Hydrogen liquefaction and recirculation for vehicle refueling

A refueling system for vehicles, comprising:

• an inlet tube configured to fluidly connect to a container containing gaseous hydrogen;
• a cryocooler including a cold tip and a cold head, the cold tip configured to be driven to a hydrogen liquefaction temperature of between 20 and 25 K by the cold head;
• a condensation coil fluidly connected to the inlet tube to receive the gaseous hydrogen and thermally connected to the cryocooler cold tip;
• a nozzle fluidly connected to the condensation coil and configured to receive liquid hydrogen from the condensation of the gaseous hydrogen;
• a coupling mechanism fluidly connected to the nozzle to receive the liquid hydrogen wherein the nozzle is downwardly movable to fluidly connect from above to an upwards facing tank inlet of a vehicle;
• a gas recapture tube configured to fluidly connect to the tank inlet of the vehicle and configured to capture gas released from the tank;
• and
• an outlet tube fluidly connected to the gas recapture tube, and a recirculation loop tube fluidly connected to the outlet tube and the inlet tube.