Sumitomo Electric has developed what is being called the world's first automobile powered by a superconducting motor. The electric passenger sedan (a modified Toyota Crown Comfort), which is powered by a high-temperature superconducting motor cooled by liquid nitrogen, was unveiled in Osaka on June 12 and will go on display at the Hokkaido Toyako G8 Summit on June 19.
Superconductors -- energy-efficient materials that can carry electrical current without resistance -- are used in applications ranging from medical devices to linear motors for trains. Until now, however, they have never been used to power an automobile, says Sumitomo, who developed an ultra-powerful 365-kw superconducting motor last year.
Sumitomo's motor uses high-temperature superconducting wires instead of the copper wire typically used in the coils in electric vehicle motors. When cooled to -200 degrees Celsius, electrical resistance and current loss are reduced to nearly zero, so the motor can operate with greater energy efficiency and torque -- in other words, the motor uses less electricity to do the same amount of work. The company says the prototype vehicle can travel more than 10% farther than conventional electric vehicles running on the same type of battery.
The development comes as demand for electric vehicles grows, and as manufacturers step up efforts to improve battery and motor performance to increase the distance that vehicles can travel on a single charge.
Sumitomo intends to further improve the motor with the aim of putting a vehicle on the market in the not-too-distant future. The company is looking to develop superconductor motors for buses and trucks as well.
Damien
I know this might be a silly question for a lot of people but are we all going to be using electrical cars in the near future?
[]Yoweigh
I seriously doubt that this 10% increase in range can come even remotely close to balancing out the need for exotic superconductor materials and constant liquid-nitrogen cooling from either an economic or environmental standpoint.
[]Julian
@damien. sure, why not. the sun is the only resource i know of that can be harnessed without the destructive use of the resource itself. corn, has to burn. gas, has to burn, wind, has to blow (and will blow less if there is too much draw from towers. so the sun=best future energy resource(and past if you think about it honestly). The most portable power we can currently create with the sun is electricity. So sure, it seems like the best option to me.
@Yoweigh. i totally agree.
[]Luk
Does the 10% reduction of consumption take in account the energy to cool down the motor?
[]Japan
"365-kilowatt high-temperature superconducting motor cooled by liquid nitrogen"
I don't know what that means, but it sounds really cool!
[]Eletruk
@Julian, you know... Wind is just another form of solar energy.
[]Suricou Raven
1. Julian is an idiot. Wind turbines do not make any significent difference to wind speed. Wind is renewable as long as the sun keeps burning. It's disadvantages are unreliability and cost.
2. Great PR stunt, but I don't think this is for mass-production. It's hugely expensive, and a potential liability issue if the car requires occasional refilling of a liquid that will cause serious tissue damage on contact with anything living. That, any use in a confined space will result in anyone nearby getting high, unconcious and dead in that order.
3. Room-temperature superconductors have been a holy grail of physics for decades. So far, no luck. 'High-temperature' is a relative term - it merely means they can be cooled by liquid nitrogen, rather than liquid helium. If someone does get them to finally work, then this motor might become practical.
4. Busses, trams, trains, subways... these are potential uses. No need to worry about liability when you can be sure only qualified nitrogen-handlers have to unscrew the tamperproof seals. Also much more space for the nitrogen storage. And energy is a significent part of the operating cost, to a 10% improvement could be worthwhile.
5. Stationary industrial machines could also see benefit from this. And elevators. I am sure someone at Otis is happily thinking about the profits to achieve if every office building in a city is paying them for a new tank of coolent every six months.
[]Derek
That is insane. 365kW motor?
I am on a project to design an electric shuttle (from an E-350 van) and we only use a 57kW motor! The shuttle can carry 13 passengers and a driver! Not to mention, we have so much torque we need to limit it from the speed controller.
This is insane.
However, like it was said before, 10% is not nearly enough to offset the cost of superconducting materials and manufacturing. Our best bet right now seems to be improving battery technology and manufacturing to get the prices down.
Our calcualtions show that, at $3.00 a gallon, an electric version of our shuttle will save the customer about $20,000 over the life of the vehicle (100,000 miles).
[]Bryan Elliott
365kW = 490HP
That's nuts for the commuter car pictured.
[]citizenx
All you brain washed idiots that don't think this is a great invention. Have no fear, big oil will never let it make it to the market. Oh and btw liquid nitrogen cooling systems do not have to be refilled ever. Suricou is a complete dumb as s.
[]Yoweigh
Ok, great, make it a closed cooling system. You're still going to have to run a compressor to get the phase change working, and you're still ignoring the cost of the superconductors. I'm not saying this isn't a good invention, I'm just saying that it isn't economically feasible with current technology. This is a technology demo, not a production vehicle.
No need to be such a dick about it. You, sir, are the dumbass in this room.
