High Temperature Superconductors delivering results

The innovation that’s intriguing a number of the world’s largest companies is the high temperature superconductor, whose applications are tipped to be a US$2 billion market by 2020.

The superconductor industry began five decades ago with Low Temperature Superconductors.

In the 1980s high temperature superconductors (HTS) were discovered and that technology impacts health, transport, utility, commercial and manufacturing sectors. Sectors where better production, storage and use of energy is increasingly an environmental, economic and political imperative.

Low temperature superconductors (requiring cooling to -270C) underpin a multi-billion dollar industry in MRI body scanners and higher resolution NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) equipment. 

But excitement is building for HTS, which work below -200 C, opening up large new markets.

High temperature superconductors allow the flow of electricity with no loss of energy at temperatures far higher, and more easily achievable, than those needed for low temperature superconductors.

Leading the way

Dr Chris Boalch, NZTE Director Strategic Initiatives, said New Zealand had a well established technical leadership resulting from a long period of research, and more recent commercial development was leading the market globally.

“We conservatively estimate New Zealand’s HTS-based scientific, medical and industrial magnet systems manufacturers could be turning over in excess of US$100m within six years, as the industry moves from sales of bespoke equipment to standardised models and volume manufacturing. 

Simon Arnold, CEO of the New Zealand High Temperature Superconductor Industry Association (NZ-HTSIA), said New Zealand was well established in HTS development and application.

“We support New Zealand’s HTS industry in achieving international success in high-value magnet-based systems, cryogenic refrigeration, and cables,” said Mr Arnold.

New Zealand’s leading position initially stemmed from the discovery of the material for the first useful HTS wire by DSIR (later Industrial Research Ltd) in the late 1980s.

The country is now one of a few global centres involved in HTS industrialisation rather than just pure research and it’s this commercial application experience that consolidates New Zealand’s position.

This distinctly commercial approach saw the formation of IRL spin-out company HTS-110 Ltd to manufacture and sell HTS based magnet systems. 

Six years on, it is the first to market the complex magnet-based analytic technology of NMR and the world’s leading commercial manufacturer of HTS scientific and industrial magnet systems.