(Updated April 10, see below). Here’s my main hypothesis on the IH-Rossi affair, after a few days (BTW in line with what Torkel Nyberg/Sifferkoll argues):
– With the license agreement signed, IH had the possibility to get access to the whole IP for a world changing technology, paying ‘only’ $11.5M after the 24h Validation Test in May 2013 (as specified in the License Agreement). And they did.
– IH then never intended to perform the stipulated one-year test (Rossi claims that they continuously tried to delay it), but instead wanted to get rid of Rossi and progress with R&D, based on the IP they hade received. By not undertaking the one-year test they would save $89M (which according to the License Agreement should be paid after a successful ‘Guaranteed Performance Test’).
Thomas Darden
– With the IP in hand, and with successful demonstrations, IH could raise funding which could be used for investing in other companies in the field, e.g. Brillouin Energy(UPDATE: As far as I have understood, IH has not invested in Brillouin Energy. It has been reported that Darden invested personally in Brillouin, but before putting up IH)—companies having experts that could help them working with the technology, since they didn’t posses the skill or competence themselves to use the info obtained from Rossi. They also approached individual experts in the field, asking them to work with IH.
– However, like everyone else in this story, IH underestimated Rossi—thinking that he was just another of those confused and not-so-business-and-competition-prepared inventors out there, when he was instead extremely focused, persistent (being an former long distance runner), competitive, intelligent, intuitive, far-aiming and hardened by tough experiences in a fairly corrupt power game country like Italy; Rossi managed to find a location and a customer for the one-year test, and also completed the test (which IH maybe didn’t expect), furthermore with exceptionally good results—a COP (Coefficient of Performance) above 50, far beyond the requirement in the License Agreement for full payment, a COP>6.
– Rossi saw this coming, observing IH’s actions, including investing in other companies, filing competing patent applications with false inventors and with copied material from Bologna University’s HotCat report without permission, and probably a series of other observations, and he started to prepare the lawsuit.
– Having already gone through a similar process with the Greek company Defkalion, which systematically delayed payments, Rossi this time decided to be ready to sue immediately the day after the payment of $89M was due (five days after receiving the ERV report, as specified in the License Agreement).
– Probably, at this point, Rossi also saw the possibility to get out of a license agreement which was far to advantageous for IH, given the achieved COP of 50, and given that the agreement gave IH full sales and manufacturing rights in markets covering over 50 percent of the world’s GDP, as Torkel Nyberg notes. Thus he could regain control of manufacturing rights in the whole world, with sales rights still being licensed in some markets.
– Again, IH underestimated Rossi. They realised that the completion of the one-year test would become a problem and issued a statement, with support of the PR and crisis management firm APCO Worldwide, in order to discredit any information not coming from themselves. But they were probably not prepared for the immediate and extensive lawsuit submitted by Rossi and Leonardo Corp. IH’s situation now became delicate.
– The lawsuit will probably go on for years, but it’s interesting to note how Rossi has systematically used his blog and the Internet to spread public knowledge on his activities, challenges and progress. In my book he described how he was destroyed by Italian media during the Petroldragon affair, since media then had unchallenged power over individuals, and that this is no longer true with Internet giving everyone the possibility to reach out to the world. Therefore it’s also logic for Rossi to demand for a jury to settle the case.
– The lawsuit could possibly over time develop into a parallel to the Honeywell, Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp. case regarding the invention of the electronic computer—a case that went on from 1967 until 1973, which some people argue was in order to keep third parties out of the computer business, with lawyers on both sides dragging out the lawsuit as long as possible.
So this is my hypothesis. I might be wrong. Maybe IH simply underestimated the difficulties to raise the necessary funding. What they raised (reportedly about $60M, excluded Chinese funds for a collaborative project in China), was enough for investing in a few other LENR technology companies and for buying some patents, but not for paying Rossi the remaining $89M. So IH found itself in a difficult situation and didn’t find a good way out (but they could at least have tried to negotiate?).
Some suggest IH was forced by the US government, in order to keep the technology in the US, free from a foreign inventor, but realistically in that case, I believe the government would gladly have paid $89M to keep things quite and clean. We’ll find out one day, maybe.
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(UPDATE April 10):As I wrote in a comment here below, thanks everyone for interesting and thought worthy comments so far. My hypothesis might not be the best, or not even close, and it’s the discussion that brings out a wider perspective.
One of the possible interpretations that have been brought up, that I also believe could be right, is that IH is correct in its statement that it has not been able to ‘substantiate’ the results claimed Rossi, meaning that they have received the technology instructions for doing it, but have not been able to make a satisfactory replication with other people’s help, at some level of efficiency (COP) that they consider Rossi has achieved. And since it’s stated in the license agreement that Rossi has to make sure that IH can successfully use the instructions transferred after the 24h Validation Test in May 2013, this would be a motive for not paying. Yet, in that situation, IH would still keep the agreement open, since they see the possibility that they could succeed to replicate with high COP, and in that case pay the $89M and go ahead with Rossi.
This would also explain why IH has approached experts in the field, to collaborate with them. One crucial question might of course be how many attempts they have made so far, and with what skill and expertise.
(UPDATED below with statement from IH) (Also UPDATED with response from Andrea Rossi).
(June 2: IH filed motion to dismiss lawsuit—link below).
First of all—we now know that the one-year 1MW test was very successful and that the E-Cat and LENR is a technology field that will fundamentally change the world. [Admittedly premature. We haven’t seen the report yet]. More about this later. In any case, let’s wait for the detailed report for final confirmation. Champagne is still on ice.
On Wednesday, April 6, I received a press release from the lawyer representing Rossi’s company, Leonardo Corp., about a lawsuit on Rossi’s US licensee Industrial Heat (IH), its representatives Thomas Darden and JT Vaughn, and Darden’s main company, Cherokee Investment Partners. Link to the case docket is here.
Thomas Darden
I was first somewhat surprised, but reading the documents and adding info that I have received during the last months, things became clearer.
I recommend you to read the complaint and the license agreement between Rossi and IH (see below)—it tells a detailed story of what has been going on during the last years, and one good thing about the lawsuit is that all this info, originally protected by NDA, is now open.
Rossi and IH entered an agreement in October 2012 (as I also report in An Impossible Invention), on which Rossi was paid $1.5M.
A 24h Validation Test was performed in May 2013 with a plant consisting of 30 E-Cats. After successful completion Rossi was paid $10M, and he transferred all the necessary IP for the E-Cat and its fuel to IH.
Now things are getting interesting. The license agreement defined that IH acquired a license for North and South America, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, to sell and manufacture E-Cat based products, but the IP remained property of Leonardo Corp. Yet IH stated that it had acquired the technology from Rossi, apparently in order to raise more money (we know that at least $60M was raised, of which about $50M from UK based Woodford).
IH then delayed the one-year test—the ‘Guaranteed Performance Test’. If successful, with at least six times more energy output than input (COP>6), IH should pay Rossi $89M (or less at lower performance). And although the test was finally undertaken, and successfully concluded recently—producing over 50 times more output energy than input energy (!), validated by two experts, paid for and chosen by IH and Rossi—IH never paid Rossi (we will probably soon see the full report that was delivered to Rossi and Darden on March 29).
