GTT Membrane Chosen for Liquid Argon Storage

 

Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT), a designer of membrane containment systems for the maritime transportation and storage of liquefied natural gas (LNGLF) (LNG), said its membrane system has been chosen by the particle physics scientific consortium LBNO-DEMO, including European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) to be employed in a small tank to contain liquid argon in order to qualify it for future large scale implementations.

 

GTT has been selected for its capacity to provide a customized solution for LBNO-DEMO: a small rectangular liquid argon cryostat with a very high insulation performance. The Membrane tank is also designed for integration of a time projection chamber (TPC).

 

The scientific consortium intends to study particle physics, particularly neutrinos, which are the fundamental constituents of matter and the forces acting between them. In that scope, the new liquid argon cryostat will serve as an experimental device for validating the feasibility, before implementing it in much larger scale.

 

Philippe Berterottière, Chairman and CEO of GTT said, "Our cooperation with CERN demonstrates the GTT ability to offer Membrane technology for other liquefied gases such as Argon."

 

Prof. Dr. André Rubbia, from ETH Zurich and spokesperson of the scientific consortium, said, "Detecting neutrinos is a very tricky business: neutrinos rarely interact with other particles of matter and we will eventually need to build very large liquid argon chambers of tens of thousands of cubic meters to truly study and understand them."