Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas
eurekalert.org- Team of scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Technological Sciences has developed a prototype of a jet engine that uses microwave air plasmas as propulsion.
- The device generates high-temperature, high-pressure plasma (4th state of matter) using injected air and electricity, so it’s not exactly fossil fuel-free as the article states.
- The upside is that it doesn’t generate large amounts of carbon emissions, but the device is in very early stages of testing.
- It could potentially be scaled by building a large array of these devices to power a full-sized jet.
- So far it successfuly lifted a 1-kilogram steel ball over a 24-mm diameter quartz tube.