electrons in plasma for electricity

google Coal fired boilers plasma research.

Regards JD.

Kindly do a little research first, then ask specific questions. We will be much better able to help you with your questions then

Dear AZ,

electrons - if moving - can be thought as currents (moving charge).

A current and a magnetic field is generating a force perpendicular to both.

(Vector cross product of velocity vector and magnetic field vector).

So a magnetic field will bend the path of the electron but will not attract it.

If you want to attract electrons then think about using an electric field.

But the self-shielding effect will not give you access to electrons deep inside the plasma as these are shielded by the surrounding (positive) ions.

More details and introductory reading in: Chen, Glow Discharge Processes.

RHABE

Creating a plasma usually requires some INPUT of energy. Energy you extract from this plasma can never exceed the energy used to create it unless nuclear reactions occur.

The REAL question should be ...

Where is this "good source of plasma" ?

When my daughter was in Jr. High school she they had a science fair every year. One year she decided to do her project on our model rocket hobby. Her and I used to build model rockets that use solid fuel motors, we had a lot of fun with that. I don't remember what the exact project was but what I do remember was how impressed her science teacher was. He had been a mining engineer in Colorado in the late 70's and they had been doing research into extracting the oil out of shale and they had used some kind of afterburner jet engine in the process, and don't ask me what they were using it for he wouldn't say. But he had been working on extracting electricity out of the engine exhaust. They were putting coils around the engine exhaust. As the plasma went passed the coil it created a magnetic field and wa la we have electricity. He had wanted to refine this process and use it on Commercial jets but he couldn't get any funding. It is an interesting idea and I had always wanted to try it out with one of my little engines but I never got around to it. I don't know if this helps but maybe someone can explain the principle.

I may be wrong, but I think the principle basically is this. Plasma is ionized gas and therefore there is a constant stream of electrons i.e. electricity flowing in it. By mounting coils perpendicularly around the plasma jet, the electrons will induce a moving magnetic field in the coils. When this moving magnetic field cuts perpendicularly across a second set of coils, an electromotive force i.e. a potential difference is induced within the coil, resulting in an electrical current flow.

If anyone out there knows whether I'm correct about this or not, please advice.

Thanks for the info. Very informative, I was going to look it up and see how the principal worked. Do you know of anyone using this in a practical form? You would think that NASA could use it as power during liftoff? I was always going to play around with it on one of our rockets but I couldn't ever think of anything to use the electricty for on a toy rocket.

Magnetohydrodynamics: Start here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MHD_generator