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Fossil Fuel-free Jet Propulsion With Air Plasmas
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Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas [eurekalert.org]:
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2020 -- Humans depend on fossil fuels as their primary energy source, especially in transportation. However, fossil fuels are both unsustainable and unsafe, serving as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and leading to adverse respiratory effects and devastation due to global warming.
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."
Beyond solid, liquid and gas, plasma is the fourth state of matter, consisting of an aggregate of charged ions. It exists naturally in places like the sun's surface and Earth's lightning, but it can also be generated. The researchers created a plasma jet by compressing air into high pressures and using a microwave to ionize the pressurized air stream.
This method differs from previous attempts to create plasma jet thrusters in one key way. Other plasma jet thrusters, like NASA's Dawn space probe, use xenon plasma, which cannot overcome the friction in Earth's atmosphere, and are therefore not powerful enough for use in air transportation. Instead, the authors' plasma jet thruster generates the high-temperature, high-pressure plasma in situ using only injected air and electricity.
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.
"Our results demonstrated that such a jet engine based on microwave air plasma can be a potentially viable alternative to the conventional fossil fuel jet engine," Tang said.
###
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. [scitation.org]
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
AIP Advances is an open access journal publishing in all areas of physical sciences--applied, theoretical, and experimental. The inclusive scope of AIP Advances makes it an essential outlet for scientists across the physical sciences. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/adv. [scitation.org]
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
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Larry Frum
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Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas [eurekalert.org]JournalAIP AdvancesKeywords Multimedia Related Journal Article http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0005814 [doi.org]
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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. [scitation.org]
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
AIP Advances is an open access journal publishing in all areas of physical sciences--applied, theoretical, and experimental. The inclusive scope of AIP Advances makes it an essential outlet for scientists across the physical sciences. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/adv. [scitation.org]
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Print E-Mail
Media Contact
Larry Frum
media@aip.org [mailto]
301-209-3090http://www.aip.org [aip.org]
Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas [eurekalert.org]JournalAIP AdvancesKeywords Multimedia Related Journal Article http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0005814 [doi.org]
- UCLA researchers develop chemistry needed to create marijuana breathalyzer University of California - Los Angeles [eurekalert.org]
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- Four years of calculations lead to new insights into muon anomaly DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory [eurekalert.org]
- Identifying light sources using artificial intelligence American Institute of Physics [eurekalert.org]
View all in Chemistry & Physics [eurekalert.org]
- Already vulnerable, gig economy workers in SF suffer during pandemic, survey finds University of California - Santa Cruz [eurekalert.org]
- Yellow-legged gull adapts its annual lifecycle to human activities to get food University of Barcelona [eurekalert.org]
- Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas American Institute of Physics [eurekalert.org]
- Simulations forecast nationwide increase in human exposure to extreme climate events DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory [eurekalert.org]
View all latest news releases
Copyright © 2020 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Latest News Releases RSS Feed [eurekalert.org]
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- @EurekAlert [twitter.com]
- facebook.com/EurekAlert [facebook.com]
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Copyright © 2020 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2020 -- Humans depend on fossil fuels as their primary energy source, especially in transportation. However, fossil fuels are both unsustainable and unsafe, serving as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and leading to adverse respiratory effects and devastation due to global warming.
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."
Beyond solid, liquid and gas, plasma is the fourth state of matter, consisting of an aggregate of charged ions. It exists naturally in places like the sun's surface and Earth's lightning, but it can also be generated. The researchers created a plasma jet by compressing air into high pressures and using a microwave to ionize the pressurized air stream.
This method differs from previous attempts to create plasma jet thrusters in one key way. Other plasma jet thrusters, like NASA's Dawn space probe, use xenon plasma, which cannot overcome the friction in Earth's atmosphere, and are therefore not powerful enough for use in air transportation. Instead, the authors' plasma jet thruster generates the high-temperature, high-pressure plasma in situ using only injected air and electricity.
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.
