The Fusion Revolution
[a.k.a. The LENR Revolution - Low Energy Nuclear Reaction]
NEWS! Defkalion
Green Technologies has announced (1/23/2012)
that they are now welcoming third party testing of their Low Energy
Nuclear Reaction reactors. The first 96 hour test will begin on
February 24th, 2012. Reportedly,
at least seven well known laboratories from various countries have
signed up for testing. Defkalion expects to
market their nickel-hydrogen reactors in 2012 after government
safety certifications are issued. Defkalion claims their designs
produce up to 32 times input power and are capable of outputting
steam at temperatures up to 414 degrees Celsius. Defkalion Hyperion Modules
can be linked together to produce up to 5 megawatts of heat, and larger
models may only need nickel powder refueling every 34 months.
Defkalion states that reactor energy output is controlled by a 24 volt, 6 amp, 144 watt frequency generator.
Nickel-hydrogen reactions occur in bursts following
the splitting of H2 into atomic H1 hydrogen with the aid of a secret chemical
catalyst, and after the reactor core reaches a specific operating temperature
and pressure. A frequency generator somehow triggers the heat producing reactions, and controlling
software algorithms stop and start the reactions at will. The
frequency of energy bursts is controllable within safety limits, which defines
the Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the reactor. COP means
the ratio of energy output vs. energy input. Every burst of LENR
energy is the result of a multistage set of reactions.
Hyperion reactors are
refueled in place without the need to
uninstall modules while refueling. Nickel powder fuel is renewed in vacuum using Hyperion Recharge Units, a suitcase sized
device developed by Defkalion. Defkalion
says they have received interest in license agreements from 850
companies based in 60 different countries around the world. See Defkalion Hyperion reactor specification PDF
NEWS! See three shocking NASA pdf files on LENR - Zawodny Bushnnell Nelson and NASA-Zawodny LENR patent
NEWS! See NASA video on LENR - http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html & on You-Tube
"A
cheap, abundant, clean, scalable, portable source of energy will impact
EVERYONE." - "Singular solution to peak oil, climate change, fresh
water, and associated geopolitical instabilities." - "Transmutation
products [of LENR are] most consistent with neutron absorption process." - Dr. Joseph M. Zawodny, NASA Langley Research Center
"The temperature you can get out of [LENR] is interesting.” - “We’ve had to be careful [in our
research in] terms of the energetics. I don’t think there is a
power [limitation] problem." - NASA scientist Dennis Bushnell
NASA concept for LENR space plane that flies from airport to orbit and back
using only one main rocket engine
NEWS! On January 30, 2012, Dr. Mitchell Swartz and Prof. Peter Hagelstein started an ongoing demonstration of cold fusion
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The
public test confirms the role of nanoengineered metal lattice in
enabling LENR activity, and is now reported to be in its fourth week of
continuous operation, as of 2/19/2012. Also see Hagelstein PDF on LENR
NEWS! Andrea Rossi claims to have developed a 10 kilowatt (heat) E-Cat LENR home heater the size of a large laptop computer, with a projected retail price of about $800. [See details and video interview] Rossi has achieved a low price structure by robotizing his assembly line, and by simplifying the
E-Cat to just three main components: an easily replaceable reactor
cartridge, a heating element to bring the reactor up to
operating temperatures, and a low cost electronics board to control
energy input and heat output. Rossi says his new E-Cat can be refueled by home
owners after six months of continuous 24-7 use, and that nickel powder fuel refills will only cost about $10. Extrapolating
from that, using four such heaters to provide both heat and hot water
for a large 3,000 square foot
home over a 6 month heating season will cost about $40, plus the
cost of the electricity needed to keep the E-Cats
running. Rossi guarantees his reactors will output at least six
times
energy input, and the E-Cat is upgradeable when new core
designs provide greater efficiency. Rossi's chief competitor,
Defkalion Green Technologies, claims their Hyperion reactors
output a least 25 times energy input. Unlike Defkalion's more
complex
design, no separate hydrogen gas canister is needed in the
E-Cat. The
refillable reactor core, a totally sealed cartridge about the size of a
pack of cigarettes, comes preloaded with sufficient
hydrogen to keep the E-Cat running for 180 days.
A
production sample of the new E-Cat is currently being tested by Underwriter Laboratories,
and sales are expected to begin by January, 2013, if UL approval is
granted in time. E-Cats will be sold through chain stores and the
Internet.
Home heating E-Cats will come with a standard 2 year manufacturer's warranty and a money back guarantee to work as advertised.
