What will be the emission from plasma jet engine to zero
The Covid epidemic has resulted in a drastic reduction in emissions globally. Apart from this, there are many other positive effects on the environment. This would be a good result if emission reductions become more sustainable.
Transportation-related emissions have come down significantly due to restrictions on trips during lockdown. The reason for this is that planes, trains and all means of public transport are closed. Working offices and educational institutions have started work from home and online learning programs. Online press conferences and webinars are the new trend of today. Apart from this, the demand for electricity has also come down due to the closure of all industries. With the passage of time in travel, business and industry, Raunak will return. But webinars and the new trend of working from home may perhaps be permanent changes. Conducting press conferences on online platforms can be a big savings for companies and technology has also proved this.
Civilian flights account for about 2.5 per cent of global carbon emissions in a typical year. If there is a decrease in the number of commercial flights, then this emission will also fall. New clean fuel technology in the operation of ships has been adopted only in January 2020, which will reduce emissions.
Another technique can be quite effective in reducing aviation-related carbon emissions in the long run. Jet engines running on kerosene or aircraft fuel. Imagine a jet engine that uses electricity generated from a clean source and does not need any kind of fossil fuel.
A lot of research work is being done on the concept of plasma jet engine and some notable successes have also been achieved in this direction. A conventional jet engine burns fuel and produces extremely polluted hot air. This hot air passes through a tube at high pressure and collides with the turbine. Then the turbine’s fans rotate rapidly to generate energy and the air exits the rear of the aircraft. According to Newton’s third theory, every action has the same and opposite reaction, so the plane starts to move forward due to the flow of air backwards.
Now imagine that instead of burning fuel to heat the air, instead of burning the fuel, the micro waves are directed to charge the electricity in the air. This produces ionization conditions. Their electrons are taken away from the gases and converted into a plasma with a positive charge. Having an electromagnetic field pushes the plasma rapidly and gives the aircraft the strength to move.
Plasma projectors have been used in spacecraft. The earliest plasma projectors were used only in the 1960s. But these launchers are quite weak and not capable of operating in the atmosphere and have to carry their own fuel in the form of Xenon gas. In 2018, a research team from MIT demonstrated a microlight glider equipped with plasma energy to show that it could operate in the atmosphere despite a relatively weak push.
Recently in a research paper published by the Institute of Technical Sciences of Wuhan University, it has been claimed that a team of engineers found the rash to be equivalent to conventional jet engines. The research team threw air with high pressure on the high temperature and high pressure plasma produced in the 2.45 GHz ionization chamber. According to the paper, propulsion power and jet pressure pushing the aircraft forward can be achieved in this manner, similar to commercial jets.
In this experimental test, a hollow steel ball was also placed above the tube. High-pressure plasma was flowed into this tube and ignited. This caused a tremendous push on the ball and she started moving around. Normal air was also flowed within the tube to keep the plasma flow sustainable.
This steel ball also contained mass in a controlled manner as the strength of the electric field was recorded separately. During this time the movement of the ball was measured and the scope for non-plasma air flow was also left. The paper says that using a standard Tesla battery with 310 kW equivalent energy can produce about 8500 newtons of strength during testing. A newton is the power required to move a kilogram of weight at a speed of one meter per second. In this way, the energy generated from the plasma technology during the experimental test should be the same as for conventional jet engines.
In such a situation, the paper accepts the possibility that a micro-wave plasma jet projector may be built in the future, which will help in avoiding carbon emission and global temperature.
However, many challenges will still have to be overcome in the way of transforming this concept into action. True, much heat was produced during this test. In such a situation, it will be very difficult to deal with such matters like the impact of the equipment on high temperature and handling the blows. If a working plasma jet engine is formed, the emission level in the aviation sector will be almost zero.