Making Liquid Methane (and blowing up my Cryocooler)

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In this video I'm going to Liquify Methane / Natural gas with my Mixed-Gas
Joule-Thomson Cryocooler. Methane liquifies at -162C under ambient
pressure, but at elevated pressures, it can be condensed as high as -85C.
In this experiment I'll condense some at -118C / 12 bar of pressure.
My cryocooler was meant for making liquid air or liquid nitrogen, but I
figured I'd try liquefying some methane along the way to see if there's
any pitfalls / issues with making liquefied natural gas (LNG), which there
definitely were.
The joule-thomson cycle works by compressing gas and then expanding it,
which forces it to drop its temperature. By back-flowing the cold low
pressure gas back over the high pressure gas in a counterflow heat
exchanger, the cryocooler creates a positive feedback loop that drives the
temperature down into the cryogenic range. The lowest temperature I
recorded was -180C.
Using pure methane or pure nitrogen would require hundreds of atmospheres
of pressure in the cycle to reach the desired temperature, but by using a
mixture of gases with different boiling points (similar to an
"autocascade" refrigeration system), the same effect can be achieved at
just 20-30 bar which a repurposed air conditioner compressor can handle
without any problem. For liquefying Methane, a gas mix of Propane,
Ethylene, Methane, Argon and Nitrogen is used. The same components are
used for liquefying Nitrogen, but in different proportions to optimize
heat lift at lower temperatures.
If you want to learn more about the joule-thomson refrigeration cycle,
check out my previous videos on the subject:
• Joule-Thompson Cryocooler
• Joule-Thomson Cryocool...
Liquid Methane / LNG is becoming used more frequently both for power
generation and vehicles because it has an energy density similar to
gasoline/diesel/kerosene, but is extremely easy to ignite/burn and burns
very clean. In the near future, hardware will be delivered to the moon via
LNG-burning rockets (starship). At the hobby level, I don't see much use
for it, but it's a fun science experiment since this is technically the
first cryogenic liquid I've produced.
Music Used:
Mining by Moonlight - Kevin MacLeod
Backbay Lounge - Kevin MacLeod
Apero Hour - Kevin MacLeod
George Street Shuffle - Kevin MacLeod

[@HyperspacePirate]

BTW the convict thing was a joke. I haven't been to prison (yet).

[@SideshowBen206]

🙄

[@TheEvilAdministrator]

lol

[@paolo69]

Or do you? Vsauce music intensifies

[@vasishthdave3137]

Yet here is a keyword

[@commandingangel]

Completely legal with an EPA Section 608 Universal license...🏴‍☠

[@johnblanchard8601]

Remember kids don't try this at home......go to the neighbors house.....

[@user-pk9xo1vn7v]

Nice

[@paranoiia8]

That's why we have a garage... Yes, it's not for cars 😅

[@kiwi7556]

This comment made me chuckle 😂

[@sammy5576]

That's what my music teacher said, about home made fireworks

[@nunyabisnass1141]

That reminded me of when "hand tool rescue" rebuilt a flame thrower, and he was testing it in his front yard. It then cut away to his wife saying "I'm going to fu*king kill him" while looking out the window.

[@Grimbach]

"...Some unqualified ex-convict on youtube who uses stupid MS Paint animations." The Hyperspace Pirate lore just got a lot deeper.

[@GRBtutorials]

Yeah, I didn’t know he used MS Paint!

[@jc5445]

There has to be an interesting story behind this

[@TamaHAHA]

Well we never have to worry about political statements on the channel since he can't vote! /S

[@GingerHead.]

I need to learn this lore

[@R.Daneel]

The safety warning is legit. Look up house natural gas explosions. Think 'crater filled with finely-shredded house'.

[@gazehound]

I knew these explosions were bad but you were seriously not kidding about "finely-shredded".

[@karoma7898]

JEEEEEZUS CHRIST! 'crater filled with finely-shredded house' is an amazingly accurate description!

