The Next Generation of Jet Engines.... Is Electric?

from iron man's repulsor technology to doc  brown's mystery fusion and back to the future   the vision of clean efficient powerful jet  thrusters has always maintained strong in   the world of science fiction but what if  that vision became reality with plasma   engines the world of science fiction may not  be too far away but what are plasma engines   how do they work and can they really allow us  to fly further and faster all while emitting   no emissions we thought these questions  deserved a deeper dive today on 2-bit davinci special thanks to anker for sponsoring this  video check out the compact anker nano pro for   your various usb charging needs over the last two  decades electric vehicle makers like tesla have   completely altered the auto industry changing the  conversation around energy efficient technology   this of course begs the question what other  industries might benefit from an eco-friendly   overhaul how about air travel according to the us  environmental protection agency aircraft had about   12 percent of transport related carbon emissions  in the u.s three percent of the nation's total   greenhouse gases globally aviation contributed  just over two percent of total emissions in 2018.   considering 2018 saw a global increase  of roughly 720 million metric tons of co2   that's over 14 million metric tons from  aircraft alone over one tenth of manhattan   with plasma engines that number could be  drastically reduced to practically nothing   that's of course if they can get off the ground  so what is a plasma engine to help understand   the very sci-fi sounding technology let's  first look at regular old gas turbine engines   now jet engines are pretty complicated but here's  a quick rundown two common types are turbo jet   engines and turbo fan engines in a turbo jet  engine an inlet ingest air compresses it and   mixes it with fuel the mixture then ignites  much like a car's internal combustion engine   this high pressure high energy gas gets shut out  a turbine that powers the first stage of the inlet   and compressor yeah it's a chicken or the egg  situation and that's why jet engines need some   external help to get started the rest of their air  shot out the back of the aircraft producing thrust   turbo jets are typically more high performance  but less fuel efficient and that's why commercial   airliners use turbo fan engines in a triple  fan there's an additional large fan the front   sucking in air but some of that air doesn't  actually go into the heart of the engine   instead it's bypassed and just shoots out the back  the amount of air that enters the compressor and   combustion chamber determines if the engine is a  high bypass or low bypass turbofan engine the more   air that's bypassed the less thrust you'll make  but you'll use less fuel which means better fuel   economy below the speed of sound if you'd like us  to cover more aircraft topic write to me in the   comment section nothing would make me happier you  know what ignites our engines hit that like button   a plasma engine is completely different instead  of fuel and compressed air exploding out the   back a plasma engine uses microwave radiation  to energize compress and excite gas molecules   such as air or argon to transform electricity into  plasma now the word plasma mite conjure up images   of plasma casters from fallout or alien versus  predator but plasma is a very real thing like   solids liquids or gases plasma is a normal state  of matter it happens as molecules are heated up   and ionized essentially having their charge  changed by either gaining or losing electrons   which is why plasma engines are sometimes called  ion thrusters the best part is that the thrusters   don't require massive fuel tanks and they produce  zero emissions i know i know this sounds like a   bit more fiction than science but we promise these  are real and actually they've seen quite a bit of   action nasa has employed plasma thrusters in a  number of space vehicles including deep space   1 craft and the dawn asteroid probe space is the  ideal environment for plasma engines they consume   less propellant than traditional thrusters  and have a much higher specific impulse value   basically how efficiently they create thrust than  other rocket technology research shows that plasma   thrusters are able to reach incredibly high speeds  over extended acceleration in fact physicist and   ex-astronaut franklin chang diaz claims that some  plasma thrusters could reach a maximum velocity   of 34 miles per second and reach mars in as little  as 39 days before we get back to the show let me   tell you about one of our go-to brands and sponsor  of this video anchor our company runs on anchor   all of our usb charging hubs our laptop docks  our battery banks for travel and even most of   our cables are from anchor and this little fella  is the anker nano pro 20 watt usb charger if you   bought a new iphone 13 only to discover that there  is no charger in the box this is for you the anko   nano pro is super compact 45 smaller than apple's  20 watt charger and it's even smaller than apple's   five watt charger while charging an iphone 12 from  zero to 50 percent in just 26 minutes and because   it's usbc with the right cables i can charge my  iphone ipad and macbook pro all with just this   their active shield safety system means the  charger is constantly monitoring temperatures and   output to keep all your devices safe it even comes  in four fresh colors so join the over 65 million   anchor users around the world and see why we love  this company so much by checking out the nano pro   link in the video description huge thanks to all  of you and anchor for making this show possible   but while the vacuum of space has proven  ideal for the low propulsion of plasma engines   utilizing their capabilities on earth where we  have you know an atmosphere and error has proven a   bit more challenging still a number of researchers  have made some pretty big leaps in recent years   leading some to believe that plasma engine  technology may find its way to earthbound aviation   in the not so distant future leading the way is a  team of researchers from wuhan university in china   led by physicist dr zhao tang tank's prototype  uses a compressor that forces air into an   ionization chamber which uses microwaves generated  by a one kilowatt 2.45 gigahertz magnetron to   convert this airstream into a plasma jet and gets  blasted out of a quartz tube the plasma reaches   temperatures over 1000 degrees celsius about as  hot as molten lava this method differs from other   plasma jet thrusters