Prensa. voanews.com
If Nikola
Tesla, the legendary genius who invented the electric induction motor were
alive today, he would no doubt be disappointed. That’s because the majority of
electric motors we produce today (including the one that powers his namesake
2017 Tesla Model S), remain fundamentally the same as the one he patented in
1887. So much for progress.
The
Stakes are Big
For those
of us alive today, that’s not a good thing. Here’s why: half of all the
electricity in the world is consumed by electric motors. Combined, these motors
consume about 9,000 trillion watt hours (terawatts) of energy each year.
Improving the energy efficiency of the world’s electric motors by just one
tenth would save enough electricity to run the entire country of Japan for an
entire year, dramatically reducing the world’s carbon footprint and cutting
harmful CO2 emissions by nearly a billion tons. Now imagine if the technology
to make electric motors nearly twice as efficient were already here.
Robert
Catalan, founder and CEO of Focused Magnetics says it is. Wearing an impish
smile that never seems to leave his face, Catalan looks more Buddhist monk than
genius. But it is the belief for what his new invention can accomplish where
this mild mannered engineer’s true motivation shines. Turns out, deep down, he
just wants to save the planet.
The
Solution
Intrigued,
I agreed to meet Catalan in a quiet urban park just outside Washington, D.C.
There he unpacks a wooden crate revealing a tire-sized contraption that looks
like something out of Star Gate SG-1. He says the prototype motor represents a
breakthrough technology that effectively doubles the power and efficiency of
any device that uses a conventional electric motor. Before explaining how, he
offered a primer on how conventional motors work:
“Electric
motors have two basic elements. One is the part that rotates (the ‘rotor’) and
the other is the part that doesn’t move (the ‘stator’). But it’s really the
space between the rotor and the stator (i.e. the air-gap) where the work of an
electric motor takes place.” Because conventional electric motors use magnets
and electromagnets with equal polarity (i.e. 50% north pole and 50% south
pole), Catalan says half of the magnetic energy is always directed away from
the air-gap, leading to poor utilization of available energy.
Who is
Klaus Halbach?
Catalan’s
quest to utilize available energy efficiently led him to investigate the work
of Berkeley physicist Klaus Halbach. In 1987, Halbach discovered that by
orienting permanent magnets a certain way, he could focus nearly all of the
magnetic field to one side. In doing so, Halbach had discovered a way to create
‘near-monopole’ magnetic fields, meaning that approximately 97% of one pole is
enhanced, while the other pole’s magnetic field is reduced to about 3%. The
phenomenon is known as the “Halbach Array” (and even has its own Wikipedia
page).
A handful
of companies have successfully applied Halbach’s permanent magnet arrays to
enhance the power of their rotors. But their electromagnetic stators remained
unchanged. Unlike permanent magnets, electromagnets cannot be oriented in a
Halbach sequence because the copper wires create a physical and energized
barrier that prevents magnetic forces from combining to form a near-monopole
field. Catalan says he has overcome that physical hurdle and was recently awarded
three U.S. patents along with several international patents currently pending
for the electromagnetic version of a Halbach array and its various applications
in motors and generators.
Achieving
Near Monopole Magnetic Fields
Catalan
says conventional motors are a bit like incandescent bulbs. Like photons from a
light source, electric motors wastefully radiate magnetic energy in all
directions. Catalan says his motor is configured to act like a laser, focusing
nearly all the magnetic energy exclusively towards the airgap to enhance power
and efficiency. By harnessing this ‘near-monopole’ energy, Catalan says an
electric vehicle using a production version of his new motor would travel
nearly twice as far as a conventional motor on the same set of batteries.
Conversely, his motor in its final form would provide nearly twice as much
power or torque as a conventional motor using exactly the same amount of
energy.
There are
other advantages. Halbach arrays don’t require the additional metal (known as
back-iron) that conventional motors need to function. As a result, ‘Catalan
motors’ are lighter. Additionally, because the polarity of the patented
electromagnetic array can be manipulated, both sides of his stator’s surfaces
can be used. This opens up a multitude of potential applications.
Long Way
to Go
As the
founder of a clean energy startup, Catalan knows that he has a long way to go.
But as a parent and a family man, he says the stakes for future generations are
high. Like many who have seen climate change documentaries from former Vice
President Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” or Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Before the
Flood”, Catalan says failure is not an option.
A growing
number of countries around the world agree. Norway, India, Britain, France and
China are moving quickly to phase out internal combustion engines. And Swedish
automaker Volvo recently announced plans to phase out all conventional gasoline
powered vehicles. Why? Catalan says it’s because the world deserves a better
future.
Asked
whether his ‘near-monopole’ electric motor technology could become the new de
facto standard for electric motors, Catalan replies with his Buddha-like grin,
“If mankind is to overcome the threat of climate change, it has to.” Like the
15,000 signatories from the Union of Concerned Scientists recently proclaimed,
the world as we know it is running short on time. In the race to save the
planet, Catalan’s super-efficient electric motor could have the potential to
buy us a little more time.