Universities and businesses partner to unlock secure green energy solutions

A research team at the University of Huddersfield is working on an international project that could provide a key to unlocking safe green energy solutions without producing hazardous waste.

The project, called Super Polished Freeform Optical System (SFOS) for Industrial and Nuclear Fusion, is led by Zeeko, a British company that specializes in manufacturing ultra-precision polishing machines.

The consortium, with total funding of €3.6 million/£3 million, will seek to advance the manufacture of nanometer-precise ultra-smooth optical elements with complex “freeform” surfaces to safely generate energy through laser fusion.

A team from the university’s Ultra Precision Surfaces Laboratory is providing expertise to the three-year project, which also involves another British company, Thin Metal Films Ltd, as well as a Swiss company and university.

Innovate UK funds the UK portion of the research – totaling £1.5 million, of which £559,000 is awarded to universities.

Meanwhile, Swiss innovation agency Innosuisse is funding research at the Swiss University of Applied Sciences OST and WZW Optic AG. The Huddersfield laboratory is part of the university’s Center for Precision Technology.

Professor David Walker leads the facility. But within this project, he provides scientific leadership as Director of Research at Zeeko Ltd.

Professor Walker noted that last year, scientists at the National Ignition Facility exceeded their energy balance target by generating more energy from hydrogen fuel pellets than the laser energy input.

“This is a huge milestone and it shows the feasibility of the whole concept,” he said. “But the problem is, while they have definitely exceeded break-even in terms of fuel pellets, if you look at the total energy budget – for all The amount of electricity required to power the lasers involved, compared to the total energy recovered – the overall efficiency is just a few percent.

“Why? Because of the huge system complexity and losses involved in generating 192 high-power laser beams and focusing them all on a 2 mm particle.

“So how do you make a system like this more efficient? This is where freeform surfaces come in – having more mathematical ‘knobs’ in the design can deliver superior performance with less optical surface. To achieve this goal That’s what our project is all about.”

Dr. Yu Guoyu leads the University of Huddersfield in participating in this project.

“We believe that to create ultra-smooth freeform optical components, the ability to measure them is critical,” he said. “So we are developing a hybrid metrology system so that our polishing technology can achieve the desired goals.”

“Our Swiss partners have developed some ultra-smooth surface technology on simple surfaces, which they will transfer to us so that we can extend it to free-form surfaces.

“We believe our international consortium has the expertise to achieve the milestones and outcomes required here.”

The technology is also expected to have wider applications in other fields such as medical instruments and scientific instruments.