Thursday, 28 Mar 2024
 
 
Facebook Image
Facebook Image

TT-Magazine Newsletter

To receive email notification of media releases, click the "Subscribe" button and please fill in the form below.


Name:

Email:

Superconductivity Print E-mail

gen_energia_termonucleareAntonio Della Corte - Simonetta Turtù

PROCESS AND TECHNOLOGY STATUS – Superconductivity is the ability of certain metals, alloys and ceramic materials to
let electrical current flow with no electrical resistance and energy dissipation. Superconductivity appears at below a certain
(critical) temperature, which is between 30K and 120K (-243°C and -153°C) for high-temperature superconductors (HTS) and
below 20K (-253°C) for the low-temperature superconductors (LTS). Superconducting properties disappear if the temperature
rises above the critical value, but also in the presence of high current density or strong external magnetic fields. The critical
values of temperature, magnetic field and current density are specific characteristics of each superconductor material. Almost
all of today’s superconductors are based on Nb (niobium) and Nb-alloys LTS wires, which have already reached a high level of
industrialization. LTS use is common practice in the production of small superconducting magnets for medical diagnostics
(magnetic resonance imaging, MRI), in research applications, and in large superconducting magnets for world-scale
experimental facilities (nuclear fusion, particle accelerators and detectors for high-energy physics). At present, LTS represent a
commercially available technology while ceramic HTS are still under development. HTS research has been recently boosted by
new discoveries and focuses on the complex ceramic HTS materials and their production process. Advanced cryogenics plays
a key technical and economic role in superconductivity, and may drive important developments.

PERFORMANCE & COSTS – Superconductors offer several advantages over conventional electrical conductors. They
enable the manufacturing of components (e.g., high-field magnets) that could not be feasible using conventional conductors.
The energy saving due to the absence of electrical resistance more than compensates for the energy required to maintain
superconductors’ operation temperature. Superconducting devices are typically 50% smaller and lighter than equivalent
conventional components and their manufacturing process generate no incremental emissions of greenhouse gases. Their
cooling is ensured by non-flammable liquid nitrogen or helium, as opposed to flammable and/or toxic oil coolant used in highperformance
conventional components. Apart from the cooling system, the typical cost of LTS per unit of carried electrical
current (€/m-A) is at least than ten times lower than the cost of an equivalent conventional conductor. All these advantages
translate into technical and economic benefits. Nevertheless, considering the cost of superconductors’ cooling system,
superconductivity is not yet economically competitive with conventional conductors in most applications, and its economic
convenience must be assessed by cost/benefits analyses on case–by-case basis.

POTENTIAL AND BARRIERS –
Research and MRI applications account for almost all today’s global superconductivity market
(some € 4 billion in 2007), with MRI being by far the dominant commercial application. Research and MRI are expected to also
play a central role in the future market and to constantly grow up to € 4.5 billion by 2013. However, HTS materials and new
applications may offer important new business opportunities. Emerging fields could be large-scale applications for power
production and transportation, electronic devices for information and communication technologies (ICT), and new medical
applications such as ultra-high resolution systems for MRI. HTS cost-to-performance ratio as well as cost and technical
development of commercial cooling systems for both LTS and HTS are currently the main barriers to large superconductivity
deployment. These obstacles could be overcame by technical advances by the end of this decade and give rise to new start-up
markets which could reach some € 0.6 billion by 2013. The identification of niche markets and pilot customers as well as
ramping up the existing production facilities are important elements for market deployment. However, the lesson learned from
other material-based technologies imply that the large deployment of superconductors will take considerable additional time.

pdf_icon Download the article