High temperature superconducting materials can produce superconducting phenomena in liquid nitrogen environments, achieving "zero resistance". Compared with low-temperature superconductors, high-temperature superconductors do not need to use expensive liquid helium to cool down, and have better performance. They have important application values in the fields of power, transportation, manufacturing, large scientific devices, and so on. Known as a new technological revolution in the industry, they are moving towards application and industrial landing.
On April 20, 2023, China's high-temperature superconducting technology reached a new milestone, with the world's first megawatt level high-temperature superconducting induction heating device successfully put into operation at ZLDQ Light Alloy Materials Technology Group.
Yu Weijiang, Director of the National Center for Quality Supervision and Inspection of Electric Furnaces in China and Chairman of Xi'an Electric Furnaces Research Institute, announced the trial operation indicators of a megawatt level high-temperature superconducting induction heating device: the heating power of a single station exceeds 400 kilowatts, the actual single station power can reach 600 kilowatts, the dual station power exceeds 1 megawatt, the surface temperature difference of the core rod is 3 ℃, the heating uniformity is excellent, the heating efficiency is fast, and the energy consumption is extremely low, meeting various new technical indicators, The overall performance is excellent.
Dai Shaotao, the general leader of JXLC superconducting technology team, said: "The launch of this technology is not only a new milestone of high temperature superconducting technology, but also a key step for the realization of commercial controllable nuclear fusion in the future."
The completion and commissioning of the world's first MW high temperature superconducting induction heating device developed by JXLC Superconducting Technology Corporation marks that China's superconducting hot working technology has taken the lead in achieving major breakthroughs in the world, and has achieved disruptive alternative applications in the metal hot working industry, which will help China achieve the "Zero carbon" goal faster and break the "technical bottleneck" of domestic high-performance metal materials.
The device was successfully developed and manufactured by JXLC Superconductor. After completing equipment installation and debugging at ZLDQ Light Alloy Group, the equipment was put into parallel operation and practical production demonstration application was completed in March 2022.
After more than a year of trial production and testing, the technical indicators, energy saving indicators, stability and reliability of the core key technologies and device system of the megawatt high temperature superconducting induction heating device, such as superconducting magnet, rotary heating, low-temperature cooling, have been fully verified in the application of the metal heat treatment industry as a whole. Under the long-term operation, the actual production data show that, The heating energy consumption per ton of aluminum has been reduced from 300-350 kWh/ton of traditional electric furnaces to 160 kWh/ton, with significant energy-saving effects.
Before the completion and commissioning of the MW class high temperature superconducting induction heating device, the industry once believed that the preparation and processing of high temperature superconducting materials were difficult, especially in hypersonic spray, rotary heating, high pressure hot pressing and other aspects, which required special Know How. Under the parallel operation test of the equipment, it undoubtedly dispelled the doubt and further verified that the high temperature superconductor is moving towards the realization of application and industrial landing.
It is worth mentioning that on the day when ZLDQ announced the start of production, JXLC Superconductor and ZLDQ also held an order signing ceremony for this MW level high-temperature superconducting induction heating device. ZLDQ will purchase 5 additional high-temperature superconducting induction heating equipment from JXLC Superconductor.
This means that after achieving a breakthrough from 0 to 1, high-temperature superconductivity has further verified the feasibility of the industrialization of high-temperature superconductivity, and will accelerate the joint innovation of high-temperature superconductivity towards a breakthrough from 1 to 10.
"The market scale of large-scale high-temperature superconducting induction heating equipment in the field of non-ferrous metal hot working has reached 100 billion, which has a good development prospect." The relevant responsible person of JXLC superconductor said that the company is planning to layout the superconducting industrial park, and plans to achieve an annual capacity of 200 high-temperature superconducting heating induction equipment. In addition to induction heating equipment, JXLC superconductors are deploying high-temperature superconducting magnet for market applications in sewage treatment, magnetic separation, high-quality silicon single crystal growth furnaces, controllable nuclear fusion and other fields.