Instead, it turns out from Leonardo’s lawsuit that IH (Darden and Vaughn), made a series of maneuvers to avoid undertaking the one-year test, to avoid risking the billions in Cherokee’s fund, while trying to get hold of the E-Cat IP, sharing it with Rossi’s competitors in which IH was investing, and even filing patent applications based on the IP transferred from Rossi, nominating other inventors than Rossi.
These claims are supported by independent information I have received lately (not from Rossi), on people connected to IH, actively trying to engage experts in the field to work on replication of Rossi’s effect, while telling various stories about Rossi, all indicating that IH might have been missing some essential info, or at least wanted to get this info before paying Rossi.
Furthermore, in the lawsuit, Leonardo demands a trial by jury. Everything out in the light.
This doesn’t fit well with the hypothesis that Rossi is a fraudster and that IH knew this and therefore tried to get away from him. Not a bit.
But even if all the claims in the lawsuit are true, it’s not obvious that Darden and Vaughn had these intentions initially, as Torkel Nyberg points out on his blog Sifferkoll.
IH might have been pressed by investors’ expectations, while not being sure of having all the technology details. IH can even have been approached by more powerful entities, seeing the E-Cat as a threat, or wanting to secure the technology for the US, without depending on Rossi.
We don’t know this. And to settle the case might take years, unfortunately. In any case—the public statement from IH a few weeks ago now comes into another perspective, looking more like damage limitation, with support of the well-known PR agency APCO Worldwide.
The good part is that all this info now is public, that the one-year 1MW was successful, and that commercially viable LENR is here to stay, and that it will change the world.
For further documents use the link above (“All documents…”).
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UPDATE (April 7): Industrial Heat has issued a statement in response to the lawsuit by Rossi and Leonardo Corp. It starts:
“We are aware of the lawsuit filed by Andrea Rossi and Leonardo Corporation against Industrial Heat. Industrial Heat rejects the claims in the suit. They are without merit and we are prepared to vigorously defend ourselves against this action. Industrial Heat has worked for over three years to substantiate the results claimed by Mr. Rossi from the E-Cat technology – all without success.”
I’m still waiting to see the report, but if it confirms the data that Rossi has given—a COP over 50, validated by the ERV chosen by Rossi and IH together—and if it’s true that IH has had its staff present at the test all the time, even bringing representatives for UK based Woodford to the plant to make due diligence and then receiving $50M in funding, I would find it quite difficult to understand that IH has not been able to substantiate the results claimed by Rossi. Maybe IH has not been able to replicate the effect themselves. But in that case I guess that they should kindly ask Rossi for help.
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(UPDATED April 8): Rossi earlier said he couldn’t comment the ongoing lawsuit, but after IH’s press release above, he responded to some questions on his blog, Journal of Nuclear Physics. I have chosen to publish three of these comments, which I think speak for themselves:
Andrea Rossi April 7, 2016 at 7:27 PM
Dear Janne:
I have to comment the press release of IH, being a press release and not a forensic act.
They made the Lugano reactor ( they also signed it ) they made many replications of which we have due record and witnesses, they made multiple patent applications ( without my authotization ) with their chief engineer as the co-inventor ( he invented nothing ) , with detailed description of the replications , they made replications with the attendance of Woodford, after which they got 50 or 60 millions of dollars from Woodfords’ investors, they made replications with the attendance of Chinese top level officers, after which they started thanks to the E-Cat they made an R&D activity in China in a 200 millions concern, they made replications with an E-Cat completely made by them under my direction the very day in which the 1 MW plant has been delivered in Raleigh, they made replications that we have recorded. After the replication they made with the attendance of Woodford in 2013 Mr Tom Darden said publicly: ” this replication has been stellar” ( witnesses available). But this is not the place to discuss this. We have prepared 18 volumes to explain exactly and in detail the activity of our “Licensee” and his acquaintances from 2013 to now. Until they had to collect money thanks to the E-Cat, they made replications and have been happy with the E-Cat; when it turned to have to pay, they discovered that they never made replications, that the ERV that they had chosen in agreement with us was not good, that the test on the 1 MW plant, thanks to which they collected enormous amounts of money from the investors and where I put at risk my health working 16-18 hours per day was not a good test ( but for all the year of the test they NEVER said a single word of complaint, even if they had constantly their men in the plant), etc etc. But the worse has still to come out. The worse is in the 18 volumes we will present in due time, in due place. A blog is not the right place to discuss a litigation. This is only a quick answer to the press release made by IH.
Ad majora.
Warm Regards,
A.R.
Andrea Rossi April 7, 2016 at 8:32 PM
Hank Mills:
They prepared everything, the charges, the body of the reactor EVERYTHING !!!.
I just teached to them what to do.
They never used anything pre-prepared by Leonardo Corp.
Now, let me talk to you of a very singular coincidence: Brillouin has always made only electrolytic apparatuses: go to read all their patent applications made before their agreement with IH, and you will find confirmation of what I am saying ( I know their patents by heart, because I have studied them and probably I know them better than themselves : I wrote about 100 pages of notes about their patents ). And now the singular coincidence: they make the agreement with IH in April 2015, and Voilà, they made a public demo in Capitol Hill ( Washington, DC) with a device that is the Copy-Cat of something I am familiar with. Nothing that Brillouin has ever made before the agreement with IH. What a coincidence !!!
Warm Regards,
A.R.
Andrea Rossi April 7, 2016 at 9:09 PM
Hank Mills:
In the press release of IH they write that ” for three years they tried to replicate the Rossi effect, with no avail”: very good, but during those three years Industrial Heat collected about 60 million dollars from Woodford, more millions from other sources, exclusively based on my E-Cats technology. This before making shopping to buy other patents. Now, the cases are two: either they are lying when they say they didn’t replicate, or they made a fraud collecting 60 millions from Woodford, more from others, not to mention Cherokee fund. You had to see Tom Darden and JT Vaughn dance like ballet etoiles around the investors, showing them the E-Cats, and telling them that the E-Cats had been built by them! “Stellar” coherently Darden, in his role of etoile, repeated to the enchanted attandees, ready to spend 50 millions. Now, that my bill arrived, the E-Cat had not been replicated , they say. For three years.
Again, I am just answering to a press release of IH.
Warm Regards,
A.R.
I just received this statement from Andrea Rossi’s US partner Industrial Heat, in an e-mail from its Vice President, JT Vaughn.
Industrial Heat acquired the rights to produce and sell E-Cat based products in South and North America, Russia, China and a few other countries, in 2012.
Update (March 10, 2016): I agree with Torkel Nyberg, arguing in his blogg Sifferkoll that this statement probably is aimed at building credibility and at defending IH and everyone involved with the one-year 1MW test, on which a third party report is expected within a few weeks, from expected attacks by people whose interests are threatened by a cheap, clean, carbon free, versatile and abundant energy source. And by people who have insisted on negating and obstructing every scientific claim regarding LENR or cold fusion in the last decades.
At a certain extent, I also think that IH wants to underline that it has undertaken a one-year test, controlled 24/7 by a respected third party institute (‘ERV’—Expert Responsible for Validation), and that this sets it a part from other companies and groups in the LENR field, from a competition point of view.
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“Statement of Industrial Heat regarding LENR Industry Developments
March 10, 2016
Industrial Heat’s objective is to make clean, safe and affordable energy available everywhere, and in doing this we want to build a company that demonstrates respect for all. LENR is a key focus of Industrial Heat and we believe multiple technologies in this sector warrant further investigation and development.
