When the first human animal figured out how to make fire, the earth
changed forever. The fictional character Sherlock Holmes once said that "When
you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must
be the truth." Using that logic, I have come to the conclusion that fossil fuels will soon become obsolete, and earth history will again be changed forever. A total switchover to fusion power will take decades, but basic
economics tells us that fusion reactors will win in the marketplace over their
more costly competitors. Imagine a clean new world where oil and coal are only
used to make chemicals, and where every nation has equal access to low cost
energy. Sounds too good to be true?
Scientist Andrea Rossi got his Master of Science and Engineering
degree from the University of Milan, and is now associated with the famous
University of Bologna, where Dante, Copernicus, Galvani, and Marconi were once
students. Rossi claims invention of the "Energy Catalyzer,"
or E-Cat for short, that mixes nano-particle nickel dust, hydrogen gas under
pressure, secret catalysts, and a modicum of applied heat to produce a new kind
of fusion that drives the nuclei of hydrogen atoms into the heart of nickel,
thus creating copper. He says E-Cat technology can produce electricity at
a cost of just one cent per kilowatt hour. Even if we skeptically double or triple that cost, the E-Cat is still a bargain. We currently
pay at least 40 cents per kilowatt hour for intermittent electricity produced
from solar panels, 15 cents per kilowatt hour for unpredictable wind power, and
8 cents per kilowatt hour for natural gas. Rossi states that one pound of
nickel can unleash as much energy as burning 517,000 pounds of oil, which is
approximately 1,590 barrels worth. Fortunately, the earth has enough easily
mineable nickel to supply all of our energy needs for thousands of years.
In 2007 Rossi approached Sergio Focardi, Professor of Experimental
Physics at the University of Bologna, and asked him to help test his E-Cat
prototype and verify that it did not emit dangerous radiation. Conventional
"hot" nuclear fusion using lasers to super-heat deuterium and tritium creates so
much radiation that it would be impossible to shield in a small, portable device
like the E-Cat. Rossi and Focardi knew this was not conventional fusion, but
perhaps some strange phenomena involving runaway electrons at near light speed
that form plasma and thus heat. Through extensive testing, the two scientists
found no dangerous levels of radiation escaping from the E-Cat's lead lined
fusion chamber. No radioactive materials are used in the reactor's
construction, and the temporary internal radiation produced by pressure fusion
stops when the reactor is turned off, leaving behind no residual radioactive
elements and zero toxic waste. After four years of studying the E-Cat,
Professor Sergio Focardi gleefully declared that "This is the greatest discovery
in human history," and went on to say that "The results will be immense: clean
energy at (almost) zero cost."
Andrea Rossi then contacted Dr. Joseph Levi, a physics professor at
the University of Bologna associated with the Italian National Institute of
Nuclear Physics (INFN). After conducting preliminary tests in private, Levi set
up a public demonstration on January 14, 2011, attended by 50 scientists from
the University of Bologna and the INFN. The E-Cat produced 12.4 kilowatts of
heat with an input of just 0.4 kilowatts, a gain of 31 times input power. In a
third test conducted by Levi, the E-Cat produced a minimum of 15 kilowatts of
heat continuously for 18 hours. Levi stated that "Now that I have seen the
device work for so many hours, in my view all chemical energy sources are
excluded." On occasion, E-Cats have been powered up to produce over 130
kilowatts of heat, but Rossi wants to sell his first generation E-Cats in a
powered down configuration to make sure they are completely safe. His company
plans to start selling a 20 kilowatt version of the E-Cat soon.
Much experimentation will be needed before the full potential of E-Cat
technology is realized, and as always the original inventor's work will be
greatly improved upon by other scientists from around the world. As pressure fusion is a
completely new, inherently nontoxic technology, there are no regulatory barriers
to slow its rapid technological advance and implementation. No precious metals
are used in the low cost, easy to manufacture E-Cats, and any company with the
technological skills required to build an air conditioner can produce them in
large numbers on assembly lines. That means even poor, relatively undeveloped
countries will be able to manufacture E-Cats.
Unlike the notoriously flawed "cold fusion" experiments using
deuterium and palladium conducted by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann in
1989, Rossi's invention is decidedly "hot" in that the reactor yields generous
amounts of reliable heat. The reaction is so powerful that even a first year
engineering student could easily measure the E-Cat's healthy net energy gain.
We therefore know with certainty that the E-Cat's energy is real and not an
illusion created by measuring error, a possibility that haunted the work of Pons
and Fleischmann. In some tests E-Cats have continued to produce stable heat
output for very long periods of time even after all energy inputs were switched
off.
