Helion Energy

Helion Energy, Inc. is an American company in Redmond, Washington developing a magneto-inertial fusion technology to produce Helium-3 gas and fusion power via aneutronic fusion using Helium-3.
Organization.
Helion Energy was founded in 2013 by Dr. David Kirtley, Dr. John Slough, Chris Pihl, and Dr. George Votroubek. Investors in Helion include Y Combinator, Mithril Capital Management, and Capricorn Investment Group.
The management team won the 2013 National Cleantech Open Energy Generation competition and awards at the 2014 ARPA-E Future Energy Startup competition, were members of the 2014 Y Combinator program, and were awarded a 2015 ARPA-E ALPHA contract, "Staged Magnetic Compression of FRC Targets to Fusion Conditions".
Technology.
The Fusion Engine technology is based on the Inductive Plasmoid Accelerator (IPA) experiments performed from 2005 through 2012. This system theoretically operates at 1 Hz, injecting plasma, compressing it to fusion conditions, expanding it, and directly recovering the energy to produce electricity. The IPA experiments claimed 300 km/s velocities, deuterium neutron production, and 2 keV deuterium ion temperatures.
Helium-3 fuel.
Helion intends to produce and use a fuel which combines deuterium and helium-3. This mix allows mostly aneutronic fusion, releasing only 5% of its energy in the form of fast neutrons. The helium is captured and reused, eliminating supply concerns.
The IPA experiments used deuterium-deuterium fusion, which produces a 2.4 MeV neutron per reaction. Helion and MSNW published articles describing a deuterium-tritium implementation which is the easiest to achieve but generate 14 MeV neutrons. Helion has filed a patent for pulsed deuterium-deuterium fusion to produce Helium-3 for use in fusion reactors and medical imaging.
Confinement.
This fusion approach uses the magnetic field of a field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmoid (operated with solid state electronics derived from power switching electronics in wind turbines) to prevent plasma energy losses. An FRC is a magnetized plasma configuration notable for its closed field lines, high Beta and lack of internal penetrations.
Compression.
To inject the target plasmoid into the fusion compression chamber two plasmoids are accelerated at high velocity with pulsed magnetic fields and merge into a single target plasmoid at high pressure. Their 2018 experiments achieved plasmas with multi-keV temperatures. Published records show plans to compress fusion plasmas to 12 Tesla.
Energy generation.
Energy is captured by direct energy conversion that translates high-energy alpha particles directly into a voltage. This eliminates the need for steam turbines, cooling towers, and associated energy losses.
Funding.
Helion Energy received $7 million in funding from NASA, the United States Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, followed by $1.5 million from the private sector in August 2014, through the seed accelerators Y Combinator and Mithril Capital Management. The company raised a further $10.6 million in July, 2015.
Revenue model.
Helion Energy’s strategy is to generate revenue based on a royalty model of electricity produced with projected electricity prices of 40–60 $/MWhr (4 to 6 cents per kwh). Penetration of the new capacity market is estimated at 20% of market growth (2.5%) per annum eventually reaching 50% of new power generation worldwide – $52 B/yr. Gradual displacement of existing supplies enables continued growth to 20% of world electrical generation after 20 years with a net return of over $300 billion.
Criticism.
Retired Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory researcher Dr. Daniel Jassby mentioned Helion Energy in a letter included in the American Physical Society newsletter "Physics & Society" (April, 2019) as being among fusion start-ups allegedly practicing "voodoo fusion" rather than legitimate science, and among other criticisms claimed that Helion Energy had never created D-D fusion neutrons in their experiments. However, the Helion team published peer-reviewed research into its colliding FRC system demonstrating D-D neutron production as early as 2011, and further detailed D-D fusion experiments producing neutrons in an October 2018 report at the United States Department of Energy's ARPA-E's annual ALPHA program meeting.