TUM develops inductive charging with superconductors

A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has succeeded in producing a coil made of superconducting wires that can transmit power of more than five kilowatts without contact and major losses. Possible applications include vehicles or even aircraft.

Inductive charging systems for vehicles are basically not new, but they have not yet become widely accepted, partly because a standard has been lacking up to now. In addition to this problem and the charging losses in contactless power transmission, the TUM researchers have identified another disadvantage: the fact that the transmission systems currently available are “large and heavy” at high power levels from the kilowatt range upwards as they are based on copper coils.

The team led by physicists Christoph Utschick and Rudolf Gross has now succeeded in developing a corresponding solution based on superconducting wires as part of research cooperation with the companies Würth Elektronik eiSos and Theva Dünnschichttechnik. Among other things, this solution is supposed to be lighter and, as mentioned, transmit the five kW “without great losses,” while efficiency is not precisely quantified.

To arrive at a functioning prototype, the researchers and their industrial partners had to solve several problems. One of them was that even in superconducting transmission coils, there are small AC losses. They increase with increasing transmission power and have the fatal consequence that the superconducting wires’ surface temperature increases and the superconductivity breaks down.

This was solved by specially developed spacers that separate the individual turns of the coil from each other. “This trick significantly reduces the AC losses in the coil,” says Christoph Utschick. “As a result, transmission powers up into the kilowatt range are achievable.” However, the spacers led to a new conflict of goals: if they made the distance between the turns of the superconducting coil small, the coil became very compact, but the researchers risked a breakdown of the superconductivity during operation. Larger distances, on the other hand, lead to lower power density.

“We optimised the distance between the individual windings using analytical and numerical simulations,” says Utschick. “The separation is approximately equal to half the width of the tape conductor.” The researchers now want to work on further increasing the transmittable power.

A cooling solution still needs to be developed

On the way to a possible practical application of the superconducting induction charging coil, another problem must be solved: cooling. The superconductors must be permanently cooled with liquid nitrogen to maintain their conductivity. But the cooling vessels cannot be made of metal. Otherwise, they would be heated in the coils’ magnetic field – such cooling systems are not yet commercially available, according to Rudolf Gross. “This still requires extensive development efforts,” says the professor of technical physics at TU Munich. “However, the work represents a major advance for contactless energy transfer of large powers.”

Utschick sees industrial robots, autonomous transport vehicles or high-tech medical devices, for example, as possible areas of application for the development. In addition to use in road traffic, inductive charging of electric racing vehicles on the track or autonomous electric aircraft is also conceivable, says the TUM researcher.

With reporting by Sebastian Schaal, Germany.

tum.de

3 Comments

about „TUM develops inductive charging with superconductors“

Mark Goldes

16.03.2021 um 04:56

A room temperature superconductor was under development some years ago. The project is about to resume. See ROOM TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS at aesopinstitute.orgContact me if you would like to participate in this project.

Rajesh Kumar panda

26.10.2021 um 11:30

Hi Mark GoldesI have been exploring on cryogenic based low and high temperature superconductors that is of SUPERPOWER USA make. But could not be able to develop any useful product as it works at 77 degree Kelvin.Presently seeking for room temperature super conductor as claimed by ULTRATECH so as to develop current carrying busbar and parts applicable for switchgear and controlgear products with high current rating of 200A at 230V 50 Hz.In your few article it has been mentioned that the development is applicable to electronic circuits and integrated circuit chips.Has there any development of room temperature superconductor undergoing at rating as mentioned above