Industrial Heat has licensed, acquired or invested in several LENR technologies from around the world. We have developed a group of LENR thought leaders, and we have built a world- class engineering team. We are pleased with the technologies we have assembled and with the group of scientists and engineers working on them. Presently, the Industrial Heat team is in the midst of assessing and prioritizing the technologies in our portfolio.
Our operating philosophy is to foster scientific and engineering rigor in the development of LENR. We will thoroughly assess data derived from sound experiments which we design, control and monitor. Embracing failure as well as success is important, because we learn from both.
Unfortunately, there is a long and continuing pattern of premature proclamations in the LENR sector. Because of this, we encourage open-minded skepticism. We believe society suffers when technological advances and innovative experimentation are stifled; likewise, society and the industry suffer when results are promoted and claims are made without rigorous verification and precise measurement.
We value credibility through sound LENR research. That’s why any claims made about technologies in our portfolio should only be relied upon if affirmed by Industrial Heat and backed by reputable third parties who have verified our results in repeated experiments.
Our portfolio of work has never been stronger and we remain excited about the potential we see. This optimism is grounded in more than just hope, yet a great deal of work remains. The energy challenges of today must be met with viable, clean, safe and affordable solutions.”
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Side Note: The e-mail I received from JT Vaughn was sent in CC to an individual at the global public affairs and strategic communications consultancy firm APCO Worldwide. In Wikipedia, it says on this firm:
“Most public relations firms focus on corporate communications, but APCO is usually hired to handle sensitive political and crisis management issues. Many APCO executives are former prominent government officials, politicians and ambassadors. APCO’s clientele consists of multi-national corporations, governments, politicians, associations and nonprofit organisations.”
Update 3 (March 18, 2016): Also read this comment on APCO’s possible involvement: Something Really Bothers Me About the @ApcoWorldwide #LENR Connection! (‘Maybe IH got sort of an offer they can’t refuse…’). I need to underline that you should be careful with this kind of conspiracy theories. However, it’s interesting to note that there might be significant interests wanting to delay the introduction of commercially viable LENR based energy.
I believe IH are holding back for several reasons.
1. They value the information advantage. Although this one is not new. Still, there is no product in the market yet. It is work in progress, and the less other entities know, the better for them.
2. They are negotiating continuation of the Ecat series with Rossi and rights to the technology. We dont know the fine print between “manufacturing” and “know how”. Rossi comments supports this thesis.
3. To keep Rossi in line. Releasing report would boost his credibility enormously, possibly leaving IH for Leonardo/Hydro Fusion to build a plant in southern Sweden, with his core innovation team and know how. That would move focus from IH as main LENR player to Leonardo who has the IP. Ie. not good for IH investors; they certainly would like IH to have more control over IP than they have. Rossi comments support this thesis also. As well as IH letter stating only they themselves are credible.
4. Maybe there is an issue with the ERV [Expert Responsible for Validation] entity. Especially if the COP is really good. The downside is huge and upside limited. Negotiations going on here as well?
5. They realize that regardless of ERV report there will be multitude of attacks also on IH stating fraud/scam. The better report the more attacks. It’s easy to invent scenarios of fraud, not having to prove them. Harder to prove one self innocent. This thesis is also supported by the IH letter.
From these perspectives it is actually not difficult to see why IH is holding on to the report. Hopefully Rossi, who benefits the most from a release and is in the loop can put enough pressure on IH to release it anyway.
The second generation E-Cat used in the Lugano test in 2014.
After five years of debate on the much discussed energy device, the E-Cat, I have finally been shown a theoretical model that makes sense and which seems to be consistent with both laws of physics and experimental results, which I will present here.
As I have said before—only with a valid theoretical model, effective R&D on LENR based devices can start in earnest. And judging from the over 200 patent applications Rossi says he is preparing, Rossi probably has this kind of understanding. Quite possibly, the model he is using is close to what you’ll find here below.
This blog post will be fairly technical and a bit long, but for those wanting to get this understanding I think it’s worthwhile. Also note that it will be updated continuously with corrections of details that I might have misunderstood, or that need further elaboration.
And before I start—a special thanks to Bob Greenyer, co-founder of MFMP, who shared recent insights with me, and also insisted that I carefully read the patents of long-time researcher on nickel-hydrogen based LENR, Francesco Piantelli, who used to collaborate with Rossi’s scientific advisor, late Prof. Sergio Focardi. Below you’ll find a series of videos that Greenyer is producing on this topic (I will add more of them as they are published), and just like Greenyer, I would like to highlight the importance of Piantelli’s and Focardi’s work.
Let’s get started!
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First, a short crash course in necessary physics (jump this piece if you feel familiar with basic nuclear physics).
Reactions releasing energy are called exothermal, and the energy released always corresponds to a decrease in mass. This is determined by Einstein’s famous formula ‘energy equals mass times speed of light squared’ (E=mc²). And since speed of light is such a large number, very little mass is needed to obtain large amounts of energy.
For chemical reactions (burning wood, oil, digesting food etc), this loss of mass is so small that it’s hardly detectable.
For nuclear reactions (e.g. fission, like in nuclear power plants, or fusion, like in the sun and the stars) the loss of mass is more notable. It’s about a million times larger in the same amount of fuel as in chemical reactions, reflecting the fact that you get about a million times more energy from a certain amount of nuclear fuel as from the same amount of chemical fuels, such as e.g. oil.
This also means that one gram of nuclear fuel corresponds to one or several tons of oil. Intuitively, this difference between chemical and nuclear reactions can be understood noting that chemical reactions involve the tiny electrons in the atom, while nuclear reactions involve the nucleus which has a mass thousands of times larger than the electron’s mass, and which is held together by forces much stronger than those needed to keep the electrons in their orbits.
Energy from nuclear reactions can be obtained in mainly two ways—fusing small nuclei (fusion) or splitting large nuclei (fission)—both can be exothermal reactions. This works because nuclei happen to be most ‘relaxed’ when they have an intermediate dimension—specifically, the most relaxed of them all are the elements iron and nickel.
Normally you say that such nuclei have larger binding energy per nucleon. You can understand this by thinking that they are at the bottom of an energy hole, while smaller and larger nuclei are higher up in the hole. And if you want to split nuclei of intermediate size to get smaller nuclei, or fuse them to obtain bigger nuclei, you need to add energy, pushing them up from the energy hole, since these smaller or larger nuclei require stronger forces to remain intact. In an analogue way, energy is released when small nuclei are fused, and when large nuclei are split, making them fall deeper down in energy hole.
And since energy corresponds to mass, this can be measured as a loss of mass. Consequently, the isotope 56iron (26 protons, 30 neutrons), which is at the bottom of the energy hole, has the lowest mass per nucleon, which means that any reaction leading to 56iron implicates a loss of mass per nucleon which will be released as energy according to E=mc².
Normally, the released energy in nuclear reactions is carried away as strong electromagnetic radiation, called high-energy gamma radiation, and as particles such as neutrons with high kinetic energy. In LENR—Low Energy Nuclear Reactions—however, almost no radiation is observed. Yet, the high energy release per amount of fuel (grams corresponding to tons of oil) indicates that it is a nuclear reaction and that it cannot be a chemical reaction.
