Industrial processing uses metamaterial to enhance induction heating

Jonathan Fan and associates at Stanford University have developed a thermochemical reactor that runs solely on electricity.

Nearly 90% of the carbon dioxide in the experiment was converted to carbon monoxide using the experimental reactor. This makes it a positive step forward in the fight against carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-based industrial processes.

Around one-third of carbon emissions in the US, for example, are attributed to industrial operations, which also account for a significant amount of emissions globally. This is partially due to the fact that a lot of industrial operations need a lot of heat, which can only be produced by burning fossil fuels. An increasing amount of research is looking into the possibility of switching from combustion to electrical heat sources in order to solve this issue.

According to Fan, there are other ways to use electricity to produce heat, including plasma and microwaves. He continued by saying that because of induction heating's solid safety record, scalability to high power levels and reactor capacities, and potential for enabling volumetric heating at high power levels, they concentrated on it in their research.

By creating electric currents in conductive materials by alternating magnetic fields, induction heating heats the substance by increasing its electrical resistance. It has several uses, ranging from melting scrap metal to cooking in the home. However, using induction heating for intricate industrial applications has proven challenging.

Fan's group concentrated on the application of inductive heating in thermochemical reactors—reactions with catalysts that convert gasses into useful products—in their investigation.