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Cabe Atwell
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Road power faux-schematic (via Stanford University)

 

MIT is again at the heart of another technological advancement. This time Stanford University is taking the MIT development to another level, providing power to electrical vehicles via embedded wireless power transfer coils in roadways.

 

MIT created a wireless power transfer technology that can handle 3kWs of power within a few feet. Originally it was for charging EVs while parked. Stanford associate professor Shanhui Fan wants to take the MIT tech to 10kWs at a distance of 6.5 feet. Fan explained his goal, "Our vision is that you’ll be able to drive onto any highway and charge your car. Large-scale deployment would involve revamping the entire highway system and could even have applications beyond transportation.”

 


 

Fan's system would place copper coils in the road surface that are turned to resonate with another coil placed inside the moving EV. With the road coils so close together, there will always be a constant power connection to the road despite how fast one drivers. Postdoctoral scholars Xiaofang Yu and Sunil Sandhu discovered that at a 90-degree angle, attached to a metal plate, a copper coil could transfer 10kW at 6.5 feet. Proving the possibility is one hurdle accomplished. Using magnetic resonance coupling, Fan estimates that an energy transfer efficiency of 97% would be needed to make it useful. Even for magnetic coupling, that efficiency requirement is a tall order. When it comes to technological advancements, always set the bar high.

 

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) already has Fan beat. Their road power system is already in operation on the school campus. Although they have only a 80% transfer efficiency, they are applying 30kW to the source. Perhaps the Stanford team should take some queues from KAIST. There is always Japan's EV road rescue service as a back up.

 

Cabe

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171 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: power, embedded, communication, innovation, sensor, prototyping, transportation, university, research, energy, alternative_energy, on_campus, power_transfer, cabeatwell, coupling, magnetic_resonance
Eavesdropper
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At 72,000,000 psi (500 GPa) hydrogen will undergo a state change to "metallic hydrogen" that exhibits the properties of a metal. 400 GPa is predicted to be the melting point for compressed hydrogen, which would create liquid metal hydrogen. And Neil Ashcroft hypothesized that metallic hydrogen (including liquid metal hydrogen) could be a superconductor at room temperature.  This comes from the fact that when compressed, hydrogen develops a tightly packed lattice structure. However, reaching these pressures has proven difficult to obtain. 51,000,000 psi (~350 GPa) was achieved, but hydrogen was found to be an insulator in those conditions. Higher pressure is needed.

 

University of Buffalo chemists Eva Zurek and Pio Baettig plan sidestep technological limitations by  lessen the pressure needed to create metallic hydrogen. Adding sodium to hydrogen, 1 sodium atom for every 9 hydrogen, the team will significantly lower the pressure needed to make the state change. The pressure needed is now only 36,256,000 psi (250 GPa).

 

In 2009 Zurek was able to create the material LiH6 (lithium hydrogen solid) at 14,000,000 psi. Like NaH9 (metallic hydrogen), LiH6 is not found in a stable form in nature. At high pressures, the results are stable and predictable. The goal is to create a power transmission method with near zero loss as a result of using a superconductor. As well as to better understand chemicals/elements under extreme pressures.

 

Zurek explains, "if one could potentially metallize hydrogen using the addition of sodium, it could ultimately help us better understand superconductors and lead to new approaches to designing a room-temperature superconductor... One of the things that I always like to emphasize is that chemistry is very different under high pressures. Our chemical intuition is based upon our experience at one atmosphere. Under pressure, elements that do not usually combine on the Earth's surface may mix, or mix in different proportions. The insulator iodine becomes a metal, and sodium becomes insulating. Our aim is to use the results of computational experiments in order to help develop a chemical intuition under pressure, and to predict new materials with unusual properties."

 

Although power transmission will be zero loss, will the energy needed to maintain such high pressures be a complete loss in the end? I look forward to more research from the team at UB.

 

Eavesdropper

902 Views 2 Comments Permalink Tags: industry, innovation, measurement, university, research, energy, on_campus, power_transfer, eavesdropper:dit, dit, superconductor