So what we are looking for is a model for transforming nuclei towards 56iron, without having strong radiation. This is often called the second miracle of cold fusion or LENR. The first miracle is how to make two nuclei fuse at low temperatures, since they are both positively charged and repel each other. This repelling is called the Coulomb Barrier, and according to known physics, a temperature of ten to a hundred million degrees is needed in order to make free nuclei move so fast that they can overcome this barrier (note however, that in LENR, nuclei are not free, but rather fixed in a lattice or possibly moving in a liquid). That is why hot fusion is so hard to achieve, and require billions of euros/dollars for building experimental reactors such as ITER.
Crash course finished!
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Let’s have a look at the proposed model which is extensively described in Piantelli’s patents EP2368252B1 (2013) and EP2702593B1 (2015). (The first was revoked in September 2015 after being challenged by Rossi’s company Leonardo Corp that basically claimed to have arrived at the same point before. However, the decision to revoke the patent has been appealed by Piantelli’s legal representative).
(Update: Also note this patent application by Piantelli: EP2754156A2, which I haven’t studied in detail yet. Update 2: The patent was granted on April 15, 2016)
1. The first step is to expose a transition metal to hydrogen. Nickel is for various reasons the best choice of transition metal, but any transition metal should do.
2. Next step is to obtain H- ions, i.e. hydrogen atoms with one extra electron. To do this, Piantelli heats the system to a certain temperature and also uses a certain pressure to control formation of H+ and H- ions when splitting hydrogen molecules, H2. In the E-Cat, hydrogen is provided through lithium aluminium hydride, LAH, which when heated transforms into hydrogen gas, aluminium and LiH, the latter consisting of Li+ and H- ions, making it an effective source of H-. This invention by Rossi, described in his patent, should be one reason that he has managed to achieve much higher power yield from the process, but it should be noted that Rossi until the second generation E-Cat reactor—the Hot Cat in 2012—used hydrogen from a canister (and maybe had another method for generating H-, even without knowing it).
Note: Some suggest that the H- concept might refer to a different form of hydrogen, akin to Randell Mills (CEO, founder of BLP) concept of hydrino, or Swedish researcher Leif Holmlid’s concept of ultra dense deuterium.
3. The system is now triggered in one of several ways ranging from thermal shock, mechanical impulse, and ultrasonic impulse to laser ray, electromagnetic fields, electric or magnetic pulse and particle beams. Before this step, the system is heated, in my understanding beyond the Debye temperature at which atoms are oscillating at the highest frequency in the lattice, and beyond which electric and thermal conductivity decreases significantly (the Debye temperature of nickel is +177°C). What the triggering essentially does is suddenly moving the conduction and the valence band of electrons.
4. This triggering leads to one of the electrons in the nickel atom being replaced by the H- ion (as described in the patent, this is in accordance with the Pauli exclusion principle and with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle). The shock affecting the levels of valence and conduction band is an important part in this capture process (see video below).
5. Since the H- ion has a mass that is almost 2,000 times larger than an electron mass, it tends towards orbits much closer to the nickel nucleus, while sending out Auger electrons and X-rays. In some way (to be explained in further detail), this is probably how the X-ray burst is produced that MFMP observed recently in a replication attempt of the E-Cat. One hypothesis is that this burst can be made to happen during pre-processing of the fuel (see video below). Such fuel, containing a meta-stable form of nickel with H- ions in one of the electron shells, could then be transported and introduced in reactors (especially if the nickel grains are covered and protected by LiH and Al). Then when the reaction starts, the burst will not occur. Only much less energetic X-rays (photons) will be released (when the H- ion is moving in smaller steps towards lower energy states in the electron shell?).
6. The low energy X-ray photons are being absorbed by a shielding material such as lead or tungsten, which is heated and then emits what is called black-body radiation—essentially infrared light or heat radiation which has a frequency of terahertz, possibly with the property of stimulating the process of replacing electrons by H- ions.
Note: An hypothesis by Bob Greenyer is that one certain time interval of external triggering heats the shielding material enough for it to stimulate further reaction for five times that time interval, without external triggering (power input). This would lead to a COP (coefficient of performance = power out/power in) of 6, which Rossi has steadily claimed as a guaranteed minimum.
7. When the H- ion is in an orbit close to the nickel nucleus, it loses its electrons thus becoming a free proton, and two things can then happen:
a. If the distance to the nucleus is minor than 10-14 m, the H nucleus—i.e. a proton—can be captured by the nickel nucleus, resulting in one of several possible nuclear reactions (see the patent) with mass loss and great energy release, according to Piantelli resulting in heat. (Why isn’t the energy released as high energy gamma radiation? Maybe because the proton is so close to the nucleus that it gets captured, without having a large kinetic energy as in hot fusion. Maybe also because the nickel atom is not free but fixed in a lattice?). This process has certain similarities with muon-catalysed fusion, and would be an explanation to the first miracle—overcoming the Coulomb Barrier at modest temperatures by getting enough close to the nickel nucleus, disguised as a very heavy electron. (And maybe also an explanation to the second miracle—obtaining nuclear fusion without high energy radiation).
b. (Maybe higher probability): If the distance is larger than 10-14 m, the proton is expelled from the metal atom through the repelling Coulomb force, with high kinetic energy (from 0 to 6.7 MeV) determined by Piantelli through calculation, and confirmed through cloud chamber experiments. NOTE: Piantelli has observed protons escaping from pre-processed nickel, well after the reaction has stopped. This indicates that the hypothesis in point (5) above could be valid—that pre-processed nickel with H- ions in the electron shells is meta-stable, and that protons get ejected once in a while. Not enough often, however, to keep a reaction, as described below, running.
8. These high energy protons can react with other atom nuclei, resulting in other nuclear reactions. Particularly, Piantelli proposes reaction with lithium or boron. Reactions with lithium yield alpha particles (which are nuclei of helium), and again, large amounts of energy, carried away as kinetic energy by the alpha particles (?). Such fusion between protons with much lower kinetic energy (225 eV) and lithium is described by Unified Gravity Corporation in patent application WO2014189799A9.
Note: In his second patent, Piantelli proposed to have a second material, such as lithium, in front of the primary material, nickel, at a distance of about 7 cm. In order not to stop the protons, however, the surrounding pressure must be very low. In the E-Cat, on the other hand, pure lithium is part of the fuel and in direct contact with the nickel. Therefore there’s no need for low pressure. Probably, though, a particular preparation of the fuel is necessary. The presence of lithium in the fuel, also described in Rossi’s patent, should be the second important invention by Rossi that leads to higher power yield.
9. The alpha particles get easily stopped, and grabs electrons to form helium, while also contributing to heat production when their kinetic energy is absorbed. They can also lead to further nuclear reactions with lithium.
10. The low energy X-ray radiation from (5) above could possibly be used to create electricity through the photoelectric effect, by exposing suitable materials to the X-ray radiation. The X-ray radiation could also be downshifted into visible light (with lower frequency), with the help of e.g. silver (Ag) or other elements with similar characteristics, which is possibly what Brilliant Light Power does in its ‘SunCell’. Both these effects could be in use in Rossi’s third generation reactor—the E-Cat X—supposedly producing heat, light and electricity.
11. A particular option, according to Piantelli’s second patent, is to use radioactive materials such as 232Th, 236U, 239U or 239Pu as secondary material. A part from producing energy, the process would then provide a possibility of a eliminating long-lived radioactive waste of various provenience, since the nuclear reactions would transform these elements through transmutation (a change of the number of protons) into other elements with shorter lifetime (half-life). Here’s a patent application by Piantelli on this method: WO2013046188A1.
