I have described the pursuit of cold fusion in the past as an unsuccessful adventure into alchemy, the transmutation of elements that was pursued in Medieval times. I have commented frequently on the lack of independent verification of the energy output of cold fusion devices, particularly those promoted by Andrea Rossi, the Italian inventor of the E-Cat seen in the picture below.
Rossi’s behavior has been secretive. On numerous occasions his E-Cat reactor when demonstrated has been hidden in a black box. His justification, a fear of losing his competitive advantage. Tests run with his device have produced anomalous heat but sufficient and consistent enough for commercial application? Not necessarily. When Rossi has applied for patents in Europe and the United States, his applications have been rejected. Announcements of commercial agreements have been made and about imminent product shipments of E-Cats capable of replacing home furnaces and the like. But no commercial E-Cat has ever been shipped. You can read some of the past history on this blog site by typing “cold fusion” in the search window.
This latest paper, however, sheds new light on cold fusion and although I remain a skeptic, should reignite the conversation and controversy. The testers included participants from Bologna University (who have been involved in past demonstrations of the E-Cat), Uppsala University and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
In this test of an E-Cat containing “hydrogen-loaded nickel power plus some additives, mainly lithium” and conducted over 32 days beginning in March of this year, the reactor ran at temperatures between 1,260 and 1,400 Celsius (2,300 and 2,552 Fahrenheit) degrees. The measured energy input to output yielded a COP factor of between 3.13 and 3.74. If you are unfamiliar with COP, it stands for coefficient of performance, comparing the amount of power input to output. Compare the E-Cat results to conventional air conditioning and heat pump systems which yield COP values of between 2 and 4 and have theoretical efficiency of up to 32.9 based on maximum ranges in temperature between outside and inside air. At the COP ranges produced the E-Cat results lie within a reasonable range of output performance related to energy input. Over the full 32 days of testing the E-Cat generated about 1.5 Megawatt hours of electricity.
The researchers noted that the E-Cat they tested in this experiment appeared “quite different from the ones used in the tests held in past years.” You can see below a picture of it being weighed by the researchers.
The graph below provides a plot of the net power output of the E-Cat through a 32-day time span with each segment representing a 2-day period. Net power is the difference between total watts produced versus watts consumed to generate output. As you can see E-Cat output varies but this can be explained by power consumption throughout the test which follows a similar curve, i.e., when the E-Cat temperature was raised. COP results are also consistent with power input increases. The more power in, the higher the COP ratio, with the highest results occurring in the last few days of the test period.
The researchers note that the COP values obtained only “refer to the performance of the reactor running at the capacity selected by us, not at its maximum potential” They continue stating, “we do not know what the limits of the current technology are, in terms of performance and life span of the charges.”
The researchers did a fuel analysis looking at the powder and concluded the “large amount of heat is…way beyond what can be expected from chemical burning.” They could not reject the notion that some form of fusion reaction was happening within the reactor but no radiation was detected.
Which brings us to an analysis of the fuel containing nickel powder containing hydrogen and combined with lithium, aluminum, iron, carbon and oxygen. In their analysis they found the quantities of these elements varied from grain to grain within the powder. That may speak to a lack of uniform mixing of the fuel in the production process.
Further analysis of the fuel after the test noted a depletion in lithium and changes to nickel composition. The conclusion, a nuclear reaction had taken place. The researchers stated it was very hard to comprehend how a fusion process could take place at the low levels of energy involved in the E-Cat’s operations, but nevertheless observed an isotope shift in both lithium and nickel.
One caveat in their conclusions. They could analyze the fuel but lacked detailed information on “the internal components of the reactor, and of the methods by which the reaction is primed.”
In summation the report states:
“The performance of the E-Cat reactor is remarkable. We have a device giving heat energy compatible with nuclear transformations, but it operates at low energy and gives neither nuclear radioactive waste nor emits radiation. From basic general knowledge in nuclear physics this should not be possible. Nevertheless we have to relate to the fact that the experimental results from our test show heat production beyond chemical burning, and that the E-Cat fuel undergoes nuclear transformations. It is certainly most unsatisfying that these results so far have no convincing theoretical explanation, but the experimental results cannot be dismissed or ignored just because of lack of theoretical understanding.”