Mass E-Cat
sales
could have a substantial impact on oil prices, which are based on
expectations of a continued high demand for oil as fuel. Once the
global marketplace realizes that all fossil fuels may soon
become obsolete, will that knowledge by itself reduce the price of
oil? Defkalion claims to have already built efficient
home reactors suitable for electricity production, which are currently
undergoing certification testing for European Union sales. Does
this mean we will start tearing down big central power plants instead
of
building new ones?
When the first human animal figured out how to
make fire at will, life on 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 human history will again be dramatically altered. A total
switchover to fusion power, also known as Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, will take decades, but basic economics tells
us that LENR 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 on earth has equal
access to low cost energy.
Italian engineer Andrea Rossi states that his Energy Catalyzer (E-Cat)
LENR reactor is fueled by micrometer sized nickel dust enriched to contain more of two useful isotopes, N-62
and N-64. The nickel is processed to increase the number of
surface protrusions to provide greater area for heat
producing reactions with hydrogen gas under pressure. Secret
catalysts are added to the nickel, possibly potassium carbonate, to
break the H2 gas into H1, and to make the nickel more receptive.
Some chemists suggest that iron dust combined with pure carbon powder might work as catalysts as well, but nothing has been confirmed. Rossi states that the total cost of nickel processing plus the catalyst
adds just 10% to the total cost of the fuel. It is believed that Defkalion uses a different
catalyst than Rossi. Heat is applied to
the pressurized nickel-hydrogen mixture which initiates low energy nuclear reactions (LENR).
Some claim the Widom-Larsen Theory (patent) adequately describes the LENR process, but Andrea
Rossi
says they have it wrong, and he will reveal his own ideas
after he obtains patent protection for his invention. Defkalion
reports they are using
custom
built test equipment to develop their own theory.
What they all agree upon now is that LENR works, and is very different
from conventional hot fusion reactions. No
matter which theory eventually becomes accepted as fact, LENR
represents an energy
source many times greater than the Earth's natural reservoir of
chemical energy
stored in fossil fuels. LENR may eventually replace
the burning
of oil, coal, and natural gas for heat. Andrea
Rossi states that converting just one gram of matter into energy,
nickel or any other element, produces 23,000 megawatt hours of heat
energy. Using nickel as nuclear fuel for all human
needs would only consume about 1% of the Earth's yearly nickel
production. The Earth will be consumed by the Sun before we run
out of nickel. [See nickel price charts]
NASA speculated diagram of the inside of Andrea Rossi's first E-Cat prototype
Rossi claims that LENR can
give the world electricity at a cost of just one cent per
kilowatt hour when produced by large scale LENR power plants. Even if we skeptically triple that cost
to 3 cents
per kilowatt hour, it is still an incredible bargain. We
currently pay at least 40 cents per kilowatt hour for
intermittent electricity produced by solar panels, 15 cents per
kilowatt hour for unpredictable wind power electricity, and 8 cents per
kilowatt
hour for electricity produce with natural gas. Fortunately, the earth has enough easily mineable nickel
to supply all
of our energy needs for millions of years.
In 2007 Rossi asked Professor Sergio Focardi
to help him 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. 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 gamma ray radiation
produced 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
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."
The men behind the most important invention of the 21st century
Left Picture - Rossi on left and Focardi
on right
Middle Picture - Stremmenos and Rossi working together, Focardi by fan
Right Picture - Stremmenos on left, Rossi in middle, and very interested Chinese official, Hauard Chen, on right
Background
Andrea Rossi - Master of Science and Engineering from the
Università Degli Studi Di Milan. His degree is also known as "Philosophy of Science and Engineering." It is a broad science and engineering degree, not a degree in
classical philosophy. Andrea Rossi has been an accomplished
engineer since age 22, starting and owning several energy related
businesses.
Sergio Focardi - Professor Emeritus of Experimental Physics at
the Università di Bologna and author of numerous books and scientific articles. Focardi researched nickel-hydrogen fusion with Francesco Piantelli before teaming up with Rossi.
Christos Stremmenos - Former physics professor at the Università di Bologna and former Greek ambassador to Italy. Stremmenos has many social
ties to the current Greek Government because of his history of valiant
political opposition to the military dictatorship in Greece during the
1960s. Stremmenos researched nickel-hydrogen fusion on his own before
meeting Rossi.
