section. AEC thermal insulation method can be used for long superconducting power cables. High voltage current leads were developed as well. The current leads and superconducting MgB2 cable have been passed high voltage DC test up to 50 kV DC. Critical current of the cable at ∼21 K was ∼3500 A. The 30 m hybrid energy system developed is able to deliver up to 135 MW of chemical and electrical power in total.