Making Liquid Nitrogen From Scratch!

I used a nitrogen membrane and Stirling cryocooler to liquefy nitrogen out of the air. For this video I partnered with Starbucks to celebrate their Nitro Cold Brew. Order one here: Making liquid nitrogen is hard - in fact up until 150 years ago scientists doubted whether it was even possible to liquefy nitrogen. In 1823, At the royal institution in London, Michael Faraday first produced liquid chlorine, kind of accidentally by putting it under high pressure. He similarly liquefied ammonia. Borrowing a mixture from Thilorier in France, a combination of dry ice, snow and ether, he reached a temperature of -110C. By 1845 he used this mixture plus a hand pump to pressurize gases to liquefy all the known gases except six, which included oxygen and nitrogen. These became known as the “permanent” gases. A French Physicist Aimé compressed oxygen and nitrogen in tanks and then lowered them into the ocean over deep, where the pressure got up to 200
Back to Top