This
is a report from a news conference held to demonstrate a successful heat engine
that appears to work by using hydrogen, or more properly, an electron stripped
hydrogen atom that finds its way into the crystalline matrix of the nickel to induce
transmutation of some sort.
As with all experiments on what
is called cold fusion, theory is a long way behind, but experimenters know that
it is necessary to pack as much in there as possible to obtain occasional
results. The hope of course, is that
theory will catch up and we can improve efficiency.
Here though, experimentation has
given us a major leap in productivity.
Sustaining an input of 400 watts per hour is producing an output of 15,000
watts per hour.
This folks is a practical heat
engine and it can be commercialized as such.
They have also run a device for two years, likely while rounding up
major support. Thus the prospect of a
working device in a few months must not be easily discounted.
I also have no doubt that the
process will yield to analysis and simulation work once everyone piles on and
gets to work. Expect massive increases
in efficiency rather quickly.
Curiously, when the cold fusion
idea was first proposed, I conjectured that we were looking at unusual effects
brought on by crystal structures and felt that we would have to wait for the computer
power. It really was the only option
that provided the needed field strengths.
Another criticism has always been
to ask for the gamma ray production, forgetting that if that could be detected,
the production of related energy might have been seriously dangerous. Here we have useable output and barely noticeable
gamma ray production. We are still a
long way from needing shielding.
Dumping the 15,000 watts into a
heat engine will give us several thousand watts of usable power net of likely
consumption. Not too bad for a first
successful outcome.
JANUARY 15, 2011
Everyone is speaking italian but the instruments can be seen in the
videos. there are better answers from the online Q and A this morning.
Summary of some of Andrea Rossi's answers –
The commercialization timeframe is at most 1 year.
We have contracts in the USA
and in Europe .
Mass production
should escalate in 2-3 years.
I estimate that the cost of energy made with this system will be below 1 cent/kWh, in case of electric power made by means of a Carnot cycle, and below 1 cent/4,000 M J in case of thermal power production for heating purposes.
No radiation escape has been detected, apart a slight deviation of gamma rays respect the ground values. [Separately they have stated they do not have a firm understanding of the processes but have some theories and are working to understand it]
Conservatively, I would say 0,01 g/kWh of Ni is the actual demand of Ni is necessary, even if the mass that really reacts is in the order of picograms.
The ratio Output Energy/Input
Energy , conservatively, is always over 6 .
Dear Mr Daniel Zavela:
Yes, we can turn off the input current, but we prefer to maintain a
drive and the reasons are very difficult to explain without violating my
confidentiality restraints.
The reaction becomes self sustaining.
Answer - the evidence of copper production
in past has been found using an atomic microscope in
the University of
Bologna
2) Is there any evidence for isotopic anomalies?
Answer - in the past we found them by means
of the secondary ions mass
spectrometer of the University
of Padua
3) How is the power switched on and off?
Answer - just [the same process] as [when]
you turn on and off your television set
4) Is there evidence of consumption of a fuel
Answer - yes, by an analysis. To measure the
difference of mass you have to use the charge for months, because what you
consume in a day is in the order of picograms
How much Ni is in the cell?
Answer - In the cell there are several
milligrams of Ni
How much total energy, heat and radiation, is produced per hour for a gram of Ni?
To make 10 kWh/h the consume of Ni and H is
in the order of several picograms, but considering that not all the Ni in the
reactor reacts, the actual consumption, to make 10 kWh/h is of about 0,1 g of
Ni and 0,01 g of H
Are some other elements used to facilitate the reactions
Yes, other elements are used, upon which we have to maintain confidentiality until the patent pending becomes a patent
How small can a working cell be made — for instance, for home power units buried in the yard
The dimensions of a unit like the one you
are thinking of, of course not considering the authorization issues, could be
about one cm 50 x 100 x 50 with the present technology.
Question from chrismb- I would still like to understand why you think Ni62 could possibly have any exothermic reactions.
Collis Williams has attempted to reply, but it is naive to think that there can be an exothermic reaction from a resultant 6.15MeV excited 63Cu, as its total binding energy is 8.7MeV higher than 62Ni. Where does the extra 2.6MeV come from? Surely you have to balance the total binding energy, as well as the total mass, to analyse the energy flow?
