Graduate students at KTH has developed a plastic material for electrical cables that have been ten times better insulation capacity compared to the current lines. The result increases the possibility of transporting electricity from solar energy over long distances.
When large amounts of electricity to be transported over large distances is done in the form of high voltage direct current. One problem is that the energy losses occur over long distances.
– The energy losses are proportional to the distance, says Richard Olsson, professor at KTH.
It puts such a spoke in the wheel to use electricity from African solparker in Sweden.
But now KTH doctoral Love Pallon, Amir Pourrahimi and Dongming Liu one step on the road when it comes to solving the problem. They are part of a research project that seeks to increase the tension in the cables for the electricity to be transported over long distances with as little energy loss as possible.
– The intention is to be able to maintain the same cost as cable production today. It would not add more plastic, or use other specialized equipment, says Richard Olsson.
The PhD students have been able to put nanoparticles of magnesium oxide in the plastic so that the insulation performance is ten times major. Then, the voltage of the DC current is increased from 320 kilovolts, which are available in today’s lines in Sweden, to 800 kilovolts without cables need to be bigger. By increasing the voltage in the cables is expected to reduce energy losses by 60 percent.
– With such cables could be bringing electricity from Africa all the way up to the Nordic region, says Richard Olsson.
The trick is to produce highly pure nanoparticles and distribute them evenly in the plastic. It has students and researchers managed make by coating the particles with a silicon oxide to obtain the hydrophobic polyethylene resin to mix with the hydrophilic magnesium oxide particles.
– It’s very hard to spread this kind of particles in the plastic. The result is an international breakthrough and has attracted great attention, says Richard Olsson.
Conveniently enough, the plastic mixture is run in the machine that is already used worldwide to insulate cables.
Richard Olsson hopes that the result will not only be beneficial for the transport of solar energy without the transmission of electricity from hydro and wind power will be enhanced.
– Improved cables is important for the power grid of the law. It may sound like less spectacular, but it is a very important part of society, he says.
The researchers hope to produce a prototype cable with the new material, to verify the results. But so far the missing money to it.
For the time being, researchers are evaluating other types of nanoparticles, such as zinc oxide, to see if it is possible to find an even better plastic mixture.
The research included plastics manufacturer Borealis, which owns the patent on the results, and researchers at KTH and Chalmers. Gothenburg researchers have built the device used to measure the insulation capacity of the new plastic mixture.
Here, the students results have been published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Read a summary of the research article here
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