So there you have it. What should happen next? Many more independent studies akin to this one I would think. The corroboration of similar results. And a drill down on the internal components of the reactor and the priming system to ensure a better understanding of its workings. Such testing using rigorous scientific protocols should validate Rossi’s invention. And then maybe we will finally have a commercially viable working E-Cat.
In any event, the cold fusion pot got warmer with the release of this report.
The MIT conference took place on March 21 to 23 and commemorated the 25th anniversary of the announcement by Pons and Fleischmann that introduced us to a process they called cold fusion. I have written a number of postings about cold fusion, a technology which spontaneously transmutes one element into another with the byproduct being anomalous heat. As of yet, however, from all those working on experiments in cold fusion, no one has yet to produce a working low energy nuclear reactor that can be packaged into a power generator for the kinds of applications promised like heating a house or providing the power plant to drive a car. It appears from the few postings that have emerged from the MIT conference that the commercial dream for cold fusion remains elusive. Those dedicated to the subject are still tinkering. So are we a year, 5 years, 10 years away from a commercial cold fusion reactor? My hunch is the 10-year timeline is too optimistic.
Why do I say that? Because no one in a patent office seems convinced there is anything to the technology. At least that’s the case at the U.S. Patent office with its latest preliminary rejection of Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat patent filing. Rossi, who recently sold his LENR rights to an American company, Industrial Heat, just can’t seem to get a break from those issuing patents in almost every country where he attempts to file. I quote from E-Cat World’s publication of the patent examiner’s comments in which he states:
Which brings me to Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, and the development of a technology referred to as focus fusion. Unlike Rossi’s E-Cat LENR, what Lawrenceville is doing has received a U.S. patent. What’s involved?
Dense plasma fusion uses a device containing two cylindrical copper or beryllium electrodes enclosed in a vacuum chamber with low-pressure gas injected to fill the space between them. When an electrical pulse is introduced the gas heats and an intense magnetic field creates a plasma which travels the length of the electrode where it becomes dense and forms a plasmoid. This induces two beams to flow, one containing electrons, the other ions. The electrons heat the plasmoid to billions of degrees Celsius. The ions collide and fuse contributing more heat to the plasmoid. All this happens in a mere 10 nanoseconds (10 billionths of a second). The net result – more energy out than in and the potential for a commercial fusion reactor that would produce environmentally clean, cheap energy with little to no radioactive waste. The byproduct of fusion using this process is helium, a much sought after gas here on Earth. The only radioactive byproduct, low-energy neutrons can be handled by housing the reactor in a few layers of shielding.
So how close are we to a commercial device? Well don’t count on something appearing on the market soon because it appears that a commercial dense plasma fusion reactor is as close to market as we humans are willing to fund it. Lawrenceville appears to be spending as much time seeking funds as it is doing research. It has used crowdfunding, small grants from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and institutional and private investment to bankroll it to date. This hasn’t amounted to a lot of money. The company has even posted a wish list seeking donations of equipment to help it continue its research. Sounds very much like a startup and a company flying by the seat of its pants. So a commercial fusion reactor on the market soon? Don’t hold your breath!
JT Vaughn, the manager of Industrial Heat stated when asked about the acquisition, “The world needs a new, clean and efficient energy source. Such a technology would raise the standard of living in developing countries and reduce the environmental impact of producing energy.”
Vaughn cited two multi-day tests by European scientists as evidence that Rossi’s E-Cat device actually works. In two tests, one in December 2012 and another in March 2013 independent researchers investigated E-Cat technology at Rossi’s own lab (see image of the testing below). The investigators charged reactor tubes with hydrogen, nickel powder and some other additives. The E-Cat required 360 Watts of power input per hour. Energy output was measured by calculating the thermal output which was determined to be equivalent to 2,034 Watts in the December test and even higher in the subsequent test in March. For December the power output to input ratio was 5.65:1.
The authors of the study have concluded that E-Cat energy output is a “magnitude greater than conventional energy sources.” So that led me to ask what are conventional energy source ratios or EROIs?
Data from different sources has given me a range of figures which I am sharing here with you:
Based on this data I question the statement made by the E-Cat testers.
Nevertheless Vaughn’s company intends to support the cold fusion technology and has started preparing patent applications for submission, something that Rossi was unsuccessful at doing in the past.
Vaughn is the founder of Cherokee McDonough Challenge, an environmental start up incubator working out of the Research Triangle Park area. And Industrial Heat has found private equity investors focused on environmental plays who see a future for E-Cat.