Sherlock Holmes would ask what are the odds that Rossi, Focardi, and
Levi could all go insane at the same time, deciding to throw away their
reputations, careers, and scientific legacies by endorsing a fraudulent energy
scheme. How could a public test closely observed by 50 scientists be faked? The E-Cat produced so much energy that if the power had come from the wall
socket, the power cord would have melted. No tiny hidden battery could have
possibly unleashed so much energy, and the small amount of hydrogen gas consumed
during the reactor test was independently measured at less than 1 gram, thus
simple combustion is ruled out as an energy source. Overall hydrogen
consumption for the E-Cat is estimated at 0.01 grams of hydrogen to produce 10
kilowatt hours of heat. The only reasonable explanation for the excess energy
produced is some form of low energy nuclear reaction (LENR). Thus, no matter
how improbable it is that Rossi and others have discovered a new field of
physics, it must be true according to the practical logic of Sherlock
Holmes.
On March 29th, 2011, two Swedish scientists participated in a test of
Rossi's new mini E-Cat, which produced over 4.4 kilowatts of heat from a volume
of only 50 cubic centimeters, which is just one twentieth the size of the
original one liter E-Cat prototype. Hanno Essà ©n is an associate professor of
theoretical physics at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, and ironically
a former chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society. Essà ©n stated that "In some way
a new kind of physics is taking place. It's enigmatic, but probably no new laws
of nature are involved. We believe it is possible to explain the process with
known laws of nature." He went on to say that "We checked everything that could
be checked, and we could walk around freely and have a look at most of the
equipment."
Sven Kullander, a Professor at Uppsala University and chairman of
the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' Energy Committee, also participated in
the test. Kullander stated that "My belief that there is an energy development
far beyond what one would expect has been strengthened significantly as I have
had the opportunity to see the process for myself and perform measurements."
Their group report stated that "Any chemical process for producing 25 kWh from
any fuel in a 50 cm3 container can be ruled out. The only alternative
explanation is that there is some kind of a nuclear process that gives rise to
the measured energy production."
Some critics suggest the E-Cat is a money making hoax, but Rossi's
self-financed company is not seeking investors or government handouts. Rossi
will only make money if his E-Cat actually works. If it does not work as
promised, his company will go bankrupt and he will live the rest of his life in
disgrace. Only a fool would intentionally craft such a bleak future for
himself, and Rossi is certainly no idiot.
Rossi's initial scientific paper on the E-Cat was rejected by
established journals because even Rossi himself could not come up with a
sufficiently detailed explanation of how the E-Cat works. Building an E-Cat is
easier than explaining what happens inside the E-Cat's reactor core. When asked
how he got the idea, Rossi simply stated that "The idea started from the premise
that using very high pressure could increase the kinetic energy of protons to
obtain nuclear reactions, since one can reach very high pressures with
relatively low forces by reducing the surface area on which the pressure is
focused. At this point the natural candidate to provide the hammer exerting the
pressure could only be hydrogen, while as the anvil on which to exert pressure,
the atoms of the column number 10 of the periodic table of Mendeleev are most
suitable for their high affinity with hydrogen. Obviously nickel is chosen for
cost reasons."
Finding safe ways to scale up E-Cat technology to the giant gigawatt
size needed to replace major fossil fuel and fission nuclear power plants will
take a few years of research by big corporations. Rossi plans to install a one
megawatt, American made E-Cat power station in a factory in Greece in October,
2011. Rossi believes that only a working commercial power
station can definitively prove to the world that his creation is real. If
E-Cats turn out to be as economical as expected, they will eventually be used to
power cars, trucks, trains, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft. Imagine a luxury
sedan you could drive for thousands of miles without refueling, or a small
aircraft you could fly from New York to Beijing nonstop at low cost.
Global greenhouse gas emissions will be dramatically reduced as we
replace fossil fuels with energy from E-Cats. There will be no risk of
radioactive pollution because E-Cats contain no radioactive or fissile
materials. Fusion power will put an end to biofuels and all the environmental
damage and food price hyperinflation they create. E-Cats will raise our
standard of living by lowering the cost of food, shelter, clothing, consumer
goods, transportation,"everything.
LINKS:
The Rossi 10 kW Reactor, by Scott Chubb
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Specifics of Andrea Rossi's "Energy Catalyzer" Test
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Cold fusion may provide one megawatt in Athens
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Swedish scientists confirm E-Cat
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Rossi's paper - "A new energy source from nuclear fusion"
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"Catalyzing Fusion with Relativistic Electrons"
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Interview with Andrea Rossi
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Andrea Rossi's website - "Journal of Nuclear Physics"
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Rossi's patent application
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The Renewable Energy Disaster
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