St. Elmo’s Fire

BOULDER — The theory: Stick an antenna high enough in the sky to find an area charged with atmospheric ions, and a corona effect can be created, allowing electrons to be pulled up to that corona discharge through a wire, and you’ve created current.
It has long been with us, this fascination with the power of the skies. But whether it was in mythology, such as a lightning-slinging Zeus, or popular fiction, such as the lightning-fueled reanimation of Frankenstein, it was mostly in the power of storms.

For a small team of relatively young scientists at Boulder-based sefe Inc., the power may lie in more tranquil skies, just as the basis of the company’s name, St. Elmo’s fire, was a comfort to sailors who saw the bluish corona effect of electricity light the top of their masts after storms.

Essentially, that effect is created by putting an antenna, such as the tip of a mast, into a electronically charged atmospheric field, which creates supercharged plasma around the antenna which looks like a bluish fire and to which scientists refer as coronal discharge.

“We were actually brought in as skeptics,” recalled Michael Hurowitz, director of engineering at sefe (OTCBB: SEFE).

Sefe Inc. is trying to capture, harness and use electricity from the atmosphere.

“At first we were going through the literature saying, ‘This can’t be done,’ but after a while we were saying, ‘Hey, now, this might work.’ ”

Ionization of atmospheric elements — atoms dropping or adding an electron — continuously occurs, although most of us are only aware of that which occurs with water condensation and storms. We’ve come a long way, however, in being able to measure and utilize that natural electric source since one of our nation’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, took his kid out in a lightning storm with a kite and a key.

The idea is similar: Stick an antenna high enough in the sky to find an area charged with atmospheric ions, and a corona effect can be created, allowing electrons to be pulled up to that corona discharge through a wire, and you’ve created current. But in this case, the antenna would be suspended by a balloon or a blimp, and sefe (St. Elmo’s Fire Electric) is searching for safe havens in the atmosphere where abundant ions can be safely tapped on a predictable basis.

The kite that Hurowitz and lead scientist Ryan Coulson devised to find the greatest concentration of those ions is a bit too heavy for winds to lift. The six-foot cube built of two-by-four boards and fenced by copper wire might be mistaken by some for a flying chicken coop, but it is a key component in determining the viability of the project.

“Think of it as a big open-air capacitor,” Coulson said. The cubic ion detector will measure both the positive and negative ion content of the atmosphere, including the species (the original elements) of the ions.

Countless other variables also can be measured, including solar radiation — the engine that powers much of the ionization — winds, and the mobility of those ions, which determines the mass available to create electricity. It’s actually not a greatly researched aspect of atmospheric science, Hurowitz said, and their own attempts have been blunted by the availability of helicopters needed to lift the detector and its cables to 3,000 to 5,000 feet off the surface, where the team believes it will find the highest concentration of ions.

The team hopes to fly a small number of these initial tests to determine a likely atmospheric level to begin testing of the main concept — the atmospheric corona-generating antenna — and how much power it likely will generate. The company has a patent on one such antenna, which looks something like a wind sock, but Hurowitz and Coulson said that many such devices may be tested.

“The engine itself is where most of the engineering work needs to be done,” Coulson said. “What you have is a high-voltage, relative low-current (source), and you have to turn that into a usable current.”

The company is flying some limited balloon and antenna tests in Wyoming, but seems to have sunk its roots firmly in Boulder after a recent move from Phoenix. Hurowitz said working arrangements are under way with another company that has similar technology, as well as associations with the University of Colorado.

Coulson and Hurowitz, both 27, hail from Colorado School of Mines, and Coulson is in a graduate program in nuclear engineering. They knew each other in school, but the link to sefe actually came with their association with another Mines student, Bryce Jones, whose family was involved in the venture.

“This is an incredible venture to be involved with,” Coulson said. “And this is the age when you really can take that chance.”

The young engineers appear to have that same pragmatic but enthusiast outlook on the project. While the sky might be a boundless, untapped pool of energy, filling the sky with blimps and antennae probably is not a likely alternative for most urban areas.

So Hurowitz sees some of the technology’s early applications benefitting oil-drilling ventures, relief efforts in remote areas and green-energy support for polar science.

“In polar regions you can’t do solar for as much as six months a year, and it’s often too cold for wind-power components,” he said.

Coulson noted that remote areas of the world could also benefit significantly from everyday access to such power.

“Here we have enough electricity to power all of our devices,” he said. “But think what a difference electric lights might make to a village in Africa.”

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