ANKARA - Turkish scientists unraveled the production techniques of boron-based super conductor cables, which has a global market share of 5 billion USD.
Researchers from Ankara University (AU) Department of Physics, developed a machine which produces boron-based super conductor cables using home grown technologies.
AU faculty member Prof. Ali Gencer who is heading the Magnetic and Super Material Research team told AA that their project would minimise the energy losses in hydroelectric power plants widely used in Turkey and prevent electricity cuts which negatively effect the production through harm rendered to machinery.
Gencer said super conductors were an alternative to conventional cables reducing cost and increasing energy efficiency. He pointed out that borON was of utmost value in super conductor production for Turkey, which had vast boron reserves.
Gencer who noted that though Turkey had 82 percent of global boron reserves, its contribution to boron technology was limited to as low as one percent. He said National Boron Research Institute supported their project with the aim of making boron a valuable element for the national economy.
-TURKEY BREAKS MONOPOLY -
Gencer also said the project which lasted two years was the joint work of their university and industrial companies. He said using a boron-metal composite they produced a machine which could produce super conductor cables kms in length.
"The capacity of our machine is far more superior than the capacity of those used in foreign countries. Our project was carried out by local engineers and workers. We used boron in the production of super conductors in order to utilise Turkey`s richness.
Few companies active in this field had monopolised the sector. They don`t let others enter this field. With our research project we have broken this monopoly, and gone far beyond existing technologies," said Gencer.
-AU WILLING TO TRANSFER NEW TECHNOLGY TO LOCAL ENTERPRENEURS-
Prof. Gencer said their project was important and said they were willing to transfer the technology they developed to local entrepreneurs .
Gencer also said Italian company Colombus Superconductors was interested in their machine and said they would consider selling the innovation to this company.
Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials at extremely low temperatures, characterized by exactly zero electrical resistance and the exclusion of the interior magnetic field.
Superconductor technology which advanced especially in the last 7 years is used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cellular phones and most importantly in electrical energy networks.
(OZG-ULG)