3 technologies that are unusual even for 2019

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Nuclear micro-battery, the world's first "wave" power plant and a submarine. We will now tell you more about these three unusual developments in more detail.

"Eternal" nuclear battery NanoTritium

In 2005, the Canadian company CityLabs began active development of a battery that could last for many years. In their research, engineers started from the development of Larry Olsen, which began in the seventies of the twentieth century. It was then that Olsen proposed a model for a radioisotope power source.

And in 2008, three years after the start of work, CityLabs offered "for sale" the first samples of the NanoTritium - a commercial P100 battery. Its maximum power is small - only seventy-five nanowatts, different versions are capable of delivering from fifty to three hundred nanoamperes. Service life - twenty years (with a plus, as the developers say). The release form of the P100 batteries is in the form of LCC 44 and LCC68 microcircuits.

Unlike chemical batteries, NanoTritium is a physical source of energy, that is, it does not contain active chemicals. Although helium is released during operation, it is in extremely small quantities and does not pose a toxic hazard. Also safe for humans and radiation from the decay of tritium (scientists believe), as it spreads in the air literally a few millimeters from the battery.

The scheme of operation of the tritium battery P100

The basis of the battery is the decay of tritium (this is a heavy isotope of hydrogen, very rare and expensive). The half-life of tritium is just over twelve years. It is obtained in two ways - by irradiating lithium with a lithium isotope and neutrons, or by processing "heavy" water from reactors.

In 2018, CityLabs introduced the new NanoTritium series, the P200, a power supply from 0.8 to 2.4 volts and 52 to 156 microamperes. Batteries can operate in a temperature range of minus forty - plus eighty degrees Celsius.

The applications for such low power batteries are actually quite diverse: in pressure / ambient temperature sensors, smart sensors, medical implants, rechargeable lithium batteries, semi-passive and active RFID (radio frequency identification), silicon clocks, SRAM memory backup, deep sea oil well sensors, low power processors (e.g. ASICs, FPGAs, MicroController blocks, etc.).

Pelamis Wave Power - "sea snakes" that eat waves

The energy generated by the waves of the seas and oceans of the Earth is enormous. There were even scientists who calculated that it is equal to two terawatts. The exact figure or not is not so important, the main thing is that this resource is renewable and does not in any way affect the deterioration of the ecological situation in the world.

Scottish engineers from the Pelamis Wave Power company tried to use this energy and built an amazing mechanism. Its development began back in 1998 - it was then that the idea arose, but the company did not find the funds needed for its construction for a long time. After receiving a research grant in 2002, a prototype was built in the Pelamis Wave Power. On its basis, in 2005, a contract was signed with the Portuguese company Enersis for the construction of the world's first "wave" power plant.

The basis of the Portuguese station are Pelamis P-750 converters, each one hundred and forty meters long and three and a half meters "thick", they also weigh a lot - about seven hundred and fifty tons (fully loaded). Pelamis P-750 is a semi-submerged structure of four sections connected by special hinges. Swinging on the waves, sections of the "red sea serpent" bend at these hinges.

Each converter uses three energy conversion modules. They consist of a complex closed hydraulic system, where hydraulic pistons pump oil, forcing electric generators to rotate. It is also necessary to place converters wisely - where there are more waves, there, swinging more strongly on them, Pelamis will generate more electricity.

In autumn 2008, off the north-western coast of Portugal, near Povua de Varzima, the Agucadoura Wave Farm power station produced the first electricity "taken" from the waves. The peak power of one "snake" -converter Pelamis P-750 is 750 kW. The Portuguese power plant operates three units. Thus, according to calculations, they are capable of delivering up to two and a quarter megawatts (I must say, being launched, on average, each installation produced one hundred and fifty kilowatts, or four hundred and fifty all together).

The further fate of this incredible installation is sad. After two months in service, it was disconnected and returned to Pelamis Wave Power to correct the joint bearing problems. At the same time, Babcock & Brown (PWP's founder) was forced to hire a third-party manager due to financial difficulties. The Pelamis project has been officially closed.

PS. However, this is not the end of the story. In October 2016, after a Chinese company unveiled a similar sea serpent product, former employees of Pelamis Wave Power speculated about industrial espionage: after a visit by a Chinese delegation in 2011, several laptops were missing from the company's building.

Well, one more technology, rather as entertainment:

Amazing Necker Nymph "flying" underwater

Imagine - an apparatus resembling a light-engine aircraft, smoothly swaying on the waves. And then the pilot, making sure that his passengers are in their seats, accelerates him, forcing him to "dive" … And, farther and farther, he takes him away from the sparkling surface of the water, towards an unforgettable underwater journey.

Such a device actually exists. His name is Necker Nymph, the first of its type underwater vehicles. The design has an open cockpit, possesses positive buoyancy, and most importantly, it uses not the usual method (ballast) for diving, but the "aerodynamic" properties of the wings.

There can be three people on board - one "pilot" and two "passengers". They are protected from the oncoming water by fairings, like on racing cars - special "windshields" that relieve the pressure of the water flow. A more panoramic view from an open cockpit is hard to imagine! Control is carried out by the pilot using a joystick.

The joystick controls tilt, roll and yaw, and the throttle stick controls forward and backward movement. A flight and navigation computer (FAN-C), similar to those used in modern fighters, monitors speed, depth and maintains diving within predetermined limits. The craft is also equipped with a triple redundant life support system and will automatically return to the surface in the event of any malfunction.

The duration of the dive is two hours (so much air in the divers' cylinders), the maximum depth is about thirty meters, the minimum speed under water is about two km / h (slightly more than one knot), the maximum is about eleven km / h (six knots). Dimensions Necker Nymph: 4, 6x3, 0x1, 2 m, weight seven hundred and fifty kg.

Hawkes Ocean Technologies (HOT) began development of this type of apparatus in the late 1990s, when DeepFlight submersibles did not use ballast for submersion, but used the "negative lift" created by the wings. The Necker Nymph was also developed under the code name DeepFlight Merlin.

The owner of this amazing device is the head of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, and Graham Hawkes designed and created it. The cost of the device is $ 670,000.