Weird Science

First discovered in the late 1980s, high-temperature superconductors, or HTS—cooled by liquid nitrogen rather than colder and more costly liquid helium—have crept from the lab into commercial use and are finally poised to make a mark on the tech market.

The magnetic levitation, or maglev, train is one application that's literally on the fast track. HTS allows trains to be suspended with smaller magnets that waste less energy than do conventional magnets. Seven corridors in the United States are vying for $950 million from the Department of Transportation to begin building a maglev train line in 2002. The Railway Technical Research Institute in Japan has already begun running trains using this technology on its Yamanashi line. Its MLX01 vehicle, running with five cars, reached the world-record speed for trains of 343mph in 1999.

The commercialization of superconductivity has brought HTS wire to wider, if still experimental, use: A Detroit power station recently replaced 18,000 pounds of copper cable with three HTS cables weighing 250 pounds. Although HTS cables are expensive, they let power companies expand capacity in existing conduits without digging. HTS can provide a similar boost in capacity for cell phone transmitters because filters made with them are nearly ideal, rejecting almost all noise while maintaining signal. Such filters also boost the range and number of calls that a tower can handle. While other applications are still experimental, Randy Simon, vice president at Conductus, which makes HTS filters, says that wireless filters have already been retrofitted into about 1,000 base stations and "are the nearest-term broad application" of superconducting.

Superconductors have also led to a major advance in electric motors, permitting them to be made smaller and more energy-efficient than with conventional copper coils—even for the new cooling systems that are required. HTS motors can cost-effectively replace the massive motors used in industry and on ships. American Superconductor demonstrated a 5,000-horsepower HTS motor in July. "We plan to field additional prototype motors and generators over the next two years," says CEO Greg Yurek. "We are on track for commercial sales in 2004."

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.