in one key way nasa's dawn  space probe for instance uses xenon plasma which   cannot overcome the friction in earth's atmosphere  not powerful enough for air transportation   tanks thrusters generate high temperature high  pressure plasma using only injected air and   electricity so what does all this sciency stuff  amount to well the big breakthrough is that tank's   prototype was able to generate about 10 newtons  of thrust at 400 watts using 0.5 liters per second   for the airflow to lift a 1 kilogram steel ball  now that might not sound super exciting but   according to tang if his device was scaled up it  could produce the corresponding thrusting pressure   of a commercial jet engine another major  breakthrough is happening at the technical   university of berlin where burkhant goxil founder  and ceo of electrofluid systems and his team have   tested a plasma thruster that can operate on  air at a pressure of one atmosphere that's the   earth's atmosphere at sea level this prototype  uses a rapid stream of nanosecond long electric   discharge to fire up the propulsion mixture a  similar technique is used in pulse detonation   combustion engines making them more efficient than  standard fuel powered engines these breakthroughs   mark serious progress in an area of technology  that researchers have been chasing for decades   at least in laboratory environments we're seeing  plasma thrusters that can at the very least begin   to match the thrust of today's jet engines but  before we start seeing jets zipping around like   something out of star trek there are a handful  of notable hurdles that researchers need to clear   one major obstacle is scale tank's prototype as  we mentioned was able to lift a one kilogram ball   lifting something like an aircraft that's a  much bigger challenge goxel's team tested a   mini thruster 80 millimeters long for the same  technology to work in a commercial aircraft   they would need about 10 000 of these thrusters  of course bigger thrusters would work too but   with large scale comes a series of other issues  so even though plasma engines don't need fuel   they still need a power source iron man's  repulsors are powered by the ark reactor doc   brown's flying delorean was powered by garbage but  sadly once again the world of science doesn't have   quite as many answers as a world of science  fiction at least not yet finding lightweight   batteries that can produce the power requirements  of these reactors has proven challenging   build batteries too heavy and you create a bit of  a paradox more weight means more thrust required   which then needs more power for plasma engines  to really take off we're going to need some major   energy breakthroughs if you watch our channel at  all you know we're always talking about batteries   and well yeah this is why other power options  include solar arrays and even compact fusion   reactors one idea actually involves beaming power  to the engine wirelessly using lasers fiber optic   cables and massive balloons this is actually not  a joke but none of these technologies are even   close to ready for plasma jet applications still  even with these setbacks tang believes we may see   his prototype out in the field in smaller  capacities within the next 5 to 10 years   seemingly everything is always 5 to 10 years away  but if the underlying energy source is batteries   and we have propeller driven aircraft already  you might be asking why do we need plasma jet   engines at all well most propeller aircraft have  a max speed of about to 200-300 miles an hour   there are some high performance prop planes out  there but hardly the sort of thing you'd use for   commercial aviation i always say if you want some  new cleaner technology to replace the incumbent   it has to be better in pretty much every way zero  emissions are great but most people aren't gonna   be happy with flights that are half the speed and  take twice as long so a six hour flight from new   york to los angeles suddenly becomes 12. i have  a four-year-old and a one-year-old and let's say   i'm going to hold out for the plasma jet thing  so who knows maybe they'll allow us to fly even   faster than current jets just below the speed of  sound or a whole new chapter of supersonic flight   so while we may not see plasmogen engines in  the immediate future the need for zero emissions   aircraft will continue to drive breakthroughs  like these but let us know what you think about   the plasma jet thrusters is this sci-fi sounding  tech too good to be true or are you hopeful that   these breakthroughs will actually lead to real  world applications in the near future sound off in   the comments below alright that is a look at the  plasma thruster it is a really cool breakthrough   and i'm not gonna lie it is years away but it is a  look at what might be possible in the near future   but remember that whatever we come up with it  will still need a battery or storage medium maybe   compressed hydrogen batteries we don't know but  this is why i always talk about how energy storage   really sets at the center of every breakthrough  better laptops better cell phones longer lasting   it's all going to need batteries but this would  be pretty awesome and i'm really hoping in my   lifetime i could see a flight on a plasma  jet airliner that'd be pretty freaking cool   all right so thank you so much for watching as  always if you want to be a rock star supporter   of this show consider joining us on patreon or  as a youtube channel member we call you guys the   two-bit tribe come chat with us on discord help us  research new topics write scripts even come join   us on future trips and travel all by just becoming  a member there's no long-term commitments and we'd   love to have you on board you'll get to meet  like-minded people like yourself most likely and   thank you so much for watching take a look around  we have some other videos that we think you will   love until next time i'm ricky with davinci and  just remember the future is gonna be awesome

Channel: Two Bit da Vinci

Views: 245,514

Keywords: plasma jet, plasma jet engine, plasma jet engine test, plasma jet engines, plasma ion engine, ion engine, electric jet engine, two bit da vinci, This Sci-Fi Engine May Power the Airlines of Tomorrow!, plasma ion generator, plasma ion technology, plasma jets, plasma jet technology, plasma ion jets, plasma ion jet, plasma ion tech, plasma ion jet engines, ion thrusters, ion thruster, ion thruster plane, ion thruster china, plasma ion thrusters, plasma jet engine working

Id: HetgeOjq5m8

Length: 12min 16sec (736 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 01 2021