Project - CoolCern
Large Hadron Collider detector cooling with R744 refrigeration technology (CoolCERN)
Our goal is to develop and evaluate the possible use of R744 as the primary cooling system serving the next generation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) detectors at CERN.
About CoolCern
NTNU and CERN work in close cooperation to develop a full CO2 refrigeration circuit for the ATLAS and CMS particle detectors with cooling capacities up to 300kW (ATLAS) and 600kW (CMS) at evaporating temperatures below -50℃.
The silicon cells of the detectors, once cooled down, should be kept at low temperature to prevent their deterioration. These detectors have a total cost of about 1 billion NOK, and this is why we need a primary cooling system complying with stability and reliability to keep the detectors in continuous operation, without any interruption. In addition, there is an increasing concern in CERN to meet the environmental sustainability constraints due to the European F-gas regulation and a global consensus (Paris COP and Kigali agreement).
Project timeline
Publications
Barroca, Pierre, Armin Hafner, Bart Verlaat, Paolo Petagna, Wojciech Hulek, Lukasz Zwalinski, Pierre Hanf, Michele Battistin, Loic Davoine, and Daniella Teixeira. 2021. "An Ultra-Low Temperature Transcritical R744 Refrigeration System for Future Detectors at CERN LHC" Applied Sciences 11, no. 16: 7399. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11167399