SBIR Phase II: A Plasma Heat Engine for Efficient Production of Fusion Energy

SBIR 第二阶段：用于高效生产聚变能的等离子体热机

• 批准号: 2110396
• 负责人: Richard Nebel
• 金额: $ 99.57万
• 依托单位: TIBBAR PLASMA TECHNOLOGIES INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-12-15 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2110396&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Plasma; Heat

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to produce a fusion-based engine in a system that is small, simple and inexpensive. The ultimate system will produce power that is as clean as renewable energy. Since the system is small and has low radiation, it also has applications for manned space flight. This new engine could enable more direct and shorter flights to other planets, which minimizes the exposure of astronauts to the radiation encountered in outer space.This SBIR Phase II project proposes to continue the companies research on using a harmonic well to produce fusion by particle kinetic energy, rather than general thermal energy. The proposed concept utilizes a new heat engine technique that always maintains the plasma distribution function in thermodynamic equilibrium. In the proposed fusion system, a plasma is created in a specially designed harmonic well and then induced to form into two counter-oscillating spinning rings. When the two rings collide at the center of the well, the particle velocities are high enough to cause fusion. This phase of the project will increase the energetics of the device. The project will move up to deuterium, a fuel which is twice as heavy as hydrogen (the current fuel) and has a much larger cross-section for fusion. The proposed approach is expected to make the harmonic well sufficiently energetic to produce deuterium-on-deuterium fusion by increasing the natural oscillation frequency of the well to give ion collision speeds of about one million meters per second. The project expects to be able to detect the neutrons produced by the fusion, demonstrating aneutronic fusion.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是在一个小、简单和廉价的系统中生产基于融合的引擎。最终的系统将产生与可再生能源一样清洁的电力。由于该系统体积小，辐射低，因此也适用于载人航天飞行。这种新发动机可以实现更直接和更短的飞行，从而最大限度地减少宇航员在外层空间遇到的辐射。这个SBIR第二阶段项目建议公司继续研究使用谐波井来产生聚变的粒子动能，而不是一般热能。提出的概念利用了一种新的热机技术，使等离子体分布函数始终保持在热力学平衡状态。在所提出的聚变系统中，等离子体在特殊设计的谐和势垒中产生，然后被诱导形成两个反向振荡的自旋环。当两个环在井的中心相撞时，粒子速度足够高，足以引起融合。该项目的这一阶段将增加该设备的能量。该项目将转向重氢(目前的燃料)的两倍重的重氢燃料，并且具有更大的聚变截面。提出的方法有望通过提高势垒的自然振荡频率，使离子碰撞速度达到每秒约100万米，从而使谐和充分具有足够的能量，从而产生重氢-重氢聚变。该项目希望能够探测到聚变产生的中子，展示非中子核聚变。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。