Update: Bob Greenyer elaborated this model already in September 2015 in this piece at E-Cat World. The comments below are also adding to the picture.
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A couple of things are worth noting:
Piantelli has obtained two patents based on this model, probably having significant experimental evidence for details in the patent. This would not be surprising since he has been doing extensive experimentation with this kind of process since 1989 when he first discovered a heat effect from nickel and hydrogen by coincidence, performing a biotech experiment. Piantelli also has a very advanced private lab.
In the model of the E-Cat process, proposed by Norman Cook of Kansai University and Rossi, the process is initiated by a reaction between a proton and lithium. However, there’s no explanation as for where the protons come from. Point (7b) above could be one possible explanation.
As far as I understand, MFMP and Bob Greenyer have a series of experimental indications that strongly support the theory described above.
My understanding is also that the reaction paths described in Piantelli’s patents, precisely bring out the isotopic shifts observed both in the Lugano report, and in an earlier isotopic analysis performed on behalf of late Prof Sven Kullander on a sample of supposedly used E-Cat fuel provided by Rossi in February 2011. The result of the latter analysis was used by critics as a proof that there was no nuclear reaction in the E-Cat and that Rossi had faked the fuel sample.
One possible long-term outcome according to this reaction model, if nuclear reactions progress along long reaction paths, would be the formation of heavy and potentially radioactive elements. This might have been a concern in the recently concluded one-year 1MW test by Rossi and Industrial Heat, and a possible negative outcome, since it would make the technology much harder to certify and commercialise. Most probably, the the result of the ash analysis made by the third party institute (the ‘ERV’) is therefore crucial.
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Here are a few videos by Bob Greenyer from MFMP, explaining the findings with regard to Piantelli’s LENR model (several of the videos and more info can be found on MFMP’s website):
– – –
Implications of the X-ray signal found at the replication attempt:
Why using 62Nickel in the LENR reactor?
A series of possible LENR based reactor designs, even with very low startup temperature (trying to publicise as many ideas as possible to make them non-patentable):
Understanding of Brilliant Light Power’s device, the SunCell, with regard to the findings from the MFMP replication attempt:
Thank you Piantelli — Piantelli’s and Rossi’s parts in the discovery:
Correlation between Piantelli’s and Randell Mills’ theories—Bremsstrahlung, Auger Electrons and more:
Pre-processing the fuel to avoid X-Ray burst:
Importance of valence and conduction bands, surface plasmons and nanostructure of nickel:
Schematic view of MFMP’s reactor, called ‘glowstick’.
The ‘open science’ group, Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project, MFMP, that I mention at the end of my book An Impossible Invention, has announced that they have performed a true replication of the effect in Rossi’s energy device, the E-Cat. The group has also published a complete recipe of how to replicate the effect, adding a clear method for detecting a successful replication.
“What we will share is that the way in which we discovered it and the journey of analysis (…) makes it virtually impossible to say that Rossi does not have what he claims. It also shows that, whilst he may have been optimistic in how fast this would play out, he has been telling the truth, quite openly for years. Not only that, nature itself has been telling the same story and it told us too.”
Bob Greenyer, co-founder of the group, explained to me that the successful replication was based on all available information MFMP had got from from experienced LENR researchers Francesco Piantelli and Francesco Celani, and from the Russian scientist Alexander Parkhomov who also claims to have replicated Rossi’s effect, as well as openly shared information by Andrea Rossi himself.
The main evidence for the effect in MFMP’s experiment is a combination of ‘excess heat’—i.e. thermal energy released from the reaction, beyond the input energy—and x-ray radiation—i.e. the same kind of low energy radiation used in medical radiography. Important is that the x-ray emissions were observed only together with excess heat.
The character of the x-ray signal is, according to MFMP, the best way to detect that the replication is successful. The energy of the x-ray photons are between 0 and 300 keV (medical radiography typically uses x-rays between 5 and 150 keV), and there’s a brief but massive burst of x-rays when the reaction starts. This was observed also at the first semi-public demonstration of the E-Cat by Rossi in January 2011.
The heat from Rossi’s devices supposedly comes directly from the reaction and from the low energy x-rays which are thermalised—turned into harmless heat—by shielding materials such as lead.
The experiments by MFMP have been performed during the last three weeks, with a duration of about 20 hours of excess heat/x-rays on February 1-2. Everything is publicly documented at MFMP’s website Quantumheat.org, also the recipe, which essentially explains how to prepare the fuel consisting of nickel, lithium, hydrogen and aluminium, and how to run the experiment.
The preparation is fairly complicated and probably requires significant practice to master. It must be underlined that attempts should only be undertaken by trained people and with all necessary safety measures in place.
MFMP now plans to do follow-up experiments with the isotope Ni62 (an isotope is a special variety of any element, with the number indicating the number of nucleons in the atomic nucleus) which might enhance the effect.
In the following months, we should also expect an increased activity of replication attempts all over the world, possibly leading to a broad confirmation of the effect in Rossi’s E-Cat. On the other hand, it can be noted that Rossi had this knowledge already some five or six years ago, and reasonably has been able to further develop the process since.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate MFMP for its achievement, as a result of intense efforts, supported by a large group of donors and people offering their advice. As MFMP ends the letter to the donors:
“We did it. We lit the New Fire Together!”
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Here’s the complete letter to the donors from MFMP:
Dear Donor, During ICCF-17 in South Korea, shortly following the sad death of Dr. Martin Fleischmann, it became abundantly clear to a group of fresh attendees that the old approach to science, combined with the ostracisation of the great minds that had worked in the face of ridicule, was not delivering on the promise of of what we immediately called, “The New Fire”. It also was clear that there was something to investigate and we were morally bound to do it. We said that people would not believe, until they could experience it as if they were doing themselves and so the idea of Live Open Science was born. That was not enough, it had to be an effort that was free from commercial or government interests and that result and so it had to be conducted by the people, for the people. Our journey was made possible by the courage of Francesco Celani and we thank him profusely. Your donations played a critical role in realising this vision, but you know that, what we know you will want to hear is what we have to share tomorrow. We have been running and analysing an experiment live over the past Month. First for us in this experiment were: – Parkhomov Baking of Ni(correctly done) – Pre Hydrogenation of Ni – Proper baking out of cell under vacuum – Parkhomov pressure – Piantelli de-oxygenation – Piantelli ‘loading’ + proper dwell times – Piantelli capture analogue – Use of free Lithium – Use of calibrated NaI – Cycles attempting to create nano Ni distillates (inspired by “Bang!” discovery of dissolved Ni) – Long Run You can see that there are steps in there that came about only because of activities that were made possible by donations. The critical visits to Piantelli and Parkhomov. Around the beginning of the month we saw what appeared to be up to a COP of 1.2, not earth shattering, but sustained and robust and in line with both observations by others and the Lugano report when adjusted for correct emissivity. Over the next weeks we tried various bookend calibrations which supported this finding. We have said that only two paths would satisfy us: Statistically significant Isotopic or elemental shifts from Fuel to Ash Statistically significant emissions commensurate, correlating, or anti correlating to excess heat We are happy to tell you that we believe we have satisfied our condition 2, yet of course we’d like to replicate ourselves. Actually, though, it goes much further than that. What we will share is that the way in which we discovered it and the journey of analysis that makes it virtually impossible to say that Rossi does not have what he claims. It also shows that, whilst he may have been optimistic in how fast this would play out, he has been telling the truth, quite openly for years. Not only that, nature itself has been telling the same story and it told us too. By the 16/02/2016 we had given up trying to destroy the *GlowStick* 5.2, part of a long lineage of []=Project Dog Bone=[] experiments. After the reactor was turned off, Alan shared the remainder of the data files from the NaI scintillator kindly donated by a project follower called Stephen (Thankyou Stephen, really). Project follower and open science legend, Ecco, first took a look at the data and found some anomalies – one SO striking that we thought there had been an equipment failure. We did not know the time that the anomalies occurred and had to wait until Alan woke to explain the time stamps so we could correlate it with the thermal and power data published live to HUGNet (Thankyou Ryan and Paul Hunt). To our extreme surprise, the onset of excess heat followed the massive anomaly in emissions and the minor anomalies were during and only during excess heat. This led us on a path of discovery, the sequence of which explains: The massive count signal discovered by Francesco Celani during Rossi’s first public demo How Rossi knew his reactor had started How the E-Cat generates excess heat How it self sustains How it can scale easily That it is safe It also showed us how replicators can know they have succeeded in triggering the New Fire and how to enhance the excess heat. Subsequent to this, we found out Rossi had travelled the same design journey and had publicly shared it in the past. The irony is – this was all being conducted live in the open, including discussions and graphing, whilst people were distracted with news of the end of the 1MW 1 year test. Same day… In the past week we have been checking, cross checking to verify and this morning we cleared our last serious doubt, again live, with shared data. Because this is already in the open we want people to know so that they can start replicating based on what works, moreover, the insight will allow people to immediately start improving on our results. Thank you for making this possible We did it We lit the New Fire Together!
