A library of papers about cold fusion
This conference was held on April 10 – 14, 2012. Most of the PowerPoint slides from the conference are here. We have uploaded some slides from Rick Cantwell, including:
Cantwell, R., D. McConnell, and T.N. Claytor, Search for excess heat in metal cathodes exposed to pulsed hydrogen plasma.
Dmitriyeva, O., et al., Effect of temperature gradient on calorimetric measurements during gas-loading experiments
Dmitriyeva, O., et al., Control of excess heat production in Pd-impregnated alumina powder
Two video lectures have been uploaded to the CERN Document Server from a CERN Colloquium held on March 22, 2012:
Yogendra Srivastava
Professor of Physics
INFN & Department of Physics
University of Perugia, Perugia, Ital
Overview of LENT Theory (Low Energy Nuclear Transmutations)
The slides shown in the video are available here.
Francesco Celani
National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Frascati National Laboratories.
Vice-President of International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science
Overview of Theoretical and Experimental Progress in Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)
The slides are here.
On January 8, 2012, Dr. Edmund Storms appeared on a Special Edition the Internet radio broadcast “The Space Show” with Dr. David Livingston. See: http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q=1685 This is a Special Edition devoted to “exploring, understanding, and evaluating where the LENR field is today and what risks and challenges lie ahead before the observed phenomena is understood and can be commercialized.”
On October 11, 2011, Mike McKubre of SRI gave a lecture titled “What Happened to Cold Fusion?” at SRI’s Cafe Scientifique Silicon Valley.
This is an up-to-date look at McKubre’s own work and at some of the major trends in the field, especially the gas-loading approach pioneered by Arata and Piantelli, which and now the focus of the field, especially with Rossi. It is available as an 8-part video on YouTube:
by Jed Rothwell
On October 7, 2011, Andrea Rossi performed another test of one of the reactors units he intends to use in a large 1 MW reactor. The test lasted nine hours. For nearly 4 hours there was no power input; the device was running in self-sustaining mode. (In the cold fusion literature, this mode is sometimes called “heat after death.” It was first described by Fleischmann and Pons in 1993.)
A report and a short video of the test were published by Mats Lewan of NyTeknik. A detailed description is here.
Although some experts question these results, most believe that the reactor must have produced large amounts of anomalous heat, for the following reasons:
The reactor vessel holds 30 L of water. This was first brought to boil with electric power. Anomalous heat production began. Two hours later, electric power was turned off. The anomalous heat continued in self-sustaining mode for nearly four hours after that. During this self-sustaining event, roughly 60 L of tap water flowed into the vessel, replacing twice the original volume. The surface of the reactor remained hot, at 60 to 80°C, which means it was poorly insulated and it radiated a lot of heat. Three hours into the event, a video shows that one of the observers accidentally touched an exposed metal surface. The metal was hot enough to make a person jump back in pain.
At the beginning of the self-sustaining event, the anomalous power was nominally 3 kW. An hour later it rose to 8 kW. It fluctuated, rising three times in all. At the end of the event, power was increasing again. Observers wanted to look inside the reactor, so Rossi quenched the reaction by venting gas from the cell and increasing the flow of cooling water. There is no way to know how much longer the reaction might have continued if it had not been deliberately stopped.
When a poorly insulated metal vessel is filled with 30 L of boiling water, it begins to cool immediately. It can only grow cooler; it cannot remain hot or grow hotter; that would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics. When 60 L of cold tap water is poured into the vessel, replacing the original water in stages, this also cools it down. After one hour the vessel must cool down close to room temperature. It is physically impossible for the vessel to remain at boiling temperature for 4 hours unless something inside it is producing heat. There were no chemical or electrical sources of power inside this reactor so the heat must have come from an anomalous reaction.
Unfortunately, this test was marred by problems that made it impossible to accurately determine how much energy was produced. Peak power was nominally 8 kW but the instruments were so imprecise it might have been lower or much higher, perhaps 10 kW. Problems included: poorly placed instruments; the arrangement of the outlet hose that prevented accurate independent verification of temperature and flow rates; critical parameters such as flow rates not instrumented or recorded; and an instrument that was not set to record electronically, even though it would have taken only a moment to insert an SD card and begin recording. Critical temperature and flow data that should have been electronically recorded every minute had to be manually written down by Lewan. He was only able to read the instruments every 10 or 15 minutes, which left large gaps in the data.
These problems could have been fixed at in a few hours, at minimal expense. The test could easily have been arranged to answer most skeptical objections. All of these problems were anticipated because they were present in previous tests. Experts advised Rossi how to fix them in the weeks leading up to the test, but he ignored this advice.
Experts from Motorola and elsewhere have analyzed the data. Most of them have concluded that the excess heat was real, and anomalous. Some of these reports are here: http://lenr-canr.org/RossiData/
An analysis by Horace Heffner is here.
On October 28, 2011 Rossi ran the entire array of 52 units. It apparently produced 470 kW, again with no input power. The test was described in NyTeknik.
NyTeknik published three articles and two videos about the Rossi device:
See the E-cat run in self-sustained mode Article and video
Test of Energy Catalyzer, Bologna, September 7, 2011 Analysis of calorimetry, Acrobat format
Abstract: The Rossi device was run for just over half an hour without external energy input. Ny Teknik assisted recently in a test where the ‘E-cat’ invented by Andrea Rossi was run in self-sustained mode.
Here’s Rossi’s one megawatt plant Article and video
Abstract: Here it is: the plant that according to inventor Andrea Rossi will produce one megawatt of thermal energy via an unknown reaction in his ‘energy catalyzer’. The plant is now being shipped to the United States.
