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Category: energy – Page 177

Microwave thruster makes for clean-burning jet

Year 2020 face_with_colon_three Propellant free thruster.

I usually approach papers on the subject of alternative thrusters with a certain degree of cynicism. But we’ve finally been given a study on microwave thrusters that doesn’t rely on impossible physics. Instead, it used a plain old plasma thruster.

Plasma thrusters have generally been thought of as a means of propulsion in space, but now one has been designed to operate under atmospheric conditions. According to the researchers involved, it’s an air plasma thruster that has the potential to produce the same thrust as a commercial jet engine.

Combustible air?

A jet engine is just a form of internal combustion engine: combine fuel and air and compress the living hell out of the mixture. The resulting ignition rapidly heats the gas (most of which is nitrogen and doesn’t burn), forcing it to expand explosively. The rapid expansion can be used to power fans that generate thrust or used directly to provide thrust. But, the key point is that the gas needs to be rapidly heated to very high temperatures so that it can expand. The fuel of a jet engine is just the energy source for heat.

Electronic nanogenerator tattoos as human-machine interfaces

The field of epidermal electronics, or e-tattoos, covers a wide range of flexible and stretchable monitoring gadgets that are wearable directly on the skin. We have covered this area in multiple Nanowerk Spotlights, for instance stick-on epidermal electronics tattoo to measure UV exposure or tattoo-type biosensors based on graphene; and we also have posted a primer on electronic skin.

Taking the concept of e-tattoos a step further, integrating them with triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), for instance for health monitoring, could lead to next generation wearable nanogenerators and Internet-of-things devices worn directly on and powered by the skin.

In work reported in Advanced Functional Materials (“Triboelectric Nanogenerator Tattoos Enabled by Epidermal Electronic Technologies”), researchers report a tattoo-like TENG (TL-TENG) design with a thickness of tens of micrometers, that can interface with skin without additional adhesive layers, and be used for energy harvesting from daily activities.

Fusion power is ‘approaching’ reality thanks to a magnetic field breakthrough

Fusion power may be a more realistic prospect than you think. As Motherboard reports, researchers at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered that a new magnetic field setup more than tripled the energy output of the fusion reaction hotspot in experiments, “approaching” the level required for self-sustaining ignition in plasmas. The field was particularly effective at trapping heat within the hotspot, boosting the energy yield.

The hotspot’s creation involved blasting 200 lasers at a fusion fuel pellet made from hydrogen isotopes like deuterium and tritium. The resulting X-rays made the pellet implode and thus produce the extremely high pressures and heat needed for fusion. The team achieved their feat by wrapping a coil around a pellet made using special metals.

The notion of using magnets to heat the fuel isn’t new. University of Rochester scientists found they could use magnetism to their advantage in 2012. The Lawrence Livermore study was far more effective, however, producing 40 percent heat and more than three times the energy.

Rolls-Royce successfully tests hydrogen-powered jet engine

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) — Britain’s Rolls-Royce (RR.L) said it has successfully run an aircraft engine on hydrogen, a world aviation first that marks a major step towards proving the gas could be key to decarbonising air travel.

The ground test, using a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100-A regional aircraft engine, used green hydrogen created by wind and tidal power, the British company said on Monday.

Rolls and its testing programme partner easyJet (EZJ.L) are seeking to prove that hydrogen can safely and efficiently deliver power for civil aero engines.

Rolls-Royce tests hydrogen-fueled aircraft engine in aviation world first

British engineer Rolls-Royce has successfully used hydrogen instead of conventional jet fuel to power a modern aircraft engine in a world first for the aviation industry, according to the company.

The ground test, which took place at a government test facility at Boscombe Down, used green hydrogen generated by wind and tidal power from the Orkney Islands in Scotland.

Rolls-Royce used a converted AE 2100-A turboprop engine that powers civil and military aircraft to conduct the test in partnership with easyJet.

In a first, Rolls-Royce and easyJet successfully test a hydrogen-powered aircraft engine

The test is a stepping stone to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

In what can be considered a promising first step towards transforming the aviation industry to become carbon-neutral, a project led by Rolls Royce and easyJet has successfully tested a modern-day jet engine that runs solely on hydrogen.

The prototype for the experiment, which was conducted at a test facility at the Ministry of Defence Boscombe Down, U.K., was a commonly-used Rolls-Royce AE-2100A regional aircraft engine. The turbine was supplied with ‘green’ hydrogen, which was made by splitting water into its constituent components at European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkney Islands, U.K.

“We are pushing the boundaries to discover the zero carbon possibilities of hydrogen, which could help reshape the future of flight,” Grazia Vittadini, chief technology officer of Rolls-Royce, said in a statement.

A new analysis of the early universe sheds new light on the “cosmic dawn” of the universe

The absence of the 21-centimeter hydrogen line allowed scientists to determine specific properties of the earliest galaxies in the universe.

An international group of astronomers, led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, just shed new light on the cosmic dawn of the universe, a press statement reveals.

The cosmic dawn is a very early period of the universe, during which the first stars and galaxies formed. The researchers used data from India’s SARAS3 radio telescope to analyze this period of the cosmos and determine mass and energy output limits for the first stars and galaxies.

For the first time, Tesla just completed a full load 500-mile trip with its Semi truck

Tesla Semi carried 81,000 pounds for 500 miles on a single charge.

Just a few days before Tesla begins shipping the truck, Elon Musk has verified that Tesla Semi, the company’s Class 8 semi-truck, has successfully completed a crucial voyage.

Although there is no reason to question the outcome, it would be interesting to learn more about speed and energy usage. We are pretty interested in seeing some impartial vehicle tests.

Tesla.

Elon Musk recently tweeted that a Tesla Semi completed an 800-kilometer (500-mile) drive carrying 81,000 pounds (36,740 kilograms), which is nearly 100 percent of its Gross Combination Weight (GCW) of 82,000 pounds.

Higher speeds in free-space optical communications in the midinfrared band

Telecommunications have reshaped many aspects of our lives over the past few decades by providing incredibly convenient ways to share and access information. One of the most important enablers for this transformation has been the adoption and improvement of broadband technologies, which cram enormous amounts of data over wide frequency bands to achieve unprecedented transfer speeds. Today, most large cities have fiber optics-based networks that distribute high-speed internet directly to every home.

Unfortunately, it is not always feasible to deploy fiber optic links to and , due to the associated costs and civil engineering work required. Such places could benefit from a different approach to optical broadband communications: free-space optics. The main idea in free-space optical (FSO) communications is to set up aligned transmitter–receiver pairs where needed and use air as the medium to carry the signals.

While there are still many challenges to address in FSO systems (such as low energy efficiency, impact of weather, and high background noise), scientists worldwide are continuously trying out new ways of solving these issues and achieving higher data rates.

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