Peter J. Schubert
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Peter Schubert translates his research into practical solutions for affordable and reliable energy from renewable sources. The university created the spin-up company Green Fortress Engineering (GFE) to commercialize his intellectual property on waste-to-energy, hydrogen storage, and in-space resource utilization. The biomass gasifier he invented has been funded by the USDA, the Department of Energy, and the Army, and has earned five US patents. Using locally-available low-cost materials such as crop waste, food waste, and utility trimmings, his technology can produce electricity, heat, biochar, and hydrogen gas. The gasifier is called the Stalk Stoker, and is suitable for farms, factories, and facilities which have free or nuisance materials available.
The bio-hydrogen can be stored in a novel solid-state storage media for which Schubert holds four US patents. The research has been funded by the DOE and the National Science Foundation. GFE has received further development funds from private industry, subcontracting the research components to IUPUI while developing commercial applications for fuel cell vehicles and long-duration aerial drones. This approach is eight times better than batteries, and could revolutionize how we generate, store, and transport energy.
Schubert’s most out-of-this-world technology is converting mineral resources from the moon and asteroids into solar power satellites. When placed in a geosynchronous orbit they can beam power to cities on earth around the clock. With abundant clean and inexhaustible power to urban centers, paired with local waste-to-energy in rural and remote locales, this is another practical example of how IUPUI's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
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Item Solving all the world’s energy problems for once and forever(Springer, 2023-07-07) Schubert, Peter J.; Electrical and Computing Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologyThe ultimate baseload power is that which can be delivered from orbit, especially if constructed from in situ materials. Power satellites can deliver GW-class power to municipal statistical areas and industrial parks using wireless power transfer from phased array antennae. Two recent innovations allow for a low specific cost (USD/kWh) at maturity, along with a small carbon footprint (gCO2(eq)/kWh). Remote from cities, local power and heat can be produced from non-food biomass. For villages and settlements in rural areas, agricultural residues can be converted to a tar-free hydrogen-rich syngas suitable for hydrogen extraction or as a fuel for an electrical generator (fuel cell or internal-combustion engine). This proven technology provides always-on power to off-grid locations, as well as heat for cooking or sterilization. Furthermore, with dry feedstock, the process generates biochar that can augment soil productivity, and be carbon-negative as well. Mineral ash from biomass conversion includes silica that can be reduced, with biochar, to produce metallurgical grade silicon. That silicon can be made porous with a chemical etch, and treated with a transition metal to produce a hydrogen storage medium. The parasitic energy loss of charging and discharging catalytically-modified porous silicon is very low, and it has negligible leakage. These qualities make for an ideal choice in fuel cell vehicles and portable electronics. Hydrogen can come from biomass in the countryside, or from powersat electrolysis during periods of low demand in the city. Taken together, these complementary technologies can power all of human needs for all time to come.Item Ultra-safe nuclear thermal rockets using lunar-derived fuel(Elsevier, 2021-09-01) Schubert, Peter J.; Marrs, Ian; Daniel, Ebin; Conaway, Adam; Bhaskaran, Amal; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologyRocket launch failure rate is slightly higher than five percent. Concerned citizens are likely to protest against private-sector launches involving fission reactors. Yet, fission reactors can power long-duration lunar operations for science, observation, and in situ resource utilization. Furthermore, fission reactors are needed for rapid transport around the solar system, especially considering natural radiation doses for crews visiting Mars or an asteroid. A novel approach is to create nuclear fuel on the Moon. In this way, a rocket launched from the earth with no radioactive material can be fueled in outer space, avoiding the risks of spreading uranium across Earth's biosphere. A solution is to harvest fertile thorium on the lunar surface, then transmute it into fissile uranium using the gamma ray fog which pervades the deep sky. It is only at lunar orbit, at the very edge of cislunar space, that the Earth-launched machine becomes a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR). Thorium is not abundant, but can be concentrated by mechanical methods because of its very high specific density relative to the bulk of lunar regolith. Thorium dioxide (ThO2) has an extremely high melting point, such that skull crucible heating can be used to separate it from supernatant magma. When filled into a graphite-lined beryllium container (brought from Earth) and set out on the lunar surface, high-energy gamma rays will liberate neutrons from the Be. After moderation by the graphite, these thermal