Zap Energy has developed a compact device called AmericaFuZe that can quickly reach fusion power temperatures to meet future human electricity needs. The device, which was created in 2020 based on research funded by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project at the University of Washington, is capable of achieving electron plasma temperatures of 1 – 3 keV, equivalent to 11 – 37 million degrees Celsius.
Fusion reactions are considered a promising way to generate large amounts of energy as they release 10 million times more energy than coal. Despite nearly a century of research on fusion reactions, only a few technologies have been able to achieve plasma temperatures above 15 million degrees Celsius, similar to the core temperature of the Sun. However, creating plasma and heating and cooling its two components – nuclei and electrons – can present challenges in developing fusion reactors.
To address these challenges, Zap Energy utilizes a plasma confinement method called Fusion Z-pinch Experiment in their device FuZe. By using thin filaments of plasma to create an electromagnetic field that heats and compresses the plasma, Zap Energy has been able to prevent rapid cooling of electrons. The next project Fuze-Q is currently in development and promises an energy capacity ten times greater than FuZe. Collaborating with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, San Diego researchers have been able to measure the separate temperatures of nuclei and electrons in the FuZe plasma using the Thomson scattering method. This research has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters demonstrating the potential of FuZe as a cost-effective and efficient fusion technology.
