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

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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.