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  • Review Article
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High-temperature superconductors and their large-scale applications

Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering volume 1, pages 788–801 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

For decades, superconductor materials have promised high power, high efficiency and compact machines. However, as of 2024, commercial applications are limited. One of the few successful examples is represented by low-temperature superconductor (LTS) materials that are used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in hospitals worldwide. High-temperature superconductors (HTSs) can support currents and magnetic fields at least an order of magnitude higher than those available from LTSs and non-superconducting conventional materials, such as copper. However, HTSs are seldom used, even if there are important areas where these materials could perform better than conventional ones or LTSs. For example, HTSs can replace conventional materials in wind turbines and aeroplane motor engines to improve power-to-weight ratios. In tokamak fusion reactors, HTSs might enable sustainable positive power outputs. Additionally, in medicine, HTSs might replace LTSs for smaller MRI machines, producing high-resolution images, without the need to use a scarce resource such as helium (fundamental for LTSs). The primary barriers to deployment are alternating current loss, quench, heat losses and costs. Developments in HTS manufacture have the potential to overcome these barriers. In this Review, we set out the problems, describe the potential of the technology and offer (some) solutions.

Key points

  • Low-temperature superconductors (LTSs) require either cryocoolers or costly, and increasingly rare, liquid helium — whereas high-temperature superconductors (HTSs), although still needing cryogenic conditions, can operate at more accessible temperatures using liquid nitrogen, and can support current at higher magnetic fields than LTSs.

  • The primary factors impeding the adoption and development of large-scale applications of HTSs are high manufacturing and cooling costs, the latter of which are exacerbated by alternating current (AC) losses.

  • The price of LTSs is stagnant, and the market, mostly magnetic resonance imaging, is fully developed. Many applications such as motors and fusion coils require much higher fields than can currently be produced by LTSs or conventional materials (where 2 T is the maximum practical value for iron).

  • Increased demand and improved manufacturing techniques for HTSs are driving down the price of HTSs.

  • Developments to tackle AC losses are continuing and promising, with innovations such as patterned superconductors for AC loss minimization and current maximization (PSALM) building on previous work such as Rutherford cables and Roebel tapes, with other cables such as cable on round core (CORC) also slowing being taken up. Compared with normal HTS tapes, single-layer PSALM cables can reduce the transport AC loss by 60% due to patterning and double-layer PSALM cables can reduce the loss by a further 20% due to the field cancelling effect. The magnetization loss reduction is proportional to the filament numbers: a 70% reduction can be obtained using four filaments.

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Fig. 1: Characteristics of rare earth barium cuprate (REBCO), bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide (BSCCO) and MgB2.
Fig. 2: Examples of rare earth barium cuprate (REBCO) cables.
Fig. 3: Examples of high-temperature superconductor applications.
Fig. 4: Development timelines for different tokamak systems founded by both government organizations and private companies.

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  1. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Tim A. Coombs, Qi Wang, Adil Shah, Jintao Hu, Luning Hao, Ismail Patel, Haigening Wei, Yuyang Wu & Thomas Coombs

  2. College of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Wei Wang

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Contributions

T.A.C, L.H., A.S., J.H., Q.W., I.P., H.W. and Y.W. researched data for the article. T.A.C., L.H., J.H. and T.C. contributed substantially to discussion of the content. T.A.C, L.H., Q.W. and W.W. wrote the article. T.A.C, L.H., A.S., J.H., Q.W., H.W., Y.W. and T.C. reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Tim A. Coombs.

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T.A.C. is the director of Magnifye, a company which specializes in research and development of superconducting devices.

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Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering thanks Valeria Braccini and Stuart Wimbush for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Related links

ASCEND: https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/stories/2023-12-ascending-to-new-heights-with-cryogenic-superconductivity

ASuMED: http://www.asumed.oswald.de/index.php

CH-110 capacity chart: https://shicryogenics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CH-110_Capacity_Map.pdf

CORC: https://www.advancedconductor.com/corccable/

EAST tokamak: http://east.ipp.ac.cn/

European Magnetic Field Laboratory: https://emfl.eu/

F-70 compressor: https://shicryogenics.com/product/f-70-indoor-water-cooled-compressor-series/

HTS tokamak: https://spectrum.ieee.org/fusion-2662267312

ITER tokamak: https://www.iter.org/mach

ITER: https://www.iter.org/

KSTAR tokamak: https://www.kfe.re.kr/eng

Large Hadron Collider: https://home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider

MRI unit at University of California, Los Angeles: https://www.uprightmrideerfield.com/the-biggest-breakthroughs-in-mri-history

ROEBEL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-2048/27/9/093001/meta

SPARC tokamak: https://www.psfc.mit.edu/sparc

STEP tokamak: https://step.ukaea.uk/

ST-series: https://tokamakenergy.com/2022/10/26/tokamak-energy-announces-st80-hts-advanced-prototype-on-path-to-demonstrate-grid-ready-fusion-power-in-the-early-2030s/

Sumitomo CH-110: https://shicryogenics.com/product/ch-110-77k-cryocooler-series/

Super EMFL: https://emfl.eu/superemfl/

Tokamak Energy: https://tokamakenergy.com/

UK Department for Energy Security & Net Zero: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-energy-security-and-net-zero

VIPER: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6668/abb8c0

Glossary

Minimum quench energy

The energy required to initiate quench. If the energy available is lower than this, then quench does not occur.

Normal zone propagation velocity

The rate at which quench, once initiated, will spread to other parts of the superconductor. A low velocity leads to problems because the quench energy is then concentrated in a small volume and this can lead to burn out.

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Coombs, T.A., Wang, Q., Shah, A. et al. High-temperature superconductors and their large-scale applications. Nat Rev Electr Eng 1, 788–801 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-024-00112-y

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