[@nathan-shearer]

I've seen a natural gas exploded house from a leak. There was pink insulation all over the neighbourhood and the house was deleted from the lot. There was nothing left but parts of the basement foundation.

[@R.Daneel]

Yeah. One of the few demolitions you can clean up with a rake.

[@M0UAW_IO83]

Look up LNG ship explosion too, those ships go boom and shred ports.

[@jammysmears4077]

"I live in Florida." *Plugs his household gas supply into some random gadget on the garage floor*. Now, I'm European and no anthropologist but, from what I've read on the internet, this checks out.

[@matthewnardin7304]

The emergency pressure relief burrito operated flawlessly.

[@amosbackstrom5366]

Way safer than an end cap projectile

[@thebamplayer]

Now you need a way to make liquid oxygen, and with that, you can make your own rocket.

[@xyzero1682]

I think he did that, or at least he can make nitrogen and freeze open air.

[@defenestrated23]

BPS Space crossover?

[@xenomancer1]

LOX is easiest to make with LN2 since it boils a few degrees hotter at ambient pressure. All you have to do is leave some LN2 exposed to the atmosphere and it will form LOX in situ. A full red 16oz solo cup of LN2 (insulated inside a styrofoam cup) will yield approximately 4oz of LOX over the course of ~20min in 70 degF standard lab air. My lab was using LN2 to cryofracture SEM samples and (as the LCHO, or "safety guy") I had to purge the overnight pressure build-up on the vapor side of the high pressure storage tank and then purge about 2 liters of ambient pressure liquid to blow out any ice that formed from water diffusing in during the vapor side purge. Suffice to say, I had plenty of spare LN2 to play with for a while. Some vids of it dancing about in the lab hood should still be on my channel somewhere. Making LOX was a fun little side project, as was ozonating it and seeing just how high a concentration could be allowed before it got angry (all ozone is always angry at all times). Pure LOX can be made by distilling off the N2 from the liquid mix in situ. Simply combine many aliquots of collected LN2/LOX mix and allow the N2 to escape. This cascade will bring you arbitrarily close to pure LOX. Most trace gasses will freeze out and a coffee filter can be used to remove them. Just keep all sources of ignition away. Pure oxygen makes just about everything containing carbon explosively flammable. Also, oxygen can be quite toxic. Don't breath the pure stuff if you don't have to.

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

Make your own bomb if the flow speed is too high.

[@MikeyMobes]

thats easy. Just pull air through a schlenk/gas trap cooled with liquid nitrogen for long enough and boom you get liquid oxygen

[@TheWiseGuyzz]

Wooooo! Mr. Dr. Fridge man uploaded!

[@joejane9977]

always entertainment of great quality

[@jhonbus]

Another great vid. I feel I have to say two things that you probably already know, but I'll feel better having said them: 1: Eliminating ignition sources is not enough safety. You need to be ensuring that you're not forming an explosive mixture in the first place, because sooner or later an atmosphere that can ignite, _will_ ignite, either through an unexpected ignition source (bear in mind we could be talking unexpectedly catalytic materials, not just something above the autoignition temp) or just through the Maxwell-Boltzman energy lottery. 2: It's pronounced "car-no", it's French.

[@oiytd5wugho]

Exactly, It's French, we can disrespect the pronounciation

[@jhonbus]

@@oiytd5wugho 100% fair point

[@asandax6]

I saw a video where a guy drove over an oil spill on the road and one guy commented that "driving over an oil spill is not only a traction problem but a fire hazard". Most of the replies were people telling the commenter he was dumb and that it is near impossible to make the oil catch on fire by driving over it. I am now currently worried by the self centered confidence of people thinking nothing will go wrong because they know better.

[@MSP_TechLab]

Based on video where Hyperspace Pirate produced refrigerant from pee! I was a little worried about how he's going to collect methane 😂.

