A black hole as a source of energy? It can replace batteries and nuclear reactors, Chinese scientists hope

• A black hole instead of batteries and reactors?
• Scientists think it’s not impossible

In general, black holes are extremely difficult not only to photograph, but also to find, because they are literally invisible, absorbing both matter and light. These are mysterious cosmic behemoths that are usually found in the centers of galaxies. Once something gets caught in their web, there’s no going back. However, over the past few years, scientists have come up with a way to extract some energy from them; at least in theory. In other words, according to new research, we can use black holes as batteries or nuclear reactors. The IFLScience server drew attention to the topic.

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A black hole like a battery

In the study, the scientists worked with a so-called Schwarzschild black hole, a cosmic monster that has no electric charge or angular momentum – it is neutral and does not spin. “In this case, it was also a primordial black hole. According to scientists’ calculations, these ultra-dense objects could function as rechargeable batteries and nuclear reactors, providing humanity with energy in the gigaelectronvolt range,” writes the Science Alert server.

A battery converts non-electrical energy into electrical energy. A nuclear reactor uses the power of nuclear reactions to produce energy. And a small black hole, according to scientists Zhan-Feng Mai and Run-Qiu Yang of Tianjin University in China, could theoretically do both.

“Since a black hole has an extremely strong gravitational force, an interesting question arises: could we, at least in theory, use the gravitational force of black holes to generate electricity, i.e., use black holes as batteries?” the study says.

However, in the case of small black holes, scientists face one fundamental problem – the so-called Hawking radiation. What’s going on? This is the thermal radiation of black holes, which in the case of small black holes can cause their complete extinction. The smaller the black hole, the faster mass is lost through Hawking radiation. If it is small enough, it will completely evaporate.

In practice, the idea is unfeasible

However, Chinese experts have figured out that they could replenish and recharge a primordial black hole above a certain mass so that it produces electrical energy. According to their calculations, an atomically small black hole with a mass of 10¹⁵ up to 10¹⁸ kg could achieve a conversion efficiency of up to 25%. By comparison, most commercially available solar panels are less than 23 percent efficient. Experts also think that a black hole could achieve similar efficiency to a nuclear reactor.

In reality, the research of Chinese experts is of course not something that can be verified in practice. Even if we knew for sure that they were out there somewhere (primordial black holes exist only in the realm of theory so far), we would not be able to contain and control them. However, the analysis of experts from Tianjin University opens up interesting food for thought.

Preview photo credit: Aman Pal / Unsplash, credit: IFLScience, Science Alert