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And here’s the recipe in short form, as published by MFMP on February 24, 2016. For further details, please visit Quantumheat.org:
Prepare thoroughly (Ni + LiAlH4 + Li)
1. Bake Ni 2. Reduce Ni 3. Hydrogenate Ni 4. Mix: Ni + LiAlH4 + Li 5. Bake and vac reactor, add Mix, vac warm, add H2, Vac 6. Heat to above Mössbauer determined Ni Debye (say 135C), pressure regulated to approx 1bar abs. 7. Hold, pressure regulated to approx 1bar abs. 8. Heat slowly to as close to Ni Curie as comfortable (Say 340C), pressure regulated to approx 1bar abs. 9. Hold, pressure regulated to approx 1bar abs. 10. Slowly lower temp to above highest known Ni Debye (Say 220C), pressure regulated to approx 1bar abs. 11. Hold, pressure regulated to approx 1bar abs. 12. Go as fast as possible through Ni Curie 13. Hold, pressure regulated to approx 0.5bar abs. 14. Cycle through 500C internal, pressure regulated to approx 0.5bar abs. 15. Hold, pressure regulated to approx 0.5bar abs. 16. Raise internal temperature to over 1200, pressure regulated to approx 0.5bar abs. 17. Drop to around 1000C and hold, pressure regulated to approx 0.5bar abs. 18. Raise internal temperature to near boiling point of Lithium
Some of the above steps may in time be redundant.
1h Thermal > x/β- (0-100KeV) emissions thermalised in Lead > IR/THz (via blackbody) > 5h (SSM)
On February 17, 2016, a 350-day commercial test of a one megawatt heat plant based on Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat was completed. The event must be considered historic since it’s the first time an industrially useful amount of energy is produced over such a long time from this kind of yet unexplained radiation-free nuclear reaction—LENR or Low Energy Nuclear Reactions.
To be clear, the report from the one-year trial, which has been controlled by a major independent third party certification institute, will be released only in about a month or two, and until then no official information is provided on the test result. However, multiple sources have told me that the test has been successful.
Earlier, some sources having visited the test plant told me that the COP, Coefficient of Performance, i.e. the ratio between output power and input power for control, was in the range 20—80, meaning that the heat plant was consuming 12—50 kW while producing 1 MW—the average consumption of about 300 Western households, including electricity, space heating, water heating and air conditioning.
I have also been told that the total amount of fuel—mostly harmless elements such as lithium, hydrogen and nickel, according to Andrea Rossi’s granted patent on the technology—was in the range of tens of grams. And supposedly the charge has never been changed during the year. On the other hand, after one year’s run, the reactors are now being recharged for further operation.
All this might be confirmed by the third party institute, that has been controlling the heat plant 24/7 with video cameras.
The test has been undertaken by Andrea Rossi and his US industrial partner Industrial Heat, and according to Rossi, commercialisation of similar industrial heat plants will be initiated as soon as possible, provided that the result is positive. Industrial Heat has acquired the right to produce and sell E-Cat based technology in, as far as I have been told, North, Central and South America, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
New Energy World Symposium, NewS.
Needless to say, the consequences of such an energy source for the world will be huge. And the consequences for industry, finance and society is also the focus of the New Energy World Symposium or NewS, which will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 21, 2016, provided that the report from the test is clearly positive.
So, now we all wait for the report. Personally, however, I will put the champagne on ice. Now.
Today I’m announcing the New Energy World Symposium that will hold its first session on June 21, 2016, in Stockholm Sweden.
The conference will focus on the disruptive consequences of the new energy source—LENR or Cold Fusion—that is the topic of this website and of my book An Impossible Invention.
I’m particularly proud to announce a few of the renowned speakers who together with me believe that it’s high time to draw global attention to this subject.
Read more in this blog post at the symposium’s main website new-symposium.org, where you will also find further information.
A few days ago I had a conversation with Rossi’s closest technician and engineer since 2012, Fulvio Fabiani, which I will report on here. Let me first make clear that the quite lengthy report has absolutely no value if you’re convinced that the E-Cat technology doesn’t work. At the most it will be anecdotic. People considering the E-Cat technology to be valid will, on the other hand, find some of Fabiani’s statements to be interesting.
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Fabiani, 48, was born and grew up in Rome, Italy. He had a great passion for information technology as a child and made his first video game at the age of 12. He studied electronics, electro technology and computer science, and for some years he made a military career as an officer in the Italian Military Force.
He also worked as a consultant for court cases regarding information technology, and as a system administrator at the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics before moving to the US, working for the airport security technology provider InVision Technologies. Later, he specialized in certification of circuit boards in gaming & gambling machines, which led him to working with communication technology between online gaming systems and bank systems, traveling across a series of countries in the ex Soviet Union for seven years.
In 2012, a common friend introduced him to Rossi who was then looking for a person who could develop and improve the power supply system for the first version of the E-Cat, and Fabiani was invited to have a look at Rossi’s device.
“I have to admit, and I always said this, that when I came there I didn’t believe it was working,” Fabiani told me.
“As a skeptic I started there, and in the beginning Rossi wouldn’t let me see any data. Gradually he gained confidence since I solved a few problems. And after some time I found myself with the truth in my hands, having made some calculations, and I was amazed. I made the same calculations twenty times and I tried to find the error, but there was no error.
“Now after seeing everything that Rossi is doing, and the levels at which we have arrived, there really is no error, but already at that time he saw things that ordinary people were not yet able to see.
“Either you have seen this from the start, or you have to remain puzzled. If you’re skeptical, then until you have a 100 percent proof, until the hammer hits your finger, you won’t believe that your adversary has a hammer.