[@JuniorJunison]

That's a lot of farting for only 100 grams of methane

[@siberx4]

As soon as I saw the forbidden burrito, the title started making a lot of sense...

[@defenestrated23]

HSP sees gaseous gasses at STP and says, "Not on my watch!"

[@ParallelLogic]

10:16 "Everything electronic was turned off", glad you kept the camera on though, lol

[@Pants4096]

Exploding metal burritos is one thing... but surely you can't just casually mention "ex-convict" and leave us hanging!? Story time!!!?

[@mattgayda2840]

Lots of people have been arrested for doing "chemistry" in their garage 😂

[@lizardkeeper100]

judging from the projects he builds I bet it isn't that interesting of a story especially since he lives in florida.

[@friedrichvonsnatch3501]

​@@mattgayda2840 Big difference between being arrested and convicted

[@Jinakaks]

My guess is that perhaps it's related to piracy? Considering his name "hyperspace pirate". Perhaps he got arrested and convicted of online piracy of videos or games or something

[@yanikb.1312]

​@@Jinakaks that would be incredibly based

[@Michael2137.]

14:19 Upgrade from a burrito to a pipe bomb, brilliant. Love your vids.

[@mrgreenguy]

I like watching the progress in these videos! They're all very interesting

[@gazehound]

no way! it's lab synthesized nigel!

[@aurorajunior6328]

I want to See This Colab lol

[@sciencoking]

Bro will not be defeated by air

[@niaschimnoski882]

Bro said I will put the air in its place.

[@bkarr8525]

bro

[@DD-DD-DD]

"Florida man blows house off foundation making youtube videos"

[@ericlotze7724]

Some Bits from a fellow Alternative Fuels Nerd: - I would 100% be down for a series where you try and run a Natural Gas / CNG Generator on a LNG System you make! (“Adsorbed Natural Gas” is a thing to check out too) - I mentioned this in my safety bit, but for not just that but also procedure/system design checking up on the Code Books and Academic Literature (that is if you haven’t already) for LPG, LNG, Cryogens/Odd HVAC Stuff etc may be worth a look. Sidenote “LNG Train” is a common term for a unit at a plant that makes the stuff (they can have multiple for more throughput) - FINALLY Check out “Dimethyl Ether”, it stores like Propane, Works well as Diesel (Cetane Value is higher than diesel, and as with Autogas (ie lpg in Spark ignition engines) it evaporating quicker can help with fuel injector effectiveness (also can condense air/generate boost *i think* ). It is made Catalytically, often from Methanol, so given your experience, i THINK you could totally make this. And again a series running it in a cheap amazon/ebay single cylinder diesel engine would be REALLY cool. Just a thought from a MAJOR DME nerd lol. Hope this helps/was interesting and keep up your great work!

[@ericlotze7724]

11:20 Your built quality *IS* improving, so your work hasn’t been for nothing and legit credit where credit is due!

[@msmith2961]

14:15 - next episode, mad cryo-cooler guy is gonna make an LNG pipe bömb 😯

[@realcygnus]

One of the best channels out there IMO. Making cold is quite an interesting branch of engineering.

[@Khal_Rheg0]

Yay! I was getting withdrawal symptoms!

[@SodiumInteresting]

I like the dog and blackboard picture

[@LamantinoElettronico]

0:48 In some countries compressed natural gas is a semi common form of vehicle propulsion, with cars using it being very energy efficient (good mileage per kg of methane) but not able to hold much. Liquefied natural gas is also used but only on heavy trucks and buses

[@victormiranda9163]

I decided your burrito was not going to hold pressure... and then said self, he must know it will be low pressure. love it.

[@V.E.D.Gaming]

Babe wake up Hyperspacepirate uploaded a new video

[@newklear2k]

I was literally going to type this exact comment.

