
DIY Liquid Nitrogen Generator - Mark_B
http://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/2008/08/diy-liquid-nitrogen-generator.html
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ars
Just be careful about doing this without the nitrogen separation membrane.
Because liquid nitrogen boils before the liquid oxygen (or alternately it's
easier to condense liquid oxygen), you will end up with a container full of
liquid oxygen.

Now, while that can be fun to play with, it's pretty dangerous if you are not
expecting it.

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bh42
_Now, while that can be fun to play with, it's pretty dangerous if you are not
expecting it._

That's kind of an understatement when it comes to liquid oxygen.

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olefoo
"Information regarding these membrane units is easy to find on the internet,
but good luck buying one! They are nearly all produced for huge industrial
installations, and those manufacturers will not even return phone calls from
interested hobbyists."

I look forward to seeing the equivalent of sparkfun for homebrew cryogenics.

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sbierwagen
Interesting, though, for DIY, I was expecting him to do it the way Linde did,
back in 1894, that being:

    
    
      Compress some dry air.
      This will heat it up, so cool it down.
      Return it to atmospheric pressure.
    

While expanding, it, of course, gets even colder still, and condenses. Liquid
nitrogen is old tech, older than you might think.

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surlyadopter
Very cool. I love seeing people cobble together high tech/complex equipment in
their garage.

This could come in handy for the insane overclocking crowd and the arguably
insaner DIYBio crowd. The advantages of being able to store cell/other
cultures in LN should not be underestimated. Countdown to Homeland
Security/FBI overreaction in 3, 2...

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Jun8
What would you do with the liquid Nitrogen you generate? What is the hello
world app of cryogenics?

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cperciva
_What is the hello world app of cryogenics?_

Making ice cream.

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pbhjpbhj
I thought it was desiccating flowers.

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jgamman
safety tip for storage is a pressure relief valve on the tank and beware of
suffocation risks during/if a LN2 spill, gas volume of N2 may displace enough
air for asphyxiation to occur - good labs have O2 sensors in their LN2 storage
areas. never transport a thermos of LN2 in your car or a lift etc

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tjmaxal
seems like he got very lucky/spent a very long time searching ebay to find the
right parts to make this work. I don't think you would easily be able to
replicate this.

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surlyadopter
Very true, but just remember "what the eye of man can conceive, a cheap
factory in Shenzhen can achieve".

