I've been through this particular grinder from research into engineering development more than once. Years ago I ran a 2 year duration NSF funded project to develop a cryogenic refrigerator. Immediately following that I worked for the world's largest industrial gas industry in the cryogenics engineering group. I gained a lot of experience and also for instance designed and helped build a neon liquefier which was used commercially for 5 years. I didn't do this yesterday but it is part of my background.
Every physicist understands basic thermodynamics, usually calling it statistical physics.
This is not the sort of background I'm referring to here. I couldn't resist putting this in. The two of us used to have to sit up on top of the physics lab roof all night and collect data from the sky. The experiment worked. I received a mark of distinction.