Chapter 428 Power Generation
Speaking of magnetohydrodynamic power generation, Academician Wan asked himself, their generation is not unfamiliar with it. Magnetohydrodynamic power generation is not their new invention. In the 1980s, controlled nuclear fusion was restarted, and China was committed to building aircraft carriers. It was at that time that magnetohydrodynamic power generation was listed as a national key development project. Now if you check some of the information from that year, it is not difficult to find that magnetohydrodynamic power generation was taken very seriously at that time.
However, later on, gas technology made rapid breakthroughs and developed rapidly. China absorbed a lot of advanced experience and put it to good use. It also accumulated its own research and development results, and it took the place of magnetohydrodynamic power generation in one fell swoop, becoming the mainstream today.
Although magnetohydrodynamic power generation, like the stellarator device, has a promising future that Ren Dawei is optimistic about, it is only the future!
At that time, the technical difficulties had not been overcome, the requirements of magnetohydrodynamic power generation were difficult to achieve, and the country needed to have real technology at hand and pursue real economic benefits for substantial development. At that time, magnetohydrodynamic power generation began to fade away and became unpopular and no longer popular.
Magnetohydrodynamic power generation generates electrical energy through the interaction between flowing conductive fluid and magnetic field.
Magnetohydrodynamic power generation technology uses fuel such as petroleum, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, etc. to directly heat them into easily ionized gases, ionize them into conductive ion flows at a high temperature of 2000°C, and then let them flow at high speed in a magnetic field, cutting the magnetic lines of force to generate induced electromotive force, that is, directly converting thermal energy into electric current. Since it does not require a mechanical conversion link, it is called direct power generation!
Its fuel utilization rate is significantly improved, and this technology is also called plasma power generation technology.
Why is it said that the difficulties of magnetohydrodynamic power generation cannot be overcome? This is because, generally speaking, the temperature of steam makes it difficult to heat the gas to a high temperature of 2000 degrees and form a plasma beam. Even if it is barely achieved, this process is likely to be accompanied by a large amount of heat energy loss. Therefore, the cycle efficiency of magnetohydrodynamic power generation technology is difficult to reach more than 20%, resulting in energy waste. This is the major reason for its decline.
However, their Jinwu Project is different. In the future, the Jinwu stellarator device will be ignited by the ultra-high temperature generated by the DT fusion reaction.
The raw materials of DT reaction are deuterium and tritium. DT reaction is the easiest of all nuclear fusion reactions. Currently, the controlled nuclear fusion devices in actual experiments are based on this reaction.
The helium generated by the "D+T" fusion reaction in the stellarator itself exists in the form of plasma with a temperature of over 100 million degrees!
In other words, in realizing the principle of magnetohydrodynamic power generation, they no longer need to go through so much trouble and effort to heat the ionized gas. They only need to utilize these plasmas carrying huge amounts of energy and convert them into abundant electricity supply!
This technology cannot be applied to coal-fired, oil-fired, or even nuclear fission power generation, but when applied to nuclear fusion power generation, it is a technology match tailor-made for it!
Using high-temperature plasma to boil water is a real waste of energy resources!
Talking to people who understand saves effort. Whether it is Academician Wan or Academician He, these old fusion people are full of experience. Just a simple eye contact can make them understand what everyone is focusing on, without the need for too much explanation. Such a combination of thoughts is really gratifying.
Although it's not impossible for Wu Tong to waste time explaining, why waste time? Those who really need explanations are not worthy of the responsibility of being the chief engineer of the Jinwu Project!
On the next day, Wu Tong, accompanied by Mr. Cheng, Academician Wan and Academician He, welcomed the working group led by Mr. Yi from the nuclear power team of the National Nuclear Corporation.
"Mr. Yi, thank you for your hard work in bringing the team to support us!" As the project manager, Wu Tong was the first to step forward to greet him and shook hands with Mr. Yi, expressing the Jinwu Project's importance and welcome to Mr. Yi's arrival.
"Mr. Yi!" Then, Academician Wan, Academician He, Mr. Cheng, etc. shook hands with Mr. Yi one by one. They all knew Mr. Yi. In fact, they had dealt with him before. Mr. Yi Guangyuan, this old man, has been deeply engaged in the nuclear industry and nuclear power for many years and has rich experience in the design of fission reactors and nuclear power generators.
"Hearing is believing, Mr. Wu, I have admired you for a long time, and finally I have the opportunity to meet you!" Old Yi laughed and stretched out his hands to shake hands with Wu Tong. "This time, I took the initiative to volunteer to meet Mr. Wu. I hope I can be of help to Wu Tong!" He has enough authority for this magical young friend, but he has heard a lot of confidential information and has long wanted to find an opportunity to meet Wu Tong.
This time, after receiving the connection with the Jinwu Project, he rushed over in a hurry.
"I must have admired you for a long time. I am so grateful to you for coming here from afar this time. Next, I will leave the power generation project to you!" Wu Tong smiled and entrusted him deeply.
Although Yi Lao's previous main research and development area was the experience accumulated in fission nuclear reactors, which may not be completely applicable to fusion reactors, since they are both nuclear power, there are still similarities between the two.
Regarding how to convert the heat energy generated by the reactor into electrical energy, this is Yi Lao’s professional area!
In fact, Wu Tong herself has done some good research in the field of generators, but when she designed an improvement plan for the aircraft carrier, she still used the gas turbine approach on its original basis. She had several other key points to focus on, so she couldn't spare the time to develop the generator set herself.
However, after the Jinwu project is implemented, perhaps they can consider using miniaturized controlled nuclear fusion plus magnetohydrodynamic power generation to assist aircraft carriers, so that their aircraft carriers can become truly unlimited endurance sea dragons that can roam the deep blue and dominate the four seas!
"Please, let's go upstairs and discuss in detail in the conference room!" Mr. Yi was kind, and Wu Tong also treated him with the humble attitude of a junior. After a brief greeting, he immediately invited Mr. Yi to go upstairs and enter the prepared conference room for discussion.
In the conference room, everyone sat down in a row. Mr. Yi did not underestimate Wu Tong because of his young age. From the information he learned, Wu Tong also had a deep research foundation in generator sets, but not in the fields of nuclear power generation and magnetohydrodynamic power generation.
However, if one law is known, then a hundred laws can be understood. Even though it is not Wu Tong's area of expertise, Wu Tong can still communicate with him easily and understand his explanation. Meeting such a person in charge really saves them from having to explain and pave the way for many times. Therefore, after Yi Lao sat down, he went straight to the point.
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