“Many people play on this, and especially on the fact that Rossi has a rather closed character, as many geniuses. He is a genius who has an impressive way of reasoning. I sometimes find it difficult to follow him. You should see him when he arrives disheveled, shirt inside out, running around in the laboratory. He reminds you of the scientist from ‘Back to the Future’.
“He comes with a paper fluttering, saying ‘Oh, I had this idea, we have to try this’, throwing away 15 days of your setup of a reactor because he wants to try something different, and you have not even finished the idea that he had previously. Rossi is an avalanche of great ideas.
“He has an ability, not of imagination but of reasoning about physics that is impressive. I see him analyzing immense formulas of physical behavior of matter that leave me speechless, and sometimes he goes: ‘Look, they made a sign error here, how is that possible?’ Because he’s not reading the book. He’s analyzing it, hair by hair. He studies 24h because he analyses everything that others say, because they don’t convince him. He’s like that, also regarding what I say to him, even though he doesn’t know much about electrical engineering and electronics. But he looks it up. He questions the world itself.
“I know him well by now. We have conflicts and arguments but also friendship and mutual trust, all this because as an engineer in charge I have to run things well. There are times when he doesn’t even turn them on, because he has already gone further, and so I’m skipping some operational steps. But he has already simulated their behavior in his head, and therefore he doesn’t care. That is genius.”
Talking about the validity of the E-Cat technology, Fabiani continues:
“With the failures, I found myself having to believe in it. Why? Because when something fails, you see the behavior of the object. The next time you adjust it, then you see that it behaves very differently. And then you realize that it is something unique. We have it all filmed, which still cannot be disclosed. We have photographs of creatures that emit pure light that have completely melted the reactor down, all in a very quiet way. You just turn off the stimuli system and the reaction is switched off. It’s impressive.
“I can assure you that the shutdown of the reaction is immediate. The response at ignition with the certified technology is medium fast since we use this technology to produce steam. With steam, inertia when starting up is necessary because of the mass of water that becomes steam. But with ideas we have plans for everything, even instantaneous reactions. Now I’m working on many of Rossi’s new ideas including the E-CatX*, while also being responsible for power supply & control and maintenance on the long term test [of the 1 MW plant**].
“Until now the test is in line with the result that we expected. We encountered the biggest problems during the design and installation phase of the test plant. The most difficult thing was the choice of materials needed to withstand this new kind of energy release and this type of operation for such a long time. And we have found many little flaws—teething problems. For example, also the choice of bolts has led to a revision because some bolts were not sufficiently treated with anti-corrosive, and so they rusted. But if you don’t test you cannot say that you have a product to sell.”
As for Rossi’s ability to take advice, Fabiani says:
“Rossi doesn’t like standard reasoning. He is not a linear researcher. I find myself arguing with Andrea because his views are not compatible with other points of view in a way so you can exchange information. I am lucky that after three years I now have a certain confidence, and this confidence allows me to do things in my own way regarding the power supply system, because what he thinks is not feasible for standard and linear technicians. I’m acting almost as an interpreter from his ideas to the standard world.
“Over the years we realized that the reaction needs more stimuli than only heating. Everyone thinks that thermal stimulus is enough but that’s just the beginning. It’s not enough for maximum efficiency. It’s the base, the synthesis of the reaction. But the reaction has almost behaviors as of living matter, and it has responses as a function of the stimuli. They can be of many types other than thermal. And these are the ones that trigger, let’s call it the most fun part of it, allowing excellent gains in terms of response to the stimuli.”
Fabiani about his role:
“Rossi is the head and runs the R&D. I’m his right arm, his left arm and his legs too. We have staff, technicians who help us. Only R&D has about 12 people with me included. I’m the link between Rossi and the others for everything that regards R&D. I don’t have knowledge on the reaction because the formula is not my concern. When it is time, Rossi makes his mixtures according to his formulas, puts the charge in the cores and gives me the complete cores. A reactor is composed of a core, an excitation system, and a system for heat exchange. I look after the excitation system and the system for heat exchange, and also the physical realization of the core. But the core must be filled with the mixture of powders that Rossi from time to time recalibrates in function of the effect that he wants to achieve.
“To be more precise I am bound by an agreement with Industrial Heat, and I’m available for Rossi to be his right arm. I cannot give any more details due to an NDA”.
Talking about future development, Fabiani says:
“I have really seen… Did you see Blade Runner? The quote at the end, ‘I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe’. It’s true. I assure you that I have seen things that only I, Rossi and a few other people saw. We really saw things… I really saw the new frontier of energy. There is nothing in comparison. You cannot imagine. I speak of the E-CatX* and many others of Rossi’s experiments. We have tried lots of things, and we have made some twenty and more different reactors. And I can assure you that with some of them we have truly seen a new world. Energy density, reaction capacity, in the sense of things never seen. The new frontier of energy.
“The field that this reaction opens up is so vast that it’s almost impossible to imagine all the capabilities and possibilities. I have always been a lover of science fiction, and yet I was never able to believe that the famous star ships you see in the movies would become possible, because it seemed too far away. But I have to say that when I saw what Rossi was able to open, I’m seeing that world getting closer. Maybe before I die I will see those starships. Yes, it’s a child’s dream.”
Fabiani about the 1 MW trial plant**:
“My ‘baby’ as I call it, because I and my colleagues put it all together, I see my baby walking every day, and now I can even feel her breath, as I call it. You feel it when she produces steam and bubbles. We have learned to identify some moments of the reaction as a function of the type of boiling inside. Just try to imagine. Now we really know what she’s doing by the ear. And everyday I collect about 1.5 million records. And it is impressive.”
Mats: What will you do next year, after the end of the one-year trial?
“Haha, I don’t know. The game is getting too big to be handled only by Rossi and me in person. It’s something that will change the face of the Earth, so … I don’t know. Since I’m not involved in anything related to the business development or the technology development at the industrial level, and since I don’t have any deeper knowledge on the direction in which things are going, I prefer not to say too much about it.
“About 10 or 15 top level managers are involved—surely there is Rossi and Darden, but I don’t know them all well. Is not of my concern. I think it’s right to keep things compartmentalized to avoid information leaks.
“In discussions on Internet forums everyone says they are slow, but I only see people really devoting all their resources and all their time to make this happen. So many people talk, but they don’t even know what it means to industrialize an object like that.”
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* E-Cat X is an experimental high-temperature reactor based on Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat technology, which supposedly would produce both heat and light.
** Since mid-February 2015, Rossi and his US industrial partner Industrial Heat are running a one-year commercial trial on a customer’s site with a heat plant producing 1 MW. The plant is made up of four 250kW modules, each based on E-Cat technology. Unless something unexpected happens, the trial, which is controlled by a major independent third party certification institute, should be concluded by February or March 2016, and the results should then be presented.
Note: Fulvio Fabiani has signed NDAs regarding E-Cat technology with several parties, which obviously limited what he could say in this interview.
“Charting Rossi’s work, and detailing a series of interviews with the inventor, Lewan looks into the weird and compelling life of a man promising the world.
Recommended for: Those who believe in the impossible, and environmentalists.”
Essentially no new physics but a little-known physical effect describing matter’s interaction with electromagnetic fields — ponderomotive Miller forces — would explain energy release and isotopic changes in LENR. This is what Rickard Lundin and Hans Lidgren, two top level Swedish scientists, claim, describing their theory in a paper called Nuclear Spallation and Neutron Capture Induced by Ponderomotive Wave Forcing (full length paper here) that was presented on Friday, October 16, at the 11th International Workshop on Anomalies in Hydrogen Loaded Metals, hosted by Airbus in Toulouse, France.