During a January 14th public demonstration conducted by Dr. Joseph Levi, a nuclear physicist associated with the Italian National
Institute of Nuclear Physicist and the University of Bologna, the E-Cat produced 12,400
watts of heat with an input of just 400 watts, a gain of 31 times input
power. In a second important test conducted by Levi, the
E-Cat was setup to produce large amounts of hot water rather than
steam. The E-Cat
produced a minimum of 15 kilowatts of heat continuously for over 18
hours, and outputted peaks of heat up to 130 kilowatts. This
experiment showed that a potential measuring error caused by the
production of incompletely vaporized water, known as "wet steam," was
not a factor in determining the E-Cat's energy output. Dr. 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 March 29th, 2011, two Swedish scientists participated in a test of Rossi's mini E-Cat, which produced over 4.4 kilowatts of heat from a volume of only 50 cubic centimeters (3.05 cubic inches), just one twentieth the size of the original one liter E-Cat prototype. Hanno Essén is an associate professor of theoretical physics at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, and ironically a former
chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society. Essén 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."
Sherlock Holmes would ask what are the odds
that Rossi, Focardi, Levi, Essén, Kullander, Christos Stremmenos, and a dozen other top scientists 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.
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.
As LENR is a relatively new, inherently
nontoxic technology, there are no regulatory
barriers to slow its rapid technological advance. The growth of
LENR technology may thus be as exponential in progression as the use of
personal computers in the 1990s. No precious
metals are used in E-Cat or Defkalion reactors, 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 them. LENR devices will eventually
be used to power cars, trucks, trains, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft. Imagine a luxury sedan you could drive for many thousands of
miles without refueling, or a small aircraft you
could fly from New York to Beijing nonstop at low cost. Large Japanese corporations, such as Mitsubishi, Toyota, and Honda, are
already financing LENR research, as is Pirelli in Italy.
A European based E-Cat licensing and manufacturing deal with the Greek company, Defkalion Green Technologies, was scuttled after a dramatic dispute with Rossi. Rossi
accused Defkalion of not living up to their financial agreement with
his own company, Leonardo Corporation. See Defkalion's dramatic statement, as if lifted from a best selling novel, or even from the Keanu Reeves movie, Chain Reaction. Rossi states that "The issue (with Defkalion) is just financial, not personal, nor technological, nor scientific."
Now calling itself Praxen Defkalion
Green Technologies Global, Defkalion GT states they are surging ahead with
plans to mass produce their own unique version of E-Cats, which they call Hyperion Modules. Defkalion claims that their fusion
reactors output up to 32 times energy input. Defkalion has issued a PDF spec sheet on its new line of reactors that will be
available for third party verification of performance. "All the technology used in devices at the Hyperion KW and systems 1 to
5MW are our own design – different from those of Rossi,"
said
Defkalion's spokesman, Alexander Xanthoulis. See Press Release 11/30/2011 See Specification PDF
Defkalion states
they refused to pay Rossi a planned lump sum as scheduled because
Rossi's E-Cats did not provide "stable" operation for 48 hours or more
as required by their contract. Reportedly,
Defkalion gained knowledge of Rossi's E-Cat catalysts through
spectroscopy measurements made by the University of Padua, which Rossi had commissioned to do tests.
Defkalion says they did not copy Rossi's secret formula, but developed their own improved technology with their own ideas, and
eliminated the problem of all the heat being released from the center
of the pipe shaped reactor core. With more even distribution of
heat creation, the reactor becomes stable and outputs more energy with greater fuel longevity.
Defkalion facts updated 12/1/11 from Ny Teknik
"Defkalion
has 12 Hyperion prototypes now running. The factory of 11,000
square meters in Xanthia (Greece) will be ready in four months. The
Defkalion lab will be transferred to a 2,500 square meter lab at the
Xanthia location in a few weeks. 19 license agreements have been
made. No money has yet been transferred. Interested
companies will pay 500,000 Euros in an escrow account before testing a
final product. Half of the license fee of 40.5 million Euros
should be paid at delivery of know-how, and the remaining part after
ten days of operation of a factory producing Hyperion products.
27 scientists work in-house at Defkalion. A total of 40 people
are employed at Defkalion."
Defkalion's description of their unique Hyperion reactor core design which allows for greater efficiency
"Defkalion's
scientific R&D team has successfully managed to trigger and monitor
Chemically Assisted Low Energy Nuclear Reactions caused by Nickel and
Hydrogen nuclei. Following extensive experimentation on the
preparation, cleaning and degassing of Nickel clusters and atomic
Hydrogen systems, valuable knowledge has been gained. That data was
obtained from conventional, non-specifically designed for LENR
instrumentation, such as mass-spectrometer, gas-chromatographer, Wilson
camera, SEM spectra and others.