neutrons are captured by the thorium nucleus, which is transmuted into protactinium (Pa91). This element can be extracted using the THOREX process, and will then decay naturally into U-233 within two or three lunar days. The uranium is oxidized and packed into fuel pellets, ready to be inserted into a non-radioactive machine, which now becomes an NTR. Additionally, hydrogen can be extracted from deposits in permanently-shadowed regions on the Moon, providing reaction mass for the NTR. A novel method of solid-state hydrogen storage, which can be entirely fabricated using in situ resources, can deliver said hydrogen to the fission reactor to provide high and efficient propulsive thrust. These combined operations lead to an ultra-safe (for the Earth) means for private sector, commercial transport and power generation throughout the Solar System. With the hydrogen storage material used as radiation shielding for crewed spacecraft, and greatly-reduced transit times relative to chemical rocketry, this innovative approach could fundamentally transform how humans work, play, and explore in outer space.Item Technology Systems for Lunar Industrial Development(International Astronautical Congress, 2021-10) Schubert, Peter J.; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologySelf-sufficiency of lunar operations is essential to establishment of an in-space economy. This work describes a sustainable step-wise pathway to energy, materials, finished goods, and food. The first lunar factory to build solar cells can be delivered from earth and be solar powered, as described in several US patents to the author. An alternative is to create fission fuels from lunar resources for a multi-MW baseload power reactor. Together with wireless power transfer, operations in permanently-shadowed regions can extract icy regolith and thence water, and thus oxygen and hydrogen. This hydrogen can be stored in porous silicon fabricated entirely on the moon. By extracting free iron from the lunar surface, the rails of a circumpolar transport system can be extruded so that a slow-moving train can remain in sunlight to grow food. Electromagnetic catapults using harvested iron as payload canisters can be used to transport solar panels, wires, and other value-added materials from the Moon to various orbits. Combining long-duration hydrogen storage and nuclear fission fuel, plus structural aluminum from an isotope separator, we can build fast ships to reach all portions of the solar system quickly, and with ample protection for human rocketeers. This presentation will integrate prior publications, provide a synopsis of on-going work, and present a framework of a step-by-step advancement towards comprehensive lunar industrial development.Item Performance Estimates for a Fuel-Free Stationary Platform in the Stratosphere(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2022) Schubert, Peter J.; van Wynsberghe, Erinn; Finnell, Abigail J. Kragt; Salgueiro, Cristian; Suri, Ramaa Saket; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologyHigh-altitude pseudo-satellites (HAPS) may be kept aloft indefinitely with station-keeping provided by plasma air thrusters (PAT) using wireless power transfer (WPT) from a terrestrial phased array antenna (PAA). One example is the patented “Sitallite” superpressure balloon with a rectifying antenna (rectenna) covering its underside, with thrusters around the periphery. Such a stationary platform can provide continuous observation and communications capabilities covering vast areas for a fraction of the cost required for an orbiting satellite. This work builds upon the design and safety study published elsewhere to provide performance estimates for a long-duration, persistent HAPS powered by electronically-steerable microwave beams. Newly-derived efficiency equations are used to provide accurate estimates of free-space WPT transfer efficiency based on the dimensions of the ground-based PAA and the rectenna. Calculations of air drag for a spheroidal bouyant shape are used to derive PAT power requirements, and these, together with power conversion circuitry, are used to size the overall system. Accurate estimates of cost are derived. These performance estimates can be used to help make economic and logistic decisions, as a fuel-free HAPS with PAT and powered by WPT can be lofted in less time, and with lower risk, than an orbital satellite of comparable capabilities.Item Space Nuclear Power for Terrestrial Utilities(International Astronautical Congress, 2021-10) Schubert, Peter J.; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologySolar power satellites must be large because sunlight is diffuse. Recent advances in developing fission fuel on the Moon raise the possibility of a nuclear powersat. Modest payloads of uranium oxide, transmuted from lunar thorium, and delivered to GEO are inserted into fission reactors. Eighty such reactors attached to a spacetenna can provide GW-class baseload power to terrestrial utilities. This paper studies the size, logistics, and safety considerations for Space Nuclear Power. A particular technical concern is the thermal management required of a heat engine. The delivery of fuel pins from the Moon is studied, and various transport methods are compared. The transfer of power wirelessly is studied, as it impacts terrestrial communications. Of prime concern to all are the safety considerations, which are partly ameliorated