"Our results demonstrated that such a jet engine based on microwave air plasma can be a potentially viable alternative to the conventional fossil fuel jet engine," Tang said.
###
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. [scitation.org]
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
AIP Advances is an open access journal publishing in all areas of physical sciences--applied, theoretical, and experimental. The inclusive scope of AIP Advances makes it an essential outlet for scientists across the physical sciences. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/adv. [scitation.org]
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Print E-Mail
Media Contact
Larry Frum
media@aip.org [mailto]
301-209-3090http://www.aip.org [aip.org]
Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas [eurekalert.org]JournalAIP AdvancesKeywords Multimedia Related Journal Article http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0005814 [doi.org]
- UCLA researchers develop chemistry needed to create marijuana breathalyzer University of California - Los Angeles [eurekalert.org]
- Heating could be the best way to disinfect N95 masks for reuse American Chemical Society [eurekalert.org]
- Four years of calculations lead to new insights into muon anomaly DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory [eurekalert.org]
- Identifying light sources using artificial intelligence American Institute of Physics [eurekalert.org]
View all in Chemistry & Physics [eurekalert.org]
- Already vulnerable, gig economy workers in SF suffer during pandemic, survey finds University of California - Santa Cruz [eurekalert.org]
- Yellow-legged gull adapts its annual lifecycle to human activities to get food University of Barcelona [eurekalert.org]
- Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas American Institute of Physics [eurekalert.org]
- Simulations forecast nationwide increase in human exposure to extreme climate events DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory [eurekalert.org]
View all latest news releases
Copyright © 2020 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Latest News Releases RSS Feed [eurekalert.org]
- All EurekAlert! RSS Feeds [eurekalert.org]
- @EurekAlert [twitter.com]
- facebook.com/EurekAlert [facebook.com]
- Help / FAQ [eurekalert.org]
- Disclaimer [eurekalert.org]
- Privacy Policy [eurekalert.org]
- Terms & Conditions [eurekalert.org]
- Contact EurekAlert! [eurekalert.org]
Copyright © 2020 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
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. [scitation.org]
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
AIP Advances is an open access journal publishing in all areas of physical sciences--applied, theoretical, and experimental. The inclusive scope of AIP Advances makes it an essential outlet for scientists across the physical sciences. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/adv. [scitation.org]
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Print E-Mail
Media Contact
Larry Frum
media@aip.org [mailto]
301-209-3090http://www.aip.org [aip.org]
Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas [eurekalert.org]JournalAIP AdvancesKeywords Multimedia Related Journal Article http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0005814 [doi.org]
- UCLA researchers develop chemistry needed to create marijuana breathalyzer University of California - Los Angeles [eurekalert.org]
- Heating could be the best way to disinfect N95 masks for reuse American Chemical Society [eurekalert.org]
- Four years of calculations lead to new insights into muon anomaly DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory [eurekalert.org]
- Identifying light sources using artificial intelligence American Institute of Physics [eurekalert.org]
View all in Chemistry & Physics [eurekalert.org]
- Already vulnerable, gig economy workers in SF suffer during pandemic, survey finds University of California - Santa Cruz [eurekalert.org]
- Yellow-legged gull adapts its annual lifecycle to human activities to get food University of Barcelona [eurekalert.org]
- Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas American Institute of Physics [eurekalert.org]
- Simulations forecast nationwide increase in human exposure to extreme climate events DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory [eurekalert.org]
View all latest news releases
Copyright © 2020 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Latest News Releases RSS Feed [eurekalert.org]
- All EurekAlert! RSS Feeds [eurekalert.org]
- @EurekAlert [twitter.com]
- facebook.com/EurekAlert [facebook.com]
- Help / FAQ [eurekalert.org]
- Disclaimer [eurekalert.org]
- Privacy Policy [eurekalert.org]
- Terms & Conditions [eurekalert.org]
- Contact EurekAlert! [eurekalert.org]
Copyright © 2020 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
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.
