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posted by martyb on Wednesday May 06 2020, @01:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the spreading-plasmas-everywhere-should-prove-exciting-in-a-thunderstorn dept.

Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas:

A team of researchers at the Institute of Technological Sciences at Wuhan University has demonstrated a prototype device that uses microwave air plasmas for jet propulsion. They describe the engine in the journal AIP Advances, from AIP Publishing.

"The motivation of our work is to help solve the global warming problems owing to humans' use of fossil fuel combustion engines to power machinery, such as cars and airplanes," said author Jau Tang, a professor at Wuhan University. "There is no need for fossil fuel with our design, and therefore, there is no carbon emission to cause greenhouse effects and global warming."

[...] The researchers created a plasma jet by compressing air into high pressures and using a microwave to ionize the pressurized air stream.

[...] The prototype plasma jet device can lift a 1-kilogram steel ball over a 24-millimeter diameter quartz tube, where the high-pressure air is converted into a plasma jet by passing through a microwave ionization chamber. To scale, the corresponding thrusting pressure is comparable to a commercial airplane jet engine.

By building a large array of these thrusters with high-power microwave sources, the prototype design can be scaled up to a full-sized jet. The authors are working on improving the efficiency of the device toward this goal.

The article, "Jet propulsion by microwave air plasma in the atmosphere," is authored by Dan Ye, Jun Li and Jau Tang. The article will appear in AIP Advances on May 5, 2020 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0005814). After that date, it can be accessed at http://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0005814.

Without information about how much electrical power is used, it's impossible to say if this could be a realistic replacement for fossil-fuel jets.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2020, @04:47PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2020, @04:47PM (#991100)

    They harness the power of viruses to provide thrust? Imagine a Boeing 737 Max powered with these... it'd be a toss up whether the viruses would kill you before the plane flew itself into the ground.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by ikanreed on Wednesday May 06 2020, @06:01PM (2 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 06 2020, @06:01PM (#991116) Journal

    They stopped the virus there. We're the ones living in a nation of plague bearing morons.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2020, @06:10PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2020, @06:10PM (#991117)

      Your nation does indeed have no less than one obvious moron.

      • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday May 07 2020, @12:50AM

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 07 2020, @12:50AM (#991208) Journal

        But that makes no sense, I'm not plague bearing yet.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2020, @06:27PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2020, @06:27PM (#991120)

    In fairness, Wuhan scientists have proven success at reducing global fossil fuel usage.

    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 06 2020, @07:24PM

      by Bot (3902) on Wednesday May 06 2020, @07:24PM (#991133) Journal

      And at thrusting things around.

      --
      Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2020, @10:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2020, @10:00PM (#991174)

    You mock, but Wuhan University is a highly regarded institution. Their wrestling team, the Wuhan Cooties, regularly finishes in the top 5 nationally.