As I have often stated about cold fusion technology – there continues to be more talk than substance. I will be most interested to see if Industrial Heat can successfully commercialize Rossi’s invention and prove that my many doubts were unfounded. Apparently Chinese officials have expressed interest in E-Cat but have yet to make an investment. I guess like me they are waiting for further proof.
The E-Cat he is delivering combines 106 small LENR units similar to ones that Rossi has demonstrated in the past. The 106 are contained in a 6 meter (20 foot) long container (see image below) and are hooked together in parallel. Each E-Cat features three cold fusion reactors measuring 20 x 20 x 1 centimeter (approximately 8 square inches and less than 0.5 inch in height). The reactors combine treated nickel powder and pressurized hydrogen gas and after receiving a jolt of electricity begin to generate the heat that has been called cold fusion.
The 106 LENRs contained in this E-Cat require a feed of 200 kilowatts of power at start up and continuously to sustain the cold fusion reaction. The claimed energy yield at 1 megawatt is 500% over the energy input. Of course what the plant is actually generating anomalous heat, not electricity. It is that heat that becomes the energy source to drive a steam turbine connected to a generator.
If you order online today expect delivery in approximately 4 months.
I don’t want to throw cold water on this but with plans to ship in four months isn’t it about time that Rossi made his E-Cat unit available for independent review? That’s one of many reasons that I remain a skeptic. RAnd I am still waiting to hear from the Australian company that was going to make a 10 kilowatt home version of the E-Cat available to its customers over a year ago.
The ExtremeTech site asks the question will we finally know if what Rossi has created is real or “snake oil?”
It is certainly not nuclear fusion as we understand it because the transmutation of elements as described by those who purport to have developed cold fusion reactors defies the laws of physics. Once the quest of medieval alchemists, transmutation of the elements sought a way to convert dross metals like lead and turn them into gold. Well it didn’t work then and it doesn’t work today, that is, unless you compress two chemical elements with such force that they fuse to create a new element and emit elementary particles, gamma rays and a ton of heat. But that is not cold fusion. That’s what processes in the Sun do, and what a tokamak reactor does. And that’s the force behind hydrogen bombs.
But nothing to date quite explains the anomalous excess heat that appears to be the outcome of the chemistry that goes on in low-energy nuclear reactors or LEN-Rs, the newer term for what Pons and Fleischmann initially called cold fusion. When they first announced they had discovered anomalous heat in their experiment they were using deuterium (heavy water) and palladium. The interaction between these two was reported by them to be fusion although they found no evidence of fusion having actually occurred. There were no elementary particles discharged. And certainly no transmutation of deuterium to another element. What they observed was anomalous heat.
But if fusion were occurring what would it look like? Two deuterium atoms fusing together could become Tritium, Helium 3 or Helium 4. In all three cases elementary particles and gamma rays would be byproducts. But Pons and Fleischmann never detected any of these three elements, nor the elementary particles, just anomalous heat.
That takes us to Andrea Rossi, who I have written about on several occasions in the past. He is the developer of the E-Cat which he describes as a low energy nuclear reactor or LEN-R. He claims that in combining powdered nickel and hydrogen and introducing a secret catalyst that the output is transmutation to copper with anomalous heat as the byproduct.
Rossi is seen by many to be a fraud. Recent tests of his E-Cat however indicated net power output six times greater than input. How could that be? Well one thing we don’t know about Rossi’s device is what’s under the covers. He calls it a catalyst and has declared it an industrial trade secret. When he has attempted to file patents for the device, however, they have been rejected. And the recent independent testing that has verified anomalous heat output did not get a peak inside to see what physically is happening. Not only that the testers reported “that the device was already in operation when the trial began,” that observation cameras and sensors were placed by Rossi and not the independent team, and that elements introduced into the device were not weighed prior to the test. Does this suggest a bit of larceny? Perhaps! One thing we do know, Rossi’s claim that what is happening, the transmutation of nickel and hydrogen to copper and heat, is not possible under any current known physical laws.
But what Rossi is peddling is not the same as what Pons and Fleischmann detected. And that remains a mystery that to-date no single theory explains. A simple explanation may be that we are witnessing spontaneous combustion occurring when two chemical elements in the presence of a third generate a catalytic heat response. To date 66 different theories have been propounded to explain what Pons and Fleischmann observed. But one thing for sure as an article published in Forbes yesterday stated, we know there is anomalous heat but the term “cold fusion” needs to go away so that the alchemy and magic is finally removed from the equation.