[@V.E.D.Gaming]

@@newklear2k first come first serve

[@violaanderson175]

Fridge guy

[@crabbyboi9127]

if my gf did this I'd marry her on the spot

[@multiarray2320]

​@@V.E.D.Gaming technical computer science flashbacks intensify

[@letsburn00]

You need to let your refrigant pass through about half your exchanger, which will liquefy against the heavier hydrocarbons. Run it into a seperstor, then let the liquified refrigerant cool the bottom of the cooler. The stuff that doesn't liquefy is the lighter side. Let that run through the whole thing, which will make it liquefy and just use that against the coldest side. You'll end up much colder. Yes, people who are annoying me for NDA violation, Ive checked. There are google search PFDs with this design visible. Also, cold spots at the bottom means you have too many heaviest, including butane.

[@user-xe8oi5oq6c]

Its autocascading cryocooler.

[@icequark1568]

Precursor to NCSB video. Love it

[@combycat]

You have high quality content and humor, a short upload span, and I just like you as a content creator.

[@jamesharrell4360]

35k in 11 hours... My man! Im glad to be here watching you.

[@Tom-cf2wk]

12:01 I don't know if I just have good headphones. But the background noise in this video was messing with me. Sounded like someone was banging around in my house.

[@klausnielsen1537]

❤ your videos, the presentation and the humor is just an amalgamate of top notch science at garage level budget. I still have to figure out how you pull it off and actually have time to sleep 😅

[@Gersberms]

Refrigeration has always been one of those things I knew very little about. I still do, but now I have a sense of how much I don't know. Maybe one of these days I can actually diagnose my AC issues without paying someone to do it for me.

[@empmachine]

@13:25 Try suspension for thermal insulation! like some fishing wire and a small rig (or even thin metal wire fastened to ceramic coated something). It can be more trouble than it's worth, but sometimes it works like a charm.

[@cetyl2626]

This is such an underated channel!

[@LaLaLand.Germany]

You´re the only channel who´s ad´s I actually watch! Thanks for the fart gas efforts, all Your efforts btw. Please don´t blow up, I dig this stuff.

[@univisiontech1]

Woohoo, another Hyperspace Pirate video! Thank you for the great content brother, love this series. Question... doesn't the glass wool make your hands itch like crazy? I get flashbacks to crawling through my attic space to insulate it with fiber glass batts /shudders

[@wtuwotl]

Yay, new video !

[@survivaldudes9610]

Always excited to see what you've been up too! Great as always

[@bairfamilyfarm1336]

They're pricy, but go to a nearby HVAC supply house. Some of them will sell to the general public, get 5 percent brazing rod. The silver content is lower than others, and it requires more heat and prep. But, it'll stand up to pressures high enough to ruin a compressor's internal bypass. That's somewhere between 400 and 500PSI. I've never had issues with 15 percent silver solder, but its actually more expensive than 5 percent, melts at a lower temps, but it's softer so it may not stand up to higher pressure.

[@Island.dweller]

I am more than happy to press pause on anything I am doing to watch another of your videos Great work

[@elephin]

Love your videos, keep it up! I'm so greatful i get one of your videos every month.

[@memejeff]

Great stuff man. Looking forward to seeing your next video. Getting super close to the end goal.

[@mrmatt2525able]

Damn man another great video! I loves this series

[@KegRocket]

In the rocket world we often hear about liquid methane being a particularly "frothy" cryogen. It really is! Awesome to see it visually during the beaker pours.

[@4rph3n]

The shot of the glass burning is great!

[@CodeParade]

This series keeps evolving. I hope one day you take it to it's logical conclusion: Liquid Helium!

[@andresyesidmorenovilla7888]

Your videos are awesome man! The amount of effort you put into these projects is insane. Keep up the great work🎉

[@HobbesNJoe]

Love your posts!