"Such
measurements gave us strong evidence on the activation mechanisms of
Nickel that allow the nuclear capture of Hydrogen (the "breaking" of
the Coulomb barrier), as well as thermalization mechanism in a dynamic
system of multi-stage set of reactions. Due to the elapsed time between
the phenomena and their measurements using the above mentioned
instrumentation, an incomplete proof of theories still exists. However,
the obtained data provided us with a solid basis to control the
triggering and termination conditions of the Ni-H reactions within
Hyperion reactors, as well as the necessary conditions for stable
performance."
"Hyperion
has a Kernel with an almost cubic shape. In this solid cube we
form 1 or 9 cylinder reactor chambers (holes in the solid), closed in
both ends with covers. Any such cylinder reactor chamber is
symmetrically surrounded by 6 coolant tubes (also holes in the solid)
communicating with the rest of the prime circuit of the coolant through
reservoirs (one cold in, one hot out) embedded also in the Kernel's
structure (areas B and C in the spec kernel sketch, See PDF). We
found this geometry as more efficient than any other we tried in terms
of heating management, reflecting to the conditions of the reactor
chamber (and the reaction of course) as well as as a solution to
several engineering problems, including the survival of electronics in
a dry, not affected by coolant or hydrogen leakage, environment."
Rossi's October 6th public test
in Bologna, Italy, of a single E-Cat reactor cell in "self-sustaining
mode" produced energy for almost four hours with inconsequential energy
input, which was carefully measured and subtracted from the energy
output measurements. If the E-Cat was not producing heat from low
energy nuclear reactions (LENR), then the constant flow of water would
have cooled the E-Cat down to room temperature. Instead, the
E-Cat maintained stable heat production and continued to boil
water. As the E-Cat did not lose any weight during the test,
chemical reactions can be ruled out as a source of the heat.
The Swedish engineering journal, NyTeknik, helped with the October 6th testing and has a news story published here, and a technical report here.
An unnamed United States based corporate or military customer (possibly DARPA) tested Rossi's one megawatt (heat) E-Cat power
plant on October 28th, 2011.
The test was conducted by Domenico Fioravanti, who reportedly is a former NATO
colonel and engineer with 30 years of experience in
thermodynamics. The reactor was run in half power self-sustain mode for over 5.5 hours. That means there was no energy input during 5.5 hours of continuous operation. "According
to the customer’s controller, Domenico Fioravanti, the plant released
2,635 kWh during five and a half hours of self sustained mode, which is
equivalent to an average power of 479 kilowatts." Rossi states that the same United States based customer has ordered an additional 12 one megawatt
reactors, and more one megawatt power plants have been sold to other new customers. Large sized power plant sales go through his European marketing portal, http://ecat.com/. You can keep up with fast moving E-Cat events through http://www.e-catworld.com/.
If LENR technology works as promised,
and as every public and private test to date indicates, then humans
will gradually replace all fossil fuels with energy from
abundant nickel and hydrogen. There will be no risk of radioactive pollution because LENR devices contain no radioactive materials. LENR power
will put an end to biofuels and all the environmental damage and food
price hyperinflation they create. The application of LENR power sources will raise our standard
of living by lowering the cost of food, shelter, clothing, consumer
goods, transportation…everything.
LENR has potential
competition in the design of very large scale power
plants. Tri Alpha Energy
uses a unique, simplified form of high temperature fusion that uses boron and hydrogen as fuel. The fusion products are broken up into three
helium-4 nuclei and three alpha particles, a process that produces
little or no radioactive waste. Rossi and Defkalion LENR reactors must heat liquids to
push turbines to make electricity. Tri Alpha's reactor can
theoretically
create electricity directly with no turbine required, increasing
efficiency while reducing size and construction costs. Tri Alpha's
concept is so appealing that famed Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen,
has invested millions of dollars into the highly secretive Rancho Santa
Margarita based company. A smaller company called Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. claims to be working on similar boron fueled fusion technology.
If fusion/LENR technology does not work as hoped, then the next obvious alternative is the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR),
which is the safest, cleanest, and most efficient fission reactor
design available. After the serious nuclear accidents in Japan,
however, any development of LFTR technology or other new fission reactor
design will be painfully slow, perhaps too slow to avoid further
dramatic collapse of the world economies which rely so heavily on
affordable energy. Let us all hope that nickel-hydrogen LENR technology does work as
claimed, because billions of human lives will be saved by a major
reduction in energy costs.
Christopher Calder
email
= archive100 AT inbox DOT com
Links:
Rossi's paper - "A new energy source from nuclear fusion"
Interview with Andrea Rossi
Andrea Rossi's website - "Journal of Nuclear Physics"
Rossi's patent application
Widom-Larsen Theory Explains Low Energy Nuclear Reactions & Why They Are Safe and Green
Please visit my main website, with overview of all major energy sources - The Renewable Energy Disaster