For those of you who have been reading my previous postings on cold fusion this independent study represents a very interesting cold fusion development. But some of you who are new to this blog site may be unfamiliar with the subject matter. So here is a quick explanation.
Cold fusion the way Rossi is doing it is a process that involves infusing hydrogen into nickel. This causes a reaction in which electrons from the nickel combine with hydrogen to produce neutrons which then get absorbed by the nickel converting it into copper. This process is called transmutation and a great deal of energy is one of its byproducts. It is that energy that the E-Cat can then use to power devices.
The benefit of cold fusion over hot fusion reactors such as the ITER Tokamak, is relative safety. Cold fusion happens slowly. Hot fusion is fast. Cold fusion produces little if any ionizing radiation. Hot fusion produces a ton.
In this most recent development and because of Rossi’s past reputation t is hard to know whether we are being conned or that the report is the real deal. But the results announced come from seven scientists, two from Bologna University, four from Uppsala University and one from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. These scientists state:
“Measurement of the produced heat was performed with high-resolution thermal imaging cameras, recording data every second from the hot reactor tube. The measurements of electrical power input were performed with a large bandwidth three-phase power analyzer. Data were collected in two experimental runs lasting 96 and 116 hours, respectively. An anomalous heat production was indicated in both experiments. The 116-hour experiment also included a calibration of the experimental set-up without the active charge present in the E-Cat HT.”
But there is another comment in the report that puzzles me. The authors state at one point “no extra heat was generated beyond the expected heat from the electric input.” Does that mean that input equaled output? So are we not seeing a net gain in energy derived from the interaction of the elements within the E-Cat? A final comment, however, states: “Even by the most conservative assumptions as to the errors in the measurements, the result is still one order of magnitude greater than conventional energy sources.” And by conventional they mean fossil fuel derivatives like gasoline.
So has Rossi with his E-Cat produced a commercial cold fusion reactor? Are we witnessing the beginning of a revolution in energy production?
The Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project, a web site dedicated to verifying Fleischmann and Pons’ cold fusion discovery raise some interesting questions about this latest finding. On their website they state the following:
“We …. on behalf of the global population, call on the authors and Andrea Rossi to make the raw data and more detailed instrumentation details for the entire test available for verification of calculations made from the data. We are willing to host the data and help stimulate the analysis of it, or simply be another participant re-analyzing it.”
I think Rossi should take up this offer. After all if cold fusion proves viable it can be an incredible energy source and Rossi would be a leader in producing a commercial cold fusion reactor. But without independent verification to validate his claims, Rossi’s past and current secretiveness and obfuscations continue to make any of his pronouncements on cold fusion sound dubious.
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Miley, seen in the image below, is a big believer in the potential of cold fusion and his credentials lend weight to his claims. The device he has created differs from that created by the controversial Andrea Rossi, the name most associated with LENR, that is after Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, who first reported the phenomenon and gave it its moniker, cold fusion.
Today the term LENR has replaced cold fusion. LENR stands for low energy nuclear reaction. Miley’s device, seen in the drawing below, does not require an external heat source, relying on the chemical reactions within it to produce the heat energy needed to run the unit. The fuel is ZrO2 (zirconium dioxide) and deuterium pressurized to 413 kilo pascals (60 psi). And unlike Andrea Rossi, Miley’s results should be available to the public since he is working in an academic institution. I tried to find a journal reference to Miley’s experiments using Google Search but was unsuccessful. Maybe it’s a bit premature.
Miley has stated publicly that the phenomena he is observing is not chemical but nuclear. His LENR device is small and the question is, will it scale to yield enough energy to become commercially viable? Recently, Miley obtained the first U.S. patent for a LENR device, something no other LENR researcher has accomplished to date. And recent reports state that Miley is working on 3 Kilowatt and 30 Kilowatt LENR designs.
I will keep you posted. I’ve written to Professor Miley to see if he will agree to an interview and will keep you informed. Are we a step closer to a real commercial LENR? I hope so but will remain a skeptic for the moment.
