Superconductivity can pave the way to a carbon-neutral future and revolutionize every sector, from healthcare to transportation, according to engineers at Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions.
A technical paper released by the Japanese firm on Tuesday said that superconducting materials can create electromagnets that generate powerful magnetic fields over large areas.
However, this is impossible with electromagnets made from copper wire. Hence, there is a lot of interest in superconducting in fields as diverse as medical care, transportation, and manufacturing.
“When an electric current passes through a conductor, it meets resistance, caused by its electrons colliding with the atoms of the conductor. This generates heat, and power is lost. However, if you cool some metals and compounds to extremely low temperatures, this resistance disappears,” said Tsutomu Kurusu, a superconductivity engineer at Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions, in the technical paper.
“If one uses a superconductor in a power line, they will get lossless transmission of electricity,” added Kurusu.
Dominant Force
Moreover, permanent magnets generate a magnetic force of about 2 teslas near their poles, while with superconducting magnets, the figure is above 40 teslas and over a wider area.
“This characteristic is why superconducting magnets are used in magnetic resonance imaging for diagnostic imaging of the body, heavy-ion therapy equipment, ITER’s experiment fusion reactor, and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which found the Higgs boson particle,” explained Kurusu.
Strong magnetic fields are essential in many areas, and superconducting magnets also play important roles in manufacturing. There’s a good chance that they produced silicon wafers for the semiconductors in the electronic products.
Semiconductors are etched onto highly pure silicon wafers sliced from large, monocrystalline silicon ingots. In forming the ingots, superconducting magnets control convection and the crystal’s temperature gradient, improving the ingot’s quality and the wafers cut from it.
“Applying superconductivity will realize much more efficient energy transmission and other applications extend into fields that include medicine and transportation,” the paper said.
It’s a technology with immense promise, and there’s a lot of anticipation about its broader application and the benefits it will bring.
Emerging Applications
Areas of anticipated demand included high-speed maglev trains, motors for next-generation aircraft, power transmission cables, superconducting magnetic energy storage, fusion power generation, and MRI and heavy-ion therapy.
Superconducting technology could serve as the foundation for a carbon-neutral society due to its high degree of compatibility with hydrogen energy and renewable energy sources.
The question is, where does one get hydrogen? Current plans in Japan call for importing it from overseas, and the way to do that is as liquid hydrogen.
Now, liquid hydrogen boils and vaporizes at 20.4K, so it must be transported at an extremely low temperature of 20K. It is a scenario where superconductivity can help to provide answers.
The overall vision for effectively harnessing liquid hydrogen toward achieving carbon neutrality is the Hydrogen and Superconductivity Complex, promoted by the Council on Competitiveness Nippon. It is currently involved in multilateral discussions aiming to make that vision a reality.
“By 2050, we expect to achieve carbon neutrality. Hope lies in technologies that minimize power loss and are environmentally friendly. As we continue to search for ways to reduce greenhouse gases nationwide, various initiatives are being pursued to ensure superconductivity makes a crucial contribution,” says Kurusu.
