A method and apparatus for generating nuclear fusion by ion cyclotron resonance in an ion trap reactor. The reactor includes a cylindrical housing having an axial axis, an internal surface, and first and second ends. First and second end plates that are charged are respectively located at the first and second ends of the cylindrical housing. A gas layer is adsorbed on the internal surface of the cylindrical housing. Ions are desorbed from the gas layer, forming a plasma layer adjacent to the cylindrical housing that includes first ions that have a same charge sign as the first and second end plates. A uniform magnetic field is oriented along the axial axis of the cylindrical housing. Second ions, that are unlike the first ions, but have the same charge sign, are injected into the cylindrical housing along the axial axis of the cylindrical housing. A radio frequency field resonantly accelerates the injected second ions at the cyclotron resonance frequency of the second ions. The second ions circulate in increasing helical orbits and react with the first ions, at the optimum energy for nuclear fusion. The amplitude of the radio frequency field is adjusted to accelerate the second ions at a …

An apparatus and method for producing electricity from heat. The present invention is a thermoelectric generator that uses materials with substantially no electrical resistance, often called superconductors, to efficiently convert heat into electrical energy without resistive losses. Preferably, an array of superconducting elements is encased within a second material with a high thermal conductivity. The second material is preferably a semiconductor. Alternatively, the superconducting material can be doped on a base semiconducting material, or the superconducting material and the semiconducting material can exist as alternating, interleaved layers of waferlike materials. A temperature gradient imposed across the boundary of the two materials establishes an electrical potential related to the magnitude of the temperature gradient. The superconducting material carries the resulting electrical current at zero resistivity, thereby eliminating resistive losses. The elimination of resistive losses significantly increases the conversion efficiency of the thermoelectric device.

A nuclear fuel element is described which is suitable for high temperature applications comprised of a kernel of fissile material overlaid with concentric layers of impervious graphite, vitreous carbon, pyrolytic carbon and metal carbide. The kernel of fissile material is surrounded by a layer of impervious graphite. The layer of impervious graphite is then surrounded by a layer of vitreous carbon. Finally, an outer shell which includes alternating layers of pyrolytic carbon and metal carbide surrounds the layer of vitreous carbon.

A gas gun having a prepressurized projectile held in place with a glass rod in compression is described. The glass rod is destroyed with an explosive at a precise time which allows a restraining pin to be moved by pneumatic means and free the projectile.

Sorbent pellets for removing hydrogen sulfide from coal gas are prepared by combining a reactive oxide, in particular zinc oxide, with a zirconium compound such as an oxide, silicate, or aluminate of zirconium, and an inorganic binder and pelletizing and calcining the mixture. Alternately, the zinc oxide may be replaced by copper oxide or a combination of copper, molybdenum, and manganese oxides. The pellet components may be mixed in dry form, moistened to produce a paste, and converted to pellets by forming an aqueous slurry of the components and spray drying the slurry, or the reactive oxide may be formed on existing zirconium-containing catalyst-carrier pellets by infusing a solution of a salt of the active metal onto the existing pellets and firing at a high temperature to produce the oxide. Pellets made according to this invention show a high reactivity with hydrogen sulfide and durability such as to be useful over repeated cycles of sorption and regeneration.

Combustion oscillation control in combustion systems using hydrocarbon fuels is provided by acoustically tuning a fuel-delivery line to a desired phase of the combustion oscillations for providing a pulse of a fuel-rich region at the oscillating flame front at each time when the oscillation produced pressure in the combustion chamber is in a low pressure phase. The additional heat release produced by burning such fuel-rich regions during low combustion chamber pressure effectively attenuates the combustion oscillations to a selected value.