The basic idea is that ponderomotive forces at resonance frequencies shake out neutrons from elements such as deuterium and lithium, and that these neutrons are then captured by e.g. nickel, resulting in energy release by well-known physical laws.
Hans Lidgren
Lundin and Lidgren have made a brief successful experiment and they have verified the model through calculations against results from well-known LENR experiments such as the Lugano report with Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat. Earlier 2015 they also filed a patent application describing the process.
“We did an experiment on our own but we stopped it. We realised that we were sitting on a neutron source and that’s not something you should do in your basement,” Rickard Lundin, Professor of Space Physics at Swedish Institute of Space Physics and member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA)*, told me.
The scientists are now preparing for a well-planned experiment with all necessary safety measures, ideally with a transparent reactor body since the effect according to the scientists releases a lot of light.
Ponderomotive forces derive from the electrical part of oscillating electromagnetic fields, and act on all particles, bodies or plasmas. They are all characterized by a transfer of electromagnetic energy and momentum to charged or non-charged particles. One of them, the gradient force, works independently of the sign of charges.
Initially the phenomenon was thought to describe the “heaviness” of light — the ability of light to have a “pushing” force on matter. What Lundin and Lidgren have investigated and published in 2010 is that the phenomenon has a resonance frequency, specific for each particle or cluster of particles, and that the force increases close to the resonance frequency, being repulsive on the low-frequency side but attractive on the other.
“The forces are not intuitively predictable, and a bit strange, for example making hot bodies attract matter,” Lundin says.
Lidgren, M Sc in Physics Engineering, and co-founder of the oil exploration company Rex International Holding, started to investigate the phenomenon when he discovered strange characteristics of satellite orbits while analysing satellite altimeter surveys to detect potential hydrocarbon reservoirs.
The light from the sun was expected to have a pushing force on satellites, but Lidgren discovered the contrary. After a pendulum experiment in vacuum, showing the same effect, Lidgren and Lundin published their paper “On the Attraction of Matter by the Ponderomotive Miller Force“.
Lundin was a colleague in the Academy of Sciences (KVA)* with late Prof. Sven Kullander, previous head of the KVA Energy Committee. Prof. Kullander became closely involved in investigations performed by Swedish researchers’ on Andrea Rossi’s devices. Lundin’s interest started with the publication of the Lugano report.
“When I saw the Lugano report and the isotopic shifts it all became so obvious,” Lundin told me.
He explained that extracting neutrons from the nuclei of deuterium and/or lithium requires energy, and that the trick is to do this in the most efficient way.
“Our method is more precise, using the lowest possible amount of energy [through resonance] to shake loose the neutrons. Others like Rossi are creating turbulence through square waves [in the electrical current feeding the heat resistors controlling the reaction — square waves containing a large number of harmonics and thus many different frequencies], and they get a turbulent wave spectrum risking that some frequencies become a little too high,” Lundin explained to me.
After getting this insight, Lundin still kept a low profile since the topic is so infected and also because of a conflictual situation in the Academy of Sciences ever since Kullander openly declared his interest in LENR and Rossi’s technology.
“I think the critic is based on fear since this research has been so stigmatised before. If there is something scientists fear it is to become like pariahs. It takes a lot of courage to go against established views but I think I belong to those who have learned to take criticism,” Lundin told me.
Lundin and Lidgren submitted their paper to the open preprint website Arxiv.org and to the peer-reviewed journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, PPCF, but both declined to even let reviewers have a look at it, the latter arguing “that the content of the article is not within the scope of the journal”. Arxiv.org even blocked Lundin from submitting further papers during July and August.
“I have quite a good track record with many publications and this is the first time something like this happens to me. It’s rude not to offer ordinary review. To me it’s important to get comments and criticism from research colleagues who can say ‘that cannot be correct’ in order to improve the paper,” Lundin said.
As for the excuse from PPCF, Lundin commented:
“The word plasma is used at least 50 times in the text, and is central to the spallation process as we describe it. However it is not ‘controlled fusion’ in the classical sense — fusion of two elements/isotopes transmuted into a new element (e.g. deuterium + tritium => helium + one neutron). But surely it can still be described as a fusion. Neutron capture means that a free neutron is merged with a nucleus/element which is thereby transmuted to a heavier isotope of the same element (for example 58Ni + 2n -> 60Ni + energy). The problem is probably the terror that has developed over the years for touching the term cold fusion (and LENR).”
It was Elisabeth Rachlew, Emeritus Professor and hot fusion and plasma researcher at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, and also a member of KVA* and the successor of Prof. Kullander as head of the KVA Energy Committee, who advised Lundin and Lidgren to submit the paper to PPCF. Rachlew also did a review of the paper.
“I thought the paper was very interesting, and I was amazed when it wasn’t even sent to reviewers. The answer from PPCF should have been sent immediately, but instead it took months. I guess they were anguished,” Rachlew told me.
The advantage with the theory by Lundin and Lidgren, apart from that it fits with experimental data and observations, is that you don’t need to overcome the Coulomb Barrier — the repulsive force between the positive charged nuclei in the traditional concept of fusion, which is one reason why many scientists think that cold fusion is impossible.
“I also thought so — you can’t overcome the Coulomb Barrier [at low temperatures]. So fusing nuclei with protons won’t work. You may perhaps initiate a very weak process but not reach a level with significant energy release,” Lundin told me.
Neutrons, which have no charge, can easily be captured by an atomic nucleus without this problem. A few other LENR theories are also based on neutrons but what this model adds is a solid explanation of where the neutrons come from, which is often lacking in other models.
“Our model describes quite a natural process. It’s probably one of the main sources for maintaining a high temperature inside Earth, since there’s high pressure, high temperature and good availability of neutron producing elements [through this process] with basically unlimited resources of deuterium,” Lundin said.
In the conclusions of the report, the authors write:
“This report demonstrates, theoretically and experimentally, that nuclear energy production may be accommodated in rather small units, operating at modest temperatures (≈900-2000°C), and produce sustainable power output in the range 1 – 10 kW – at minute fuel consumption (few grams per year). (…) The magnitude of the power output, delivered from a miniscule amount of fuel, demonstrates that it is a nuclear process with great potentials. Properly utilized the process has potentials of becoming an unlimited and sustainable energy source, producing essentially no long-lived radioactive waste.”
And in the acknowledgements:
” (…) We are particularly thankful to Prof. Sven Kullander, who promoted a nuclear process for the ‘Rossi experiment’ up to the bitter end (deceased 2014). The diligent work by Prof. Kullander in the Energy Committee at the Royal Academy of Sciences, and his follow-ups of the Rossi-experiment, was critical for this work.”
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P.S. The person who first told me about this research was another member of the Academy of Sciences*, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science (IVA) and former VP of R&D at the multinational Swedish-Swiss power, robotics and automation corporation ABB, Prof. Harry Frank — just to give you an idea of at what level the interest for LENR has reached in Sweden, while the science editors of the national Swedish Radio, SR, and a few outspoken scientists insist that it’s all fraud, or at least that nothing has ever happened in the field, and that nothing probably ever will. SR was even rewarded for this.
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* Committees of the Academy of Sciences, KVA, act as selection boards for the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry.
