New Plasma Ignition Technology

[plasmaeagle]

Hello there:

I found this technology while browsing alternative energy sites. The 'plasma spark' supposedly explodes water...see thread below...

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...53600-plasma-spark-plug-ignition-systems.html

The couple of links I found on the post of interest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuNvuPMGu6c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCJzqh5au_c

My question is they are claiming 30 watts power required.

I am a chemical engineer turned VC.....since the bust of 09. unfortunately my experience is in marketing and I am not very technical in Ignition matters.

1) Is this an industry device that they have used or is this a new technology?

2) How much power do ignitors in flare stacks for large petro chemical plants require?

I am interested in scaling this up for the petrochemcial industry. In theory can this be used for industrial applications?

thanks

 

[Flareman]

Plasmaeagle,
There are already capacitance based systems, using plugs with semiconductor arc bridges available on the market and being used in Gas Turbines (by others) and on Flare stacks (by me and my colleagues). These consume variously 8 - 24 watts and will fire not only when wet, but also under water and in a block of ice. Typically the potential is in the region of 2kV. From the videos, the plasma sparking device seems to be reliant on an air gap with, presumeably, a much higher voltage potential.
Perhaps I'm missing something here but you may be late to the party!

 

[IRstuff]

> 0.424469J*200Hz (per datasheet) = 85W, yet they claim to only draw ~30W per datasheet. That's not even accounting for efficiency loss.

> Don't you just love the 6 sig-fig value for output energy? Yet, maximum power draw is only "~ 30 W"

TTFN

FAQ731-376