[@beautifulsmall]

Hyperspace Pilot, Cold is the unexplored realm. Fascinating and love the numbers. Edwards Deming "without data youre just another person with an opinion", and HP numbers = data is good enough for me. Closing the loop on a calculation by coming at it from multiple directions , beautiful work. a few glass beads in the vacuum chamber before freezing the methane might lift off the base, just a guess. Inspiring channel.

[@GhostOfSnuffles]

If you don't like dealing with glass wool you can use vermiculite instead, it's a good enough insulator for the job and is dirt cheap at hardware stores. You could build the box out of foam and foil tape, drop in your coil, then fill in the bulk with the vermiculite.

[@johnfletcher264]

For a high pressure compressor you should look into pcp air rifle compressors

[@Sugarsail1]

I can't believe you did this indoors and are still alive.

[@mikect05]

I just have to say thank you and congratulations! I normally watch videos on 1.5-2x speed. This video is the first ever that I am actually slowing down to watch. 💪🏽👏🏼

[@ShafaqIftikhar-pw9ld]

Absolutely beautiful insight!!!! Love it. Thank you for the upload ❤

[@infernalsorcery7923]

What a gem

[@RW1LD]

Ohhh I wanted to do this so bad for a LNG / Diesel hybrid project. It's so cool seeing someone going down that rabbit hole!

[@rovhalgrencparselstedt8343]

Here in Sweden CNG(Compressed Natural Gas) is almost as common of a fuel for cars as gasoline and diesel, especially within the municipality, they even see it as a green alternative alongside with electric cars to gasoline and diesel. In my city it is beeing produced from the food waste fraction, at my local "landfill" recycling station.

[@duncanfreeman5436]

Very impressive!

[@MrFaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

I like the burrito design. The large weak seam makes it less likely to detonate if something is going wrong

[@Barnaclebeard]

Had a toke and totally forgot what channel I was watching right up to "make it in your garage" came on the screen.

[@nucleochemist]

When I used to make solid nitrogen from putting liquid nitrogen in a vacuum chamber I'd put the dish on a foam kitchen dishwashing pad. The kind of really soft yellow polyurethane type foam. It works better than syrofoam because sometimes when styrofoam expands the dish can fall over.

[@St0RM33]

Of course the burrito exploded 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@NiccyVan]

Great content. I really enjoyed that the only CAD model I have seen through out your videos is showing how to put a end cap on a pipe.

[@BobWidlefish]

14:04 it’s funny, as soon as you showed that burrito reservoir I yelled at the screen “there’s no way those ends will hold!” Not exactly an Einstein observation, I know, it’s just funny later in the same video it did the thing. :) You’re amazing - keep up the great work!

[@7177YT]

Delightful!

[@luigisaporito9350]

complimenti, ottimo lavoro

[@blakes8901]

Ahhhhh perfect. I love to start my day with a bit of refrigeration content.

[@Alexelectricalengineering]

This is really awesome 😎👍👍👍

[@TT-lf5hi]

There is no need for a moisture filter between the compressor and the natural gas. Natural gas is usually dried to a very low moisture content to avoid condensations in the gas pipeline.

[@PplsChampion]

8:45 that's a classy bathroom right there

[@grezamisoit]

Thanks!

[@V_Electronics]

Maybe you should try welding the cryocooler so it can resist more pressure? Epic video as always, stay safe!

[@murkyseb]

That was really interesting

[@jacquesb5248]

very interesting!

[@FlaccidFrog]

One correction! Liquid hydrogen does not escape through metals as freely as you stated. While it is is true that hydrogen does diffuse through materials in the gas phase at a larger rate than most molecules, the same cannot be said for the liquid phase. In a liquid form hydrogen actually swells on the atomic scale, while at the same time the solid lattice shrinks. Therefore in a liquid form, you won't see nearly the same rate of diffusion through solids (I studied and ran liquid hydrogen diffusion research experiments in grad school). We're talking 20 years to fill a ping pong ball type of slow. Overall have been loving your videos! Keep it up!

