Future Energy Sources - PLASMA

Dr Sujata S. Panicker, Lecturer, Department of Engineering, delivered a lecture on the topic “Future Energy Resources – Plasma” on behalf of the Research and Consultancy Committee of the Engineering Department on 10 May from 2:00 to 2:30pm.

She explained “plasma” as a highly ionised gas that is a separate and distinct fourth state other than naturally occurring states of solids, liquids and gases. Such states of matter are rarely seen on the earth during lightning and burning of fluorescent tubes. However, such plasma exists in abundance in our universe.   Also 99% of our universe is made of plasma with stars as one of the primary sources of plasma.       

However recently scientists have proven the feasibility of generating plasma inside a short pulse magnetic machine called as TFTR and JET.    The goal of making such a reactor is to heat plasma up to 100 million degrees Celsius that is seven times hotter than the centre of the sun.  At such high temperatures, hydrogen atoms begin to fuse into helium.  These reactions happen at the centre of the sun under extremely high temperatures and high pressures.

She stated that generation of such plasma (according to ITER Consortium) offers the potential of being “environmentally benign”, widely applicable and essentially inexhaustible electricity that can meet the increase in the world energy demands.  The talk was well received by all the staff in the audience.  This was followed by a brief question and answer session.