by the use of U-233 as the fissile material. A Risk Analysis is presented, and the highest ranking solutions presented. Life Cycle Analysis considerations demand a practical end-of-life treatment. The design of the nuclear powersat aims to strictly minimize any use as a weapon, with the goal being no greater threat to earth than an inert body of similar mass. Through lunar resource utilization, the time may be advanced when utilities can provide baseload (always on) electric power, which is free of pollution.Item Rapid Discharge of Solid-State Hydrogen Storage Using Porous Silicon and Metal Foam(World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2022-01-11) Potter, Loralee P.; Schubert, Peter J.; Engineering Technology, School of Engineering and TechnologySolid-state hydrogen storage using catalytically-modified porous silicon can be rapidly charged at moderate pressures (8 bar) without exothermic runaway. Discharge requires temperatures of approximately 110oC, so for larger storage vessels a means is required for thermal energy to penetrate bulk storage media. This can be realized with low-density metal foams, such as Celmet™. This study explores several material and dimensional choices of the metal foam to produce rapid heating of bulk silicon particulates. Experiments run under vacuum and in a pressurized hydrogen environment bracket conditions of empty and full hydrogen storage vessels, respectively. Curve-fitting of the heating profiles at various distances from an external heat source is used to derive both a time delay and a characteristic time constant. System performance metrics of a hydrogen storage subsystem are derived from the experimental results. A techno-economic analysis of the silicon and metal foam provides comparison with other methods of storing hydrogen for mobile and portable applications.Item Lab Demo Meeting the Jaffe Challenge(2020-11-16) Schubert, Peter J.; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologyItem Wireless Power Transfer to Sitallite Stratospheric Platform(IEEE, 2020-10) Schubert, Peter J.; van Wynsberghe, Erinn; Kragt Finnell, Abigail J.; Salgueiro, Cristian; Suri, Ramaa Saket; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologyThe following topics are dealt with: artificial satellites; ionospheric electromagnetic wave propagation; Global Positioning System; satellite navigation; ionospheric techniques; radiowave propagation; space vehicle electronics; ionospheric disturbances; total electron content (atmosphere); and magnetic storms.Item Nuclear Thermal Rocket with Fissile and Reaction Fuel from Lunar ISRU(International Astronautical Federation, 2020) Schubert, Peter J.; Daniel, Ebin; Conaway, Adam; Bhaskaran, Amal; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologyItem Long Duration Solid-State Hydrogen Storage From ISRU Materials(IAF, 2020) Schubert, Peter J.; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologyHydrogen storage is vital for use in fuel cells and nuclear thermal rockets (NTR), both of which benefit from low-energy reservoirs available for long durations. A novel method of solid-state storage using catalytically-modified porous silicon can be fabricated entirely from materials found on the moon and in asteroids, requiring only a fixed quantity of re-usable reagents to be brought from earth. Consumables include silicon, aluminum, iron, and water, all of which can be extracted from suitable regolith ore bodies. An aluminum pressure vessel containing granular porous silicon particles is recharged by hydrogen pressures of 0.8 MPa. Once charged the hydrogen storage subsystem can be maintained at any temperature from 0 to 373 K for an indefinite period, suitable for lunar nights or months-long trips to main belt asteroids. Discharge is facilitated by heating above 393 K, provided by IR, resistive, or metal foam heat conductors embedded in the particulate bed. Systems-level volumetric and gravimetric storage metrics are 39 g/l and 5.8 percent w/w, respectively, comparable to cryogenic hydrogen storage in size and mass. The embodied energy in storing the hydrogen is very small, less than 2 percent of the embodied chemical energy, which makes it more efficient than cryogenic at 40 percent. Silicon and aluminum can be extracted from regolith using isotopic separation by charge/mass ratio. Iron and nickel are harvested from lunar regolith by electromagnets, and used as the catalyst to mediate between gaseous hydrogen and monatomic surface adsorbed hydrogen. Deposition is accomplished via carbonyl gases, which require a quantity of CO, which is recovered after each use. Making the silicon porous requires hydrofluoric acid (HF), which will need to be supplied from earth. The hydrofluorosilicic acid byproduct can be heated to decompose into HF vapor and silicon dioxide. The HF is condensed and re-used, and the silicon dioxide is a waste byproduct which can be formed into quartz objects such as portals and glassware. A lunar factory with a mass of 30 MT can produce complete hydrogen storage vessels, assuming that electronic control can be provided by the remainder of the power system. Being granular the size and shape of such vessels are essentially unlimited. One example is two-meter thick shell sections for a deep space crew cabin for radiation protection. The hydrogen therein could be withdrawn as a back-up supply of fuel, or for a final Hohman transfer burn just before refueling.