[@AnalogDude_]

BMW states your tank will be empty in 17 days regarding their newest 7 series on hydrogen. Your can't park this car in garage or carport.

[@alext6933]

Wake up Mom hyperspacepirate posted a new video

[@markhivin8670]

Also remember that glass wool is moisture permeable, so at low temp. it condense inside insulation making less effective insulating material. Use Polyurethane Foam for or styrofoam .

[@seabeepirate]

I always knew this channel would go on to rocket science.

[@tharsis6435]

Can't wait for the solid methane vid

[@404-ThisUsernameIsAlreadyTaken]

"If that got on my hands without gloves, I'd probably end up with a pretty awful case of frostbite" >proceeds to dump liquid frostbite into a thermos without gloves bruh

[@agentp6621]

I was thinking of creative ways to go off grid and maintain pure self sufficiency without having to do everything by candlelight and silly stuff like that. So I looked at biogas as a regenerative fuel source. It contains methane, CO2, hydrogen sulfide, water vapor and other trace gases. So I found simple ways to remove everything but methane. I then considered condensing it into a liquid propane is. I then found that is insane as illustrated by this video. It had me realizing why rural areas are supplied with propane and urban areas with NG. NG is plentiful. If every home in America had a pipe running NG to it like powerlines. That’s a ton of gas filling the NG pipes. So much unused gas. So it’s more practical to have the two most common fuels used the way they are. Meeting the need at the cheapest prices possible. Btw biogas is so labor intensive. The inputs rarely equal the outputs. Y

[@Lumen_Obscurum]

One interesting thing you could do with this setup potentially is make methane clathrate, or flammable ice.

[@Bulbasauros]

Hello Mr Refrigerator Guy. This is fucking awesome.

[@xyzero1682]

cool stuff

[@notamouse5630]

1:42 you forgot the biggest hazard of hydrogen: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_isomers_of_hydrogen "If orthohydrogen is not removed from rapidly liquified hydrogen, without a catalyst, the heat released during its decay can boil off as much as 50% of the original liquid. " That means if you liquefy hydrogen quickly, it can escape through solid material... with gratuitous and destructive force.

[@seankearney7070]

Hell yeah

[@spacebeetle]

For the next video, you could get an ozone gas generator and try to liquefy it. That'd be a multi-million-view video right there, but also very dangerous 😅

[@zevakikel]

Cool video! Almost -180°C cool! :D

[@justinwood2000]

I'm an industrial refrigeration tech working with NH3 and CO2 cascade systems. This might be one of the best videos I have ever seen. What piqued your interest in working with cryogenics?

[@gibraelkotwal6894]

When i saw the burrito , i knew there was a world of pain

[@HobbesNJoe]

Radiant heating becomes a larger issue as the differences in temperature (room vs cryo) become larger. I’d love to see your setup inside a large chest freezer!

[@TheTransporter007]

Your local G&E company must *LOVE* you. 😅

[@gustaveluna9349]

thank you for keeping greenhouse effect more efficient at your scale. What are trying to proove? Help me to understand please.

[@MattsAwesomeStuff]

Loving the journey. Lost the map. Just following along until you get to the results.

[@mrlithium69]

I knew that burrito was gonna blow. glad you're ok

[@SolarSeeker45]

I wonder if it would be possible to take advantage of phase separation to be able change refrigerant mix while the cryocooler is operating. Build it like a separatory funnel So you get down to the methane liquifaction temperature and dump the liquid into a storage tank, then start introducing argon to make up the difference in pressure drop.

[@JustAnotherAlchemist]

"Florida man turns farts into ice water that burns."

[@nicolocatanese3477]

You should do a collab with linus tech tips and make a cryocooler for PC cooling

[@Spy653]

haven't they already done cryocooling?

[@nicolocatanese3477]

@@Spy653 they made a TEC cooler and some using A/C refrigeration systems but i don't think with an actual diy cryocooler