Japan is developing a strong hydrogen industry, with brands such as Toyota taking the lead over Volkswagen and Tesla. However, they have now taken an unexpected turn by ignoring the fuel altogether and opening a new chapter in sustainable mobility. This is the new magnetic levitation engine that seems to be coming from the future and could spell the end of all fossil fuels. What’s more, experts are talking about a new wat to store energy (since this invention is not related to cars).
Hydrogen is not the future, and Japan is clear: New batteries will “levitate” like that
OIST unveils a record-breaking magnetic levitation battery to transform the industry. This innovation from the Quantum Machines Unit or OIST shows what the future could be like, departing from typical batteries.
The working of this splendid engine is based on the principle of magnetic levitation, or maglev, as it has been termed. OIST team has designed a floating structure that can move in a vacuum environment with the help of graphite and magnets. This platform can be anchored to balance without touching the ground or being supported by any machines, in essence, the structure can float.
- Graphite Composite: A thick square plate was designed by the team to make a thin plate of one centimeter in size by chemically coating small graphite beads with silica, and the coated powder was infused with wax.
- Magnetic Grid: It is placed above magnetic fields that are arranged in the form of a grid, thus enabling the plate to levitate steadily.
- Vacuum Environment: It is free from vibration and is kept in a high vacuum to reduce noises as much as possible.
- Feedback System: This is done with the help of a mirror, which is used to observe the upward/downward movement of the slab, and a feedback loop is provided to reduce the movement and provide stability.
From its development to its sensors: Four keys to understanding the relevance of this new engine
The development of this revolutionary technology has been marked by several interesting aspects:
- Overcoming Eddy Damping: One of the greatest difficulties turning into a nightmare was ‘eddy damping’, the phenomenon that means that an oscillating system will lose energy over time as the effect of one force or another.
- Quantum Inspiration: The team that created this technology belongs to the Quantum Machines Unit, located at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and it utilizes principles of quantum mechanics when designing their devices; hence, the works that resulted in this invention explore the limits of classical systems.
- Potential Applications Beyond Transportation: While this technology has been mainly concerned with transportation, new avenues in ultra sensitive sensors and active control of oscillating platforms in a number of scientific areas have been made.
The new magnetic levitation engine could be the future of batteries or, on the contrary, remain an experimental model. The truth is that we have seen almost an infinity of new prototypes that work with materials never seen before, such as gold or even platinum or uranium. All of them are inventions that make it clear that current batteries may not be the future, or at least not as we would have thought at the time.
