Energy Transfer with Hydrogen and Superconductivity – The Review of the First Experimental Results

The transfer of massive amounts of both electrical and chemical power over long distances will present a major challenge for the global energy enterprise in future. Attraction of hydrogen is apparent as a chemical energy agent, possessing among the highest energy density content of various common fuels, whose combustive “waste” is simply water. The usage of “gratis” cold to cool a superconducting cable made of proper superconductor permits to deliver extra electrical power with the same line. This, rather old theoretical idea recently found its experimental realization. The team of Russian institutes and organizations with using Italian-produced MgB2 wire has made and successfully tested two hybrid energy transfer lines with liquid hydrogen as a chemical source of power and superconducting cable as a source of electricity. The first line has been tested in 2011. It has length ∼10 m, maximum liquid hydrogen flow ∼250 g/s and maximum current of MgB2 superconducting cable 2600 A @ 20K. This test was the first experimental proof of conception of the hybrid energy transfer line. The second line has been tested in October 2013. It has length ∼30 m. The new MgB2 cable has critical current at 21 K ∼3500 A and successfully passed high voltage DC test of 50 kV. New hydrogen cryostat has three sections with different types of thermal insulation in each section. The idea of hybrid energy transfer is formulated and details of first experiments are reviewed.