When it comes to fusion power, there are two main ways to do it: One, make a small star on Earth that is held in place by strong magnetic fields. Two, take very strong lasers and make a series of even smaller stars. Do this several times a second.
This is what Moritz von der Linden thinks the odds are best for. As the world tries to get off of fossil fuels, fusion power looks like it could be a virtually endless source of energy. It uses common materials to create temperatures hotter than the sun’s surface.
However, most experts think that commercial fusion power won’t come about for at least ten years. This is because green energy and battery storage are getting cheaper every year. The co-founder and CEO of Marvel Fusion told Parhlo World, “Fusion has to come fast and it has to come cheap.” “If not, no one will want or need it, and no one will be willing to pay for it.”
A lot of companies are trying to do something called “inertial confinement fusion,” and Marvel Fusion is one of them. The same basic method was used at the National Ignition Facility, a lab run by the Department of Energy that showed in 2022 that controlled fusion processes could make more power than they needed to start. That’s an important step for any company that’s been looking for the technology so far.
But while NIF’s lasers are based on ideas that are decades old, Marvel is using cutting edge technology to make its lasers stronger and more useful. Together with Colorado State University, the startup will soon build a display center where it hopes two 100-Joule lasers will show how its core technology works. On October 16, shovels hit the ground, and von der Linden thinks it will be ready to use by early 2027.
These lasers will fire much faster than a blink of an eye, in the femtosecond range, which is one billionth of a second. They will bombard a nanostructured object with photons that will destroy its electrons and scatter the positively charged ions that are left. The ions will then hit Marvel’s fuel, which will start a fusion process. The company is mostly using hydrogen and boron right now, but von der Linden says the company is using a “mixed fuel” method to keep its options open in case a better combination comes along.
NIF’s fuel pellet is set in a one-centimeter metal hohlraum and takes two weeks to make and load. Marvel’s fuel and target, on the other hand, were made to be mass-produced. It is easier to work with than NIF’s fel, which depends on hydrogen isotopes that are either liquid or cryogenically frozen. This is because the fuel is solid at room temperature. Also, Marvel’s goal is easier to hit because its nanoparticles are made of silicon instead of gold.
“That kind of woke me up,” von der Linden said. “The target guys were really happy when the physics guys found out that silicon works better!” We can use standard printing from making chips. Marvel plans to make things that are 50 to 80 nanometers thick per feature. The company can use semiconductor production equipment that is up to ten years old to do this. Five thousand targets can be made on a normal 300-millimeter wafer.
If the tests in Colorado go as planned, the company will start using more and stronger lasers in a different building in 2028 or 2029. “The 20 lasers give us the power to really control how fast the ions move,” von der Linden said.
Marvel just raised €62.8 million in a Series B round to reach those goals, the company told Parhlo World first. The round was led by HV Capital, and b2venture, BayernKapital, Deutsche Telekom, SPRIND, and Tenglemann Ventures all took part. The company was also chosen by the European Innovation Council to receive a grant of €2.5 million and a stock investment of up to €15 million. If the investment is made, it will extend this round.
von der Linden said that Marvel’s first prototype should be finished around 2032 or 2033. It will have hundreds of kilojoule-class lasers inside it. About ten times a second, each will fire.
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That’s when the truth will come out. The Colorado center for the company will be a big step forward, but von der Linden said, “it’s like driving a Ferrari with a two-cylinder engine.” “It’ll move, but it won’t do what it’s supposed to do,” in this case make enough power to be useful. This new company might be able to cross the fusion finish line if the full-size sample fires all of its lasers. It’s time to race.
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