Felix Smits is dedicated to energy research using plasma technology and radio waves. Since climate change cannot wait for nuclear fusion to become commercially viable, he combines his broad experience to develop the TECH microwave plasma reactor, which is the missing technology link in a circular power station. LION does this in collaboration with DIFFER, the Dutch Institute for Energy Research. The circular power station offers a solution to the intermittency of green electricity: The CO2 from the power plant is converted to gas by TECH using excess electricity. And during power dips, the gas is used by the power plant to generate electricity and store CO2. In this way, the circular power station serves as a chemical battery. This reactor combines many physics topics: plasma, flow, microwaves, chemical reactions, heat transport, to name a few. All of these must be mastered to prove the concept and make a competitive demonstrator.

More information about Felix Smits

Felix Smits contributed to nuclear fusion research (creating the sun on earth to generate energy) in experiments as Tore Supra and the world’s largest tokamak JET. These plasma machines have paved the way to the worldwide collaboration ITER. He led the first projects AAD and OSMA that developed the phased array technology used in the Square Kilometre Array Observatory. He explored this technology for new radars concepts at Thales and TNO leading to several patents, such as a through the wall radar. His combined experience is especially suited to the research and development of the TECH reacor with DIFFER.

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