Defkalion Green Technologies, the company that will market the Rossi cold fusion reactor, held a press conference. They also opened their web site with material from the press conference and announcements:
http://www.defkalion-energy.com/
See also Defkalion Green Technologies white paper: Company Overview — Market Strategy — Global Positioning.
According to the company — Defkalion Green Technologies has secured exclusive distribution rights for the entire world, except for the USA. It will start production and distribution of its products late this year, from its factory in Xanthi. It will sell initially to the Greek and Balkan markets. Two more factories are scheduled within 2012. International sales are already strong in demand, which will spur exports.
The focus of this press conference was mainly on the company’s commercial plans rather than technical information about the reactor. They did not demonstrate a reactor. They introduced to the public: the company, the Board of Directors and the investors. They discussed marketing plans, products and potential markets. A video of the press conference will be made, and it will be uploaded to YouTube. The press conference was in Greek. A YouTube version of the press conference with English subtitles will be uploaded to YouTube around June 28.
Marianne Macy published a report on the press conference here.
Some technical information about the Defkalion reactors is available here. This page also reports that the reactors are now being tested and certified by the Greek Ministry of Regional Development and Industry, and the Ministry of Environment and Energy. This information was published in the Defkalion discussion forum by the Defkalion staff.
A company has been formed in Athens, Greece, Defkalion Green Technologies S. A., for the purpose of manufacturing and selling Andrea Rossi Energy Catalyzer cold fusion reactors. According to the Greek newspaper “Investor’s World” and other sources, the company is capitalized at €200 million, which includes €100 million to be paid in as royalties, presumably to Rossi. The Greek press says the company plans to manufacture 300,000 machines a year for the Greek and Balkan market. The company website says it has exclusive rights to sell the machines everywhere except the Americas.
Rossi has announced that he is fabricating a 1 MW reactor to produce hot water (not steam or electricity), scheduled for October 2011. He is building the machine in Florida before shipping it to the Defkalion factory. It will consist of 100 small devices similar to the one demonstrated at U. Bologna.
We have uploaded a new paper from Scott Chubb describing the Rossi device and recent events about it.
February 2011, updated March 2011
On February 10 and 11, 2011, Levi et al. (U. Bologna) performed another test of the Rossi device. Compared to the January 14 test, they used a much higher flow rate, to keep the cooling water from vaporizing. This is partly to recover more heat, and partly because Celani and others criticized phase-change calorimetry as too complicated. There were concerns about the enthalpy of wet steam versus dry steam, and the use of a relative humidity meter to determine how dry the steam was. A source close to the test gave Jed Rothwell the following figures. These are approximations:
Duration of test: 18 hours
Flow rate: 3,000 L/h = ~833 ml/s.
Cooling water input temperature: 15°C
Cooling water output temperature: ~20°C
Input power from control electronics: variable, average 80 W, closer to 20 W for 6 hours
The temperature difference of 5°C * 833 ml = 4,165 calories/second = 17,493 W. Observers estimated average power as 16 kW. A 5°C temperature difference can easily be measured with confidence.
3,000 L/h is 793 gallons/h, which is the output of a medium-sized $120 ornamental pond pump.
The control electronics input of ~80 W is in line with what was reported for tests before Jan. 14. Input power was high on that day because there was a problem with cracked welding, according to the Levi report.
18 hours * 16 kW = 288 kWh = 1,037 MJ. That is the amount of energy in 26 kg of gasoline (7.9 gallons). Given the size and weight of the device, this rules out a chemical source of energy.
NyTeknik published a fascinating description of the latest experiment (in English). This includes new details, such as the fact that the power briefly peaked at 130 kW. NyTeknik also published an interview with two outside experts about the demonstration: Prof. Emeritus at Uppsala University Sven Kullander, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Energy Committee, and Hanno Essén, associate professor of theoretical physics, Swedish Royal Institute of Technology. Two versions are available, in English andSwedish.
On March 3, Rossi conducted an informative on-line chat with NyTeknik readers.
Rossi and U. Bologna have announced that tests on the device will continue for a year.
On March 29, 2011, a test of a smaller Rossi device was performed. It was attended by two new observers: Hanno Essén, associate professor of theoretical physics and chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society, and Sven Kullander, chairman of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ Energy Committee. They agree with other independent observers that the device must be producing a nuclear reaction. See NyTeknik: Swedish physicists on the E-cat: “It’s a nuclear reaction.”
This test employed a new, smaller device with a 50 cm3 cell. It produced ~4.4 kW for 6 hours, or 25 kWh (90 MJ).
Essén and Kullander wrote a report, also in NyTeknik, Experimental test of a mini-Rossi device at the Leonardocorp, Bologna 29 March 2011. Focardi gave a revealing radio interview. Here is an English translation.
NyTeknik has published a number of articles about Rossi. They are all listed here. The New Energy Times is keeping a close watch on news articles about Rossi. They have a list of articles here.
On April 19 and April 21, Rossi and Mats Lewan of NyTeknik performed additional tests on the reactors. The article about this is here. This includes a close-up 4 minute video of the equipment in operation. Detailed reports about the two tests are here and here.
Here is a fascinating interview with Prof. Stremmenos, who is working with Focardi and Rossi, and is a key figure in the establishment of the Defkalion factory in Greece.
In May 2011, a start-up company announced it has reached an agreement with Rossi to distribute his machines in the U.S. The start-up was founded by former U.S. Department of Energy officials who have been in contact with Rossi for many years. They independently tested his devices. They paid him a large sum of money to license the technology.
Librarian: Jed Rothwell • 1954 Airport Road, Suite 204, Chamblee, GA 30341 • Tel: 678-436-3035
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