100kW fully superconducting aviation motor developed for electrical aircraft
Researchers at a Scottish university have demonstrated a 100kW fully superconducting aviation motor that could help pave the way for an electric aircraft.
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Here’s a good example of how super conductive technology can be applied in the real world.
1 Electric motors.
2 They generate heat.
3 Superconductors lower the temperature to almost no resistance.
4 Allowing higher power density to flow to the motors.
For comparison with an electric supercar
Rimac NeveraPower: 1,408 kW / 1,914 hpTorque: 2,360 Nm0-100 km/h: 1.74 seconds. Top Speed: 415 km/h (258 mph)
Super conductive technology will eventually scale up to Megawatt class electric motors.
A Tesla with an 1MW+ supercondctive electric motor on each wheel.
Should get from 0-100km in less than a second.
I really don’t see how this is going to provide a practical system in aircraft, let alone small electric road vehicles.
“The motor uses high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology to carry very large electrical currents with almost no resistance when cooled to cryogenic temperatures: 20 Kelvin (K) or -253 °C.”
So you reduce the weight of the electric motors, but you need a system to keep the temperature down to below -253 °C, and that system needs to be totally reliable.
And you still need to carry enough batteries to provide enough energy for the flight.
Manufactured methane is the answer for planes and boats and all things that have high energy consumption and need a long range without refuelling.
Made with captured or recycled CO2.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Manufactured methane is the answer for planes and boats and all things that have high energy consumption and need a long range without refuelling.
Made with captured or recycled CO2.
ah so that’s what they’re calling renewable hydrocarbon neosynthesis now, we were wondering what the cool kids these days say
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Manufactured methane is the answer for planes and boats and all things that have high energy consumption and need a long range without refuelling.
Made with captured or recycled CO2.
ah so that’s what they’re calling renewable hydrocarbon neosynthesis now, we were wondering what the cool kids these days say
Hadn’t heard of hydrocarbon neosynthesis.
If that’s what the cool kids are saying these days, that’s good news.
IMHO :)
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:The Rev Dodgson said:
Manufactured methane is the answer for planes and boats and all things that have high energy consumption and need a long range without refuelling.
Made with captured or recycled CO2.
ah so that’s what they’re calling renewable hydrocarbon neosynthesis now, we were wondering what the cool kids these days say
Hadn’t heard of hydrocarbon neosynthesis.
If that’s what the cool kids are saying these days, that’s good news.
IMHO :)
From Springer (and downloadable at no cost!):
Directed evolution of hydrocarbon-producing enzymes
(It’s long and highly technical btw).
They can do mid air refuelling now
Will future ones be replacing batteries and they put them in backwards and the plane falls out the sky
Cymek said:
They can do mid air refuelling now
Will future ones be replacing batteries and they put them in backwards and the plane falls out the sky
no if you reverse polarity the craft becomes a submarine
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
They can do mid air refuelling now
Will future ones be replacing batteries and they put them in backwards and the plane falls out the sky
no if you reverse polarity the craft becomes a submarine
Doesn’t it simply fly backwards to keep the dust out of its eyes?
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
They can do mid air refuelling now
Will future ones be replacing batteries and they put them in backwards and the plane falls out the sky
no if you reverse polarity the craft becomes a submarine
That makes sense
The Rev Dodgson said:
I really don’t see how this is going to provide a practical system in aircraft, let alone small electric road vehicles.“The motor uses high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology to carry very large electrical currents with almost no resistance when cooled to cryogenic temperatures: 20 Kelvin (K) or -253 °C.”
So you reduce the weight of the electric motors, but you need a system to keep the temperature down to below -253 °C, and that system needs to be totally reliable.
And you still need to carry enough batteries to provide enough energy for the flight.
Manufactured methane is the answer for planes and boats and all things that have high energy consumption and need a long range without refuelling.
Made with captured or recycled CO2.
Here’s the thing I don’t get about this. Both carbon and hydrogen love to be oxidised. They both give off vast amounts of energy to be oxidised. So, to get them to be reduced together (eg methane), one has to supply a lot of energy. I don’t get where that energy will come from.
Fossil fuels took millions of years of sunlight and then considerable heat and pressure over long periods of time to make this happen via a living pathway followed by a dead pathway.
