The Robinson Research Institute is flying high when it comes to low-emission aircraft and future quests into space.
Two major funding successes for the Institute will catapult the University into the vanguard of efforts to develop a decarbonised world.
In August, the Institute was recognised as a key part of a team awarded almost $15 million across seven years by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to investigate high-power electric motors for large-scale transport.
Working with Callaghan Innovation, AUT, the University of Canterbury, and the University of Auckland, the Institute is now involved in two of the programme’s four workstreams—developing superconducting machines and cryogenic systems.
Just a month later, the Institute joined forces in another MBIE project with the University of Auckland and the University of Canterbury on a five-year, $11.6 million mission to design and build ion thrusters.
These incorporate superconductor magnets to propel spacecraft and adjust their track.
Superconductors transport huge electric currents with close to no energy loss and allow incredibly high current densities to be achieved.
“The Institute is already investigating onboard power systems for aircraft and trains, and developing key components for these high-power, lightweight, and fully superconducting motors.”
Engineering these materials into applications such as medical imaging, maglev trains, and motor generators has produced compact, lightweight, and more efficient systems.
Their development is one strand of the Institute’s work to meld innovative engineering with applied physics to build advanced technologies for global benefit.
Deputy director and principal engineer Dr Rod Badcock says low-emission aircraft will require superconducting machines.
“New Zealand’s economy is heavily dependent on aviation and highly exposed to limitations in international travel. Globally, fossil fuels account for 96 percent of transportation energy, making it a major target for decarbonisation. Transport represents about one-third of global energy use.
“The Institute is already investigating onboard power systems for aircraft and trains, and developing key components for these high-power, lightweight, and fully superconducting motors. Reducing global carbon emissions from heavy freight and passenger transport requires the switch to electric propulsion for rail, shipping, and aviation.
“Superconducting machines offer the only feasible route to realising large-scale hybrid electric aircraft. Aviation poses perhaps the biggest challenge of all, as entirely new technology must be developed and deployed within a strict regulatory regime.”
Looking beyond the atmosphere, the Institute’s research on a type of “electric propulsion” may eventually be used for interplanetary travel.