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Would the massive (industrial) production of antimatter be possible?

I am speaking of tons of antimatter, not only nanograms.

I am speaking of an industrial process similar to the production of massive pills or chemical compounds for human use.

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    $\begingroup$ And how would you safely store these tons of antimatter? 1 gram of antimatter together with 1 gram of matter would already release the energy of an atomic bomb. $\endgroup$
    – Thomas Fritsch
    Jan 18, 2020 at 21:48
  • $\begingroup$ It's not prohibited by the laws of physics. But unless you have a practical way to harness the energy from matter + antimatter annihilation what's the point of storing energy as antimatter? $\endgroup$
    – PM 2Ring
    Jan 19, 2020 at 9:43

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No. The earth's energy consumption of about $20~\rm PWh$, if somehow put solely into pair production of antimatter and matter with perfect efficiency, would produce not even half a ton of antimatter in a year. With more realistic efficiencies, the quantity is much, much less.

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    $\begingroup$ 20 kWh seems a tad low $\endgroup$
    – simplicio
    Jan 18, 2020 at 21:17
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    $\begingroup$ @fielder Kilowatt is a power unit. kWh is an energy unit. 20 kwh is about what one household consumes in 2 days. I assume Chris meant 20Twh $\endgroup$
    – simplicio
    Jan 18, 2020 at 21:23
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    $\begingroup$ Uh, yeah. It's more than a bit low. One downside of SI units is one letter typos can be pretty bad. ;) $\endgroup$
    – Chris ♦
    Jan 18, 2020 at 21:35
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    $\begingroup$ @fielder while going to a hospital for a PET scan - e.g. to look for certain cancers - might not be something we would think of as "in our daily lives", nonetheless there are dozens of these being performed each day in my city alone, using antimatter production as an essential component: positron-emission tomography. $\endgroup$
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Monica
    Jan 19, 2020 at 4:12
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    $\begingroup$ @RossPresser That did occur to me shortly after I posted the comment, but so do some factors that push the estimate in the opposite direction. (Notably that our usual method of creating antimatter is "large, very heavy particle accelerator"). So I just called it a wash. $\endgroup$
    – Chris ♦
    Sep 26, 2021 at 6:00

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