Michael V said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
I really don’t see how this is going to provide a practical system in aircraft, let alone small electric road vehicles.“The motor uses high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology to carry very large electrical currents with almost no resistance when cooled to cryogenic temperatures: 20 Kelvin (K) or -253 °C.”
So you reduce the weight of the electric motors, but you need a system to keep the temperature down to below -253 °C, and that system needs to be totally reliable.
And you still need to carry enough batteries to provide enough energy for the flight.
Manufactured methane is the answer for planes and boats and all things that have high energy consumption and need a long range without refuelling.
Made with captured or recycled CO2.
Here’s the thing I don’t get about this. Both carbon and hydrogen love to be oxidised. They both give off vast amounts of energy to be oxidised. So, to get them to be reduced together (eg methane), one has to supply a lot of energy. I don’t get where that energy will come from.
Fossil fuels took millions of years of sunlight and then considerable heat and pressure over long periods of time to make this happen via a living pathway followed by a dead pathway.
“I don’t get where that energy will come from.”
From excess solar/wind/tidal/whatever, instead of just letting it go to waste.
Or alternatively, from solar farms in nice sunny locations a long way from places where people want to use all that energy.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
I really don’t see how this is going to provide a practical system in aircraft, let alone small electric road vehicles.“The motor uses high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology to carry very large electrical currents with almost no resistance when cooled to cryogenic temperatures: 20 Kelvin (K) or -253 °C.”
So you reduce the weight of the electric motors, but you need a system to keep the temperature down to below -253 °C, and that system needs to be totally reliable.
And you still need to carry enough batteries to provide enough energy for the flight.
Manufactured methane is the answer for planes and boats and all things that have high energy consumption and need a long range without refuelling.
Made with captured or recycled CO2.
Here’s the thing I don’t get about this. Both carbon and hydrogen love to be oxidised. They both give off vast amounts of energy to be oxidised. So, to get them to be reduced together (eg methane), one has to supply a lot of energy. I don’t get where that energy will come from.
Fossil fuels took millions of years of sunlight and then considerable heat and pressure over long periods of time to make this happen via a living pathway followed by a dead pathway.
“I don’t get where that energy will come from.”
From excess solar/wind/tidal/whatever, instead of just letting it go to waste.
Or alternatively, from solar farms in nice sunny locations a long way from places where people want to use all that energy.
I just don’t think we can capture sufficient energy from the sun to make enough methane (etc) from CO2 and H2O to make a meaningful difference.
Michael V said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:Here’s the thing I don’t get about this. Both carbon and hydrogen love to be oxidised. They both give off vast amounts of energy to be oxidised. So, to get them to be reduced together (eg methane), one has to supply a lot of energy. I don’t get where that energy will come from.
Fossil fuels took millions of years of sunlight and then considerable heat and pressure over long periods of time to make this happen via a living pathway followed by a dead pathway.
“I don’t get where that energy will come from.”
From excess solar/wind/tidal/whatever, instead of just letting it go to waste.
Or alternatively, from solar farms in nice sunny locations a long way from places where people want to use all that energy.
I just don’t think we can capture sufficient energy from the sun to make enough methane (etc) from CO2 and H2O to make a meaningful difference.
I wonder hhow many cows are required?
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
“I don’t get where that energy will come from.”
From excess solar/wind/tidal/whatever, instead of just letting it go to waste.
Or alternatively, from solar farms in nice sunny locations a long way from places where people want to use all that energy.
I just don’t think we can capture sufficient energy from the sun to make enough methane (etc) from CO2 and H2O to make a meaningful difference.
I wonder hhow many cows are required?
we mean once upon a time something captured energy from the sun and made enough hydrocarbon from light gases to be meaningful
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/technology/2026/03/17/546262/uh-research-superconductor-temperature-record-energy-transmission/
I kind of missed this news.
The record critical temperature for a superconductor at ambient pressure was 133 K for 33 years. This is Hg-1223, discovered in 1993.
This year, the University of Houston physics team published a paper on a new compound, with a Tc of 151 K.
The real news would be if they get it over 195 K, because dry ice is cheaper to operate than liquid nitrogen.