Findings from an analysis of the fusion patent applications filed worldwide. By Andrew Thompson
Image: ITER (Photo credit: ITER Organization / EJF Riche)
After MORE THAN THREE DECADES in development, is fusion technology ready to deliver on its promises? Progress has been strong and rapid lately, and it is becoming clear that the next five to ten years will be crucial.
An analysis of global fusion-related patent application activity between 2011 and 2020 shows that the volume of international patent families (IPFs) filed with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) peaked in 2018. The decline in subsequent years could be due to incomplete data caused by the 18-month delay in the publication of new applications.
A study of innovation activities in the five most important jurisdictions shows that filing activities peaked in both China and the US – in 2019 and 2017, respectively. While patent filing activities in other key areas such as Japan and Germany are at a significantly lower level and declining slightly over the same period, the overall picture suggests that research science in this area with the prospect of large-scale fusion power generation is approaching.
Growing optimism
After many years of slow progress in leading R&D projects, the news that the MAST upgrade experiment at the UK’s Culham Center for Fusion Energy reached its first plasma in November last year has contributed to growing optimism that fusion power generation is now tempting close.
As part of its goal to avoid net carbon emissions by 2050, the UK government has also announced that it is looking for 100 hectares to build the world’s first prototype nuclear fusion power plant and hopes to begin construction by 2030 can. The spherical tokamak for the so-called Energy Production Project (STEP) is overseen by the UK Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA) and is expected to have an operational facility by 2040.
For the past three decades or more, the main obstacle to generating electricity by nuclear fusion has been “fusion ignition” – the point at which fusion energy becomes self-sustaining. With more than sixty different prototypes developed around the world, there is still little consensus on how best to maintain plasma to facilitate ignition and maintain combustion.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in the south of France appears to be playing a pioneering role, and machine assembly has already begun. This will be the world’s largest tokamak nuclear fusion reactor and will be able to produce more electricity than it consumes. When its first plasma experiments begin in 2025, it will use 50 MW of injected heat to produce 500 MW of fusion power for long pulses of 400 to 600 seconds. Deuterium-tritium fusion experiments are to follow by 2035.
In contrast, the UK STEP project is on a much smaller scale and aims for a net energy gain of 100 MW.
Much of the advances in “fusion ignition” have resulted from laboratory experiments that have focused on achieving the exceptionally high pressures and temperatures required for fusion. To do this, a fuel that contains two of the heaviest isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, must first ignite in the laboratory. This requires a temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius – much hotter than the sun. Achieving fusion ignition in this way was an incredible challenge and was very slow to move forward.
But several government-sponsored, multidisciplinary experiments, including ITER, the MAST Upgrade and National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California, are now more or less nearing a solution.
Generate enthusiasm
Despite its relatively small size, the UK MAST upgrade is causing a stir as it continues to explore compact fusion devices.
Based on the original Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) that ran from 2000 to 2013, the upgrade features several performance-enhancing refinements, including an innovative plasma exhaust system.
Recent patent applications focus on the development of divertors such as the Super-X divertor as part of the exhaust system to reduce the heat and electrical load from particles exiting the plasma. The MAST upgrade is the first tokamak to test the Super X Divertor.
Similar compact nuclear fusion research projects are underway in the United States, including the construction of a reactor called Sparc, operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, expected to start in 2021 and be completed in just three to three months, four years.
With a high level of confidence in the merger itself, innovators compete in other research directions. This includes developing advanced materials that can withstand extreme heat and pressure over the long periods of time required by commercial equipment; and new methods of cleaning and maintaining the reactors.
For example, recent patent applications are directed to the development of plasma-facing materials for nuclear fusion reactors. The innovation activity focused on the composition, structure and manufacturing process for plasma-coated materials. With regard to the new processes for cleaning the fusion reactors, there were patent applications which, for example, were directed to processes and systems for remote maintenance and for electrostatic dust detection and removal in reactors.
Significant innovation required
In other recent developments, laser containment technology has emerged as a potential alternative to the tokamak-type nuclear fusion reactor.
Instead of using strong magnetic fields to confine the plasma, this technology uses laser pulses to compress the reaction around a small pellet of the starting material. It could provide a much more compact power generating device that opens up uses in many more potential applications. As with Tokomak systems, however, significant innovation is still required before commercial laser confinement systems can be manufactured. In particular, further development to produce sufficiently powerful and efficient lasers is required before commercial application is likely.
The complex, multidisciplinary nature of many of the experiments targeting early stages of fusion development, as well as the size of the construction projects required for these experiments, mean that progress has been slow. Patent applications for this technology have not yet approached the numbers we see for other power generation technologies. But patent protection has been secured for some key technological building blocks, and we expect the volume of patent applications to increase as we approach commercial scale, both for the key technologies needed to generate the fusion and for all of them assistive technologies that are necessary to maintain it and use excess energy from the reaction.
Much of the intellectual property in current global fusion experiments is shared by many different parties through joint ownership and development agreements. However, as the focus of innovation shifts to other areas of R&D, such as materials and cleaning systems, patents are likely to become more important. At this stage, some of the innovators in these collaborations will likely apply for patent protection independently in order to commercialize their technologies as much as possible.
Such patent protection could help secure market share in the nuclear fusion industry of the future. It could also open the door to other market opportunities where technologies with similar high performance attributes could bring commercial benefits.
Ripple effect
Just as NASA’s investments have inspired innovations with economic benefits around the world, government investments in nuclear fusion could have a similar effect.
About the author: Andrew Thompson, partner and specialist in the cleantech sector at the European IP company Withers & Rogers
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