What is Pulsed Power?

Also known as High Energy Inductive Therapy (HEIT) or High Intensity Electromagnetic Therapy (HIEMT), PEMF is the conversion of stored electrical energy into short bursts of time varying magnetic fields. These time varying magnetic fields induce nerve stimulation, which can provide therapeutic treatment to people as well as animals. PEMF is FDA approved for muscle stimulation, healing of bone fractures and certain neurological disorders but it can also be used by Chiropractors and Veterinarians for non-medical physical therapy and pain management.

ESWT is the conversion of stored electrical energy into a short burst of ultrasonic waves in water. These waves, when focused, can break up kidney stones inside the body (Lithotripsy) or can treat muscle strain or even Erectile Dysfunction (ED).

Water can be treated by pulsed electrical discharge. The electrical discharge both produces ultraviolet radiation and hydrodynamic cavitation which combine to reduce biological contamination and scale. Pulsed power can significantly reduce chemical treatment requirements and operational costs for industrial or municipal water treatment systems.

Flue gas, emitted by coal burning power stations, can also be treated by pulsed electrical discharge. The electrical discharge, for example, breaks up Nitrogen Oxides into gaseous Nitrogen and Oxygen thereby significantly reducing air pollution versus current chemical based Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems.

Pulsed discharge in dense rock formation can significantly reduce the wear on drill bits. The electrical discharge causes the rock to fragment making it easier for the drill to bore deep holes without having to pull the drill up regularly for maintenance.

Commercial fusion power may not be here today but it is not far away. There are many ways to generate power from fusion. Some of the biggest examples are the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER being built in France. But there are also private companies working on fusion including (in no particular order and not exclusive) Helion Energy, General Fusion, Type One, Zap, and Xcimer. Some of these will use continuous confined plasma or beams such as Tokamak based systems. Others will use pulsed fusion reactions, such as NIF. NIF was able to produce 3.88 MJ of fusion output in a single pulse, which is about half of the theoretical output of the system of 7 MJ. A typical fission nuclear power reactor produces about 1 GW or 1000 MJ/second – so NIF would have to pulse 143 times per second to achieve the same 1 GW level. NIF is not designed to do that but private fusion power development is working towards commercial fusion power. For example, Helion is expected to deliver 50 MW to Microsoft by 2028 pulsing once per second using colliding deuterium-Helium 3 field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmoids. Pulsed power is needed to generate and accelerate the plasmoids for Helion or pulse the lasers for NIF or generate the Z-pinch for ZAP and so on. Even at 1 Hz, if a fusion reactor ran continuous for the typical 18 months cycle of a fission nuclear reactor between fueling, the system would have to pulse nearly 50 million times. So pulse power could be a big part of future commercial fusion power.