Dorick Column

19.03.2021 um 03:12

Mark Goldes’ “ULTRACONDUCTOR” swindle consists of soliciting and obtaining loans and donations in a blatantly fraudulent manner, making use in particular of the set of false pretenses, false statements, false claims and empty promises to be found in his “Ultraconductor” fraudcraft.The great high points of Mark Goldes’ career in fraudcraft were the obtaining of four Small Business Innovative Research grants from the Unites States Air Force, which cost taxpayers roughly a half million dollars. In the fourteen years since the conclusion of the fourth project, Goldes’ companies have evidently made no further progress in this area, at all – but that has not stopped Goldes from pretending that Magnetic Power Inc, or Chava Energy LLC, or “Aesop Institute” will be making Revolutionary Breakthroughs involving “Ultraconductors” as soon as you give them your money. In fact, MPI’s own reports on the Ultraconductor grant projects consist of a succession of rosy and wonderful claims and predictions which went entirely unfulfilled by following projects, and remain unfulfilled today.It is important to understand that the “Ultraconductor” film was only ever claimed to be “ultraconductive” to current across the thin dimension of the film – and not along the extensive dimensions. Therefore a strip cut from the film could not function as an “ultraconductive” wire. But MPI’s great claim for years was that they would nonetheless somehow develop a way to to make “ultraconductive” wire. They never did so. MPI asserted that they would develop a way make the thin “ultraconductive” film thicker – and never did so. MPI asserted that their enrichment method would become the key to making thicker film and wire – but the method never did so. MPI asserted that their “Ultraconductor” film would surely prove wonderfully useful for making thermoelectric devices – but once again, the rosy claims went unfulfilled. MPI asserted that they would obtain “ultraconductivity” along the plane of the film, instead of merely across the thin dimension, by repositioning the supposedly “ultraconductive” channels. They never did so.The USAF never “validated” Goldes’ so-called “Ultraconductors” at all, and the USAF never gave Goldes any procurement contract for any “Ultraconductors” at all. The four research grants that Goldes obtained from the USAF were a waste of taxpayer money which never resulted in the development of anything of any value. Goldes’ degree of honesty in the matter of the “Ultraconductor” grants is just the same as his degree of honesty regarding all of his other make-believe “breakthroughs.” It is zero. Zero honesty. Zero “breakthroughs.” Zero fulfilment of his endless empty claims – as usual.Chava Energy’s “Ultraconductor” fraudcraft was fraudulent first of all because Chava Energy has never done any development work with the so-called “Ultraconductor” film and therefore has never “continued to develop” the film at all, even though they pretended otherwise for five years. Just as Goldes had done at MPI, Chava Energy misrepresented the true prospects of the “Ultraconductor” material, which had never been found or made useful for any purpose, despite the substantial research funding that MPI had received in the nineties.Mark Goldes was ejected from Chava Energy LLC during the fall of 2014 by Chava Energy’s other co-founder, Hagen Ruff; and all the rosy fraudcraft regarding “Ultraconductors” and “Ultraconductor Magnetic Energy Storage” was suddenly removed from the Chava Energy website. Hagen Ruff had chosen to drop the fraudulent empty pretense of ongoing “Ultraconductor” development that he and Goldes had carried on at Chava Energy for five years – along with several other fraudulent empty pretenses.But although the partnership ended, the fraud still continues – at Mark Goldes’ so-called “AESOP Institute,” where it is still one of Mark Goldes’ three favorite frauds – along with his pretended “NO FUEL PISTON ENGINE” and his equally worthless “FUEL-FREE TURBINE.”The reports themselves show that the so-called “Ultraconductors” are not “equivalent” to superconductors, since they do not show zero electrical resistance. That is why Goldes had to invent the name “Ultraconductor” in the first place.As co-founder and “Chief Marketing Research Officer” at Chava Energy LLC, Goldes carried on the very same pretense he now continues at AESOP Institute: that “Ultraconductor” development “is resuming.” After Goldes was ejected from Chava Energy in July 2014, all mention of the “Ultraconductor” pretense was suddenly removed from the Chava Energy website. It was nothing but a pretense, since no work at all on “Ultraconductors” was ever done at Chava Energy. Ultraconductor “development” never resumed at Chava Energy during the five years Goldes pretended otherwise, and Ultraconductor development will not be resuming at Aesop Institute, either. It is only a pretense and nothing more – just as Goldes’ “Fractional Hydrogen” “ECHO” engine was only a pretense and nothing more; just as Goldes’ “POWERGENIE” generator was only a pretense and nothing more; just as Goldes’ “Virtual Photon Flux” generator was only a pretense and nothing more; just as Goldes’ “NO FUEL PISTON ENGINE” is only a pretense and nothing more; and just as Goldes’ “FUEL-FREE TURBINE” is only a pretense and nothing more.