[]supersupra
except the fact that future development will benefit from this, ie, make superconductors at a higher temperature for instance.
[]in 200 years everyone will laugh at you all disbelievers, like nobody ever thought that a heli-copter would be of any use when da-vinci or whoever it was made the drawings for it
cya in the 23rd century
Chuckels
"That, any use in a confined space will result in anyone nearby getting high, unconcious and dead in that order."
high? from nitrogen? like N2? like over 70% of our atmosphere? i highly doubt it.
[]Timothy L
On a semi-unrelated front, I made Sumitomo's logo. Yay me!
I always wanted to hear they did something big so I could let the world know I was the tiniest, most insignificant piece of it. So you may all thank and praise me...now.
[]Jimmay
“That, any use in a confined space will result in anyone nearby getting high, unconcious and dead in that order.”
high? from nitrogen? like N2? like over 70% of our atmosphere? i highly doubt it."
Yes, our atmosphere is ~75% nitrogen. Its also ~20% Oxygen. Guess what happens when you breath in ~100%$ nitrogen.... you will get high, unconcious, and dead, in that order
[]Jcal
Yoweigh - are you fellas in the same room. Listen up folks obviously if it's the only one ever made it's not a mass production motor. Sometimes ya gotta extrapolate just a tad beyond the headlines. It's a one-off demo that shows it can be done when advancing tech combined with a lot of production engineering will determine if it can eventually be mass market feasible. If the advances come then it will tie in with stationary, transmission and transport use, ok, k, huh; damn you fools need to relax get off the caffeines.
[]Ryan
We would be better served to work on placing smaller motors in the wheel hub. A brushless motor already is over 90% efficient, if one is placed directly in each hub they do not waste energy trying to spin up a drivetrain then we don't have to worry about advanced or exotic technologies. The primary concern should simply be making a small 30 to 45 kW hub motor that is industry standard. Considering that a motor holds all the same components as a generator in-hub motors can be easily configured for regenerative breaking. The benefits of having four independently controlled wheel motors should be evident when thinking about various road conditions.
[]Jcal
This is tech that is research oriented for the future not better or worse served. Everyone loves hub motors since popular science showed them in the eighties. If you enjoy driving you're trying to eliminate unsprung weight not add to it. Superconducting advances would make better motors wherever they are eventually located, even if people still insist on putting them in the wheels and destroying handling characteristics of otherwise capable vehicles, and making motors vulnerable to road conditions plus without gearing runs at inefficient rpm's. Still want em in the wheels Ryan?
[]Scott
What do you do if your engine freezes up?
[]eDave
So, if we're already going through the trouble of cooling a bunch of high-temp superconductors, can't they replace the batteries/fuel cells with a superconductor ring?
[]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMES
Seems like if you've got the cryogenic systems already, might as well use them.
image
Nice, posters here are idiots, flaming over eatch other :)
guns don't kill, only bullets.
[]Damien
Thank you to everyone who contributed to answering my question. Didn't understand what the hell you were talking about half the time but it was still interesting.
[]sandro
Is it vacuumed? How does the cooling system works? Great idea for large motors like ships/submarines and trains because they are less prone to take heat from ambient air (large volume to surface ratio). Energy storage is still the worst problem but 10% improvement on efficiency on a 85%-90% efficient motor design is really the maximum we can achieve. The only improvement on this could be room temp superconductors, as someone said.
[]Chris
I have been wanting to build an electric car like this for years. Imagine if superconducting technology improves to an optimistic room temperature superconductor. that would great for the electric car. billions of electric cars more affordable than a gas car, not to mention the gas. The US Forces uses superconducting tech in their ship's electric motor, and the electricity comes from a diesal motor. Improving effiency. It's interesting they estimate 10%, ten percent above the standard electric car, which is already more effient than gasoline cars. Very impressive if they have a battery to motor working prototype, which can contain the -150 c temperatures. but i do know some materials that can contain this low of a temperture. contact me at cd87@live.ca
[]Malachi
A high-temp superconductor is well below the standard freezing point but greater than the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. So we are talking about extreme freezing conditions either way as liquid nitrogen boils at -196 degrees Celsius and the best high heat super conductor does not peak 30 Kelvin.
This is why I can't understand you wanting room temp superconductors. A superconductor at room temp would just be a conductor loss momentum like any other. Most super conductors reach critical mass at 90 Kelvin which is still quite cold.
Potential danger is most likely if the vehicle was to end up in a accident, which seems highly probably considering the modern vehicluar mortality rate. If you don't die from the crash and there was a leak of the luquid nitrogen, you may well indeed die anyway.
I wonder however if this prototype could benefit from Hydrino technology. The future will certainly be interesting.
[]sampath
i want 2 know in which superconductors r used
[]