news hardware A 17-year-old has found a way to make electric cars truly green without the use of rare earths
Robert Sansone, a young student from Florida, just won the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) with his synchronous reluctance motor. An invention that could revolutionize the future of electric vehicles.
Synchronous reluctance to forget the rare earths
In recent years, electric cars have really conquered our everyday life and the trend will not fadeas evidenced by the decision taken by Europe. 2035 is expected to mark the end of heat engines on the old continent. It is an ecological concern that the automotive world has had to and must gradually turn to electrics.
However, electric cars are not perfect, contrary to what some people think. Battery and motor design require the extraction of certain materials from our soils, extraction that also causes significant damage to the environment. A problem to which At just 17, Robert Sansone seems to have found an alternative.
Scandium, lanthanum, cerium or neodymium, these names may not mean anything to you, but they belong to the family of the so-called “17 rare earths”. To give you an idea, 80% of current electric cars contain this type of metal in the motor and particularly in the rotor and its super magnets. Also note that we find these rare earths in our smartphones, our game consoles and even on trains. In short, these metals are present almost everywhere around us without us being aware of it.
Copyright: Robert Sansone
If these earths are rare, it is not because of their rarity but because of the high demand for their metals. If we assume that the entire vehicle fleet switches from thermal to electric, we will inevitably find ourselves in a critical situation for the environment due to the almost continuous extraction of its rare earths.
But without counting on the genius of this American student who managed to develop a synchronous reluctance motor that does not require any rare earths. An invention that could make electric cars a truly ecological means of transportation.
A system that had already proven itself, but was not that far advanced
First of all, you should know that Robert Sansone is what is commonly referred to as a genius. At the age of 17, the teenager already has almost 60 projects under his belt. Animatronic hand, racing boot or super powerful kart, the Floridian has already made a name for himself in the microcosm of inventors. But the young man did a very, very good job with his electric car prototype engine.
Rare earth elimination is all well and good, but how does this synchronous reluctance motor work? First of all, it is important to know that this type of motor does not have magnets, unlike the traditional electric motor. Instead, Robert came up with the idea of combining a plastic part (3D printed), copper cableas well as’a single steel rotor. This system uses the so-called reluctance difference to initiate the rotary movement (to put it very simply, it is a magnetic field that counteracts a magnetic circuit). Don’t forget that Robert really didn’t invent anything. but Thanks to these materials, he managed to increase the torque of his engine tenfold.
Copyright: Robert Sansone
If we tell you he didn’t invent anything, it’s because Synchronous reluctance motors are already used in fans for example. Despite this, the young American managed to create a similar engine with his system, but Development of a much greater electric rotation (39%).
Although it is still a bit early to say that this invention will revolutionize the automotive industrythere is no doubt that the latter could represent long-term a major innovation that could allow electric vehicles to break free of rare earths. Thanks to his project, Robert Sansone won first prize at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest international science, technology, engineering and math competition for high school students, as well as the handsome sum of $75,000.