]]>In the latest posting, July 24, 2012, Andrea Rossi, the developer of the energy catalyzer cold fusion technology he calls E-Cat, claims he will deliver the first commercial 1 Megawatt e-Cat plant this year. He also indicated that a performance report showing that E-Cat is stable in temperatures over 1,000 Celsius will be released in a couple of months. This isn’t the first time that Rossi has promised delivery. Nor is it the first time that he has promised to release a report on the technology.
If you are unfamiliar with LENR and the E-Cat in particular, the technology relies on a chemical reaction that transmutes two elements into another releasing energy in the form of heat. In the case of E-Cat the elements are powdered nickel infused with hydrogen transmuting into copper. The amount of energy released is claimed to be 100 times the energy input. Rossi reports he can get enough heat from E-Cat cold fusion to power up steam turbines for electricity generation. Ultimately he hopes to directly generate energy from his E-Cats without a turbine. Well we’ll see!
Not to be outdone, a Rossi competitor, in fact a breakaway company called Defkalion is building its own LENR and joining up with a Swiss start up to deliver a car with a LENR on board. The first generation of iCar, the name the company has chosen, will use a Tesla Model S. The LENR is the Hyperion Series B. The developers of the technology claim the Hyperion will generate 10 to 45 Kilowatts of thermal energy. To produce 45 Kilowatts the LENR will consume only 300 watts. The iCar will have a single charge range of 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles). The power storage of a Hyperion LENR is estimated to be 400 times the amount stored in conventional lithium-ion battery packs currently used by Tesla.
After successfully demonstrating the first generation iCar, plans are in the works to launch a second generation vehicle with an on board LENR capable of powering a car for 140,000 kilometers (87,000 miles) between recharges.
Again I ask the question, is all this hype going to actually produce something real? If so, then we will witness an energy revolution. If not, we can always remember P.T. Barnum’s quote, “The bigger the humbug, the better people will like it.” And this is one humdinger of a story right now.
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Enter Andrea Rossi, an Italian inventor of E-Cat, the energy catalyzer. In a headline dated July 16, 2012, a new Australian company, E-Cat Australia announced that it was taking orders for a 10-Kilowatt home unit and 1-Megawatt industrial unit with delivery promised by mid-2013.
On the website the cost of the home unit is estimated between $2,000 and $2,500 Australian dollars as posted. Refill cartridges of which you will need one every 6 months, are priced at $150. The lifetime operational estimate for each unit is 20 years. The website promises an 80% saving on electricity and gas bills. Homeowners can sign up to be on a wait list.
The E-Cat industrial unit is priced starting at $1.5 million U.S. with a promise of delivery in 3 to 4 months. Buyers are asked to place a down payment of $500,000 on the 1 Megawatt unit and more on higher output units. The company offers a 100% money-back guarantee should the unit not perform as specified.
Is this flimflammery? Are the people running E-Cat Australia bag men? The general scientific community are total skeptics about the claims Rossi makes about E-Cat technology. So how does it work and why are scientists in general calling this a load of hooey?
E-Cat uses powdered nickel and hydrogen to generate an exothermic reaction, namely heat. The heat is then used to produce energy. The device infuses the heated hydrogen into the nickel powder causing transmutation of the nickel to copper with the byproduct as much as 100 times the energy input in the form of heat.
When Rossi applied for an international patent it was rejected by the issuers as offending the generally accepted laws of physics. Although demonstrated to academics, Rossi’s E-Cat has never been independently tested and the only papers on the subject appear on his own blog site which he has given the very official name, Journal of Nuclear Physics.
At this site you can find a journal-styled article complete with mathematical formulae and posted in March 2010 called “A new energy source from nuclear fusion.” The article provides experimental results from what is referenced as “a process and apparatus not described here in detail and protected by patent in 90 countries.” It goes on to state the the process produces heat output up to 100 times the energy input through the interaction of the nickel and heated hydrogen.
When I first heard the word transmutation in documents on the E-Cat site my thoughts went back to my boy scientist days reading about alchemists who always tried to turn base metals like lead into gold.
Transmutation can happen. There is no doubt about that. You can turn lead into gold but you need an enormous amount of energy to do it and the energy you use would cost more than the value of gold that would result. Today we transmute elements all the time using particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider.
So I leave this question with you, is Dr. Rossi a bag man out to swindle a whole bunch of Aussie home and business owners not to say the rest of the world with his promise of cheap and clean energy? What do you think?
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