The per-nucleon binding energy of 63Cu and 62Ni are around 8.7MeV. So it would be thermodynamically unfavourable for an additional nucleon to be added to 62Ni with only 6.15MeV available from mass-energy alone.
This would have to be endothermic if you have only 6.15MeV, yet the total binding energy goes up by more than 8MeV.
I have given a more detailed account on;
http://www.talk-polywell.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=54883#54883 {which
also covers each possible nuclear reaction
(each of which cannot result in heat)}.
The question is; how can the 6.15MeV mass-energy increase of 62Ni+p->63Cu account for a total binding energy increase of 8.7MeV, and yet also be exothermic?
Dear Mr CHRIS:
I base my work on facts, than I work on theories.
The fact that we get 10 folds more energy at the output respect the input implies that something in contraddiction with what you are saying is going out.
As I said, we are working strongly upon the theoretical issues. I know that in this field there are still contradictions with the rules as they are known today.
Maybe you too can reflect on this and help us.
Question and answer condensed
What is the longest period of time that the apparatus was in operation? Answer - around 2 years.
On the Internet I found that you have been working on the device that would produce MW of thermal energy. What is the progress with such a device? Answer - The device, made combining modules equal to the one tested yesterday, will be in operation in few months.
Did you find or are aware of any limitations of power density that could be achieved? Answer - 5 liters per kW, just for the thermal power.
In the demo there was a mention of the gamma radiation spike after the input power was switched off. How do you explain this? Answer - The gamma ray issue is a very interesting one. We have to work a lot to understand it. Sincerely, I have not a clue, so far.
Here is an earlier Rossi-Focardi paper describing their experiments and what they believe is nickel being fused with hydrogen into a copper isotope
A process (international patent publication N. WO 2009/125444 A1) capable of producing large amounts of energy by a nuclear fusion process between nickel and hydrogen, occurring below 1000 K, is described.
JANUARY 13, 2011
There
will be 10 kilowatt nickel hydrogen cold fusion demonstrations on January 14
and 15th in Italy and peer reviewed papers
The
Journal Of Nuclear Physics (Peer Reviewed online journal) is announcing:
January 14th (Italian press conference) and then on the 15th on online press conference Sergio Focardi and Andrea Rossi will make a press conference online about the presentation of the 10 kilowatt module reactor: with 100 of such modules is made the 1 MW plant in construction.
January 14th (Italian press conference) and then on the 15th on online press conference Sergio Focardi and Andrea Rossi will make a press conference online about the presentation of the 10 kilowatt module reactor: with 100 of such modules is made the 1 MW plant in construction.
The press conference will start at 10 a.m. Italian Time.
UPDATE Translated transcript of live blogging reporter and a picture of the device from one month ago]
It is a public demonstration of a significant level of power. The Nissan Leaf electric car has an 80 kilowatt electric motor
A process (international patent publication N. WO 2009/125444 A1) capable of producing large amounts of energy by a nuclear fusion process between nickel and hydrogen, occurring below 1000 K, is described.
The Focardi-Rossi approach considers this shielding a basic requirement
for surpassing the Coulomb barrier between the hydrogen nuclei
(protons) and the Nickel lattice nuclei, resulting into release of energy,
which is a fact, through a series of exothermic nuclear processes
leading to transmutations, decays, etc.
The reasoning presented in this note is based on elementary considerations of
· The hydrogen atom (Bohr) in its fundamental energy state
· The Heisenberg uncertainty principle
· The high speed of nuclear reactions (10ˆ-20 sec)
The hydrogen atom (Bohr) in its fundamental state, in the absence of energy perturbations, remains indefinitely in its stationary state shown below. This is due to the in-phase wave (de Broglie), which follows the “circular” path of its single orbiting electron. The wave length and radius of the “circular” path are determined by the fundamental energy state of this atom.
When hydrogen atoms come in contact with the metal (Ni), they abandon their stationary state as they deposit their electrons in the conductivity band of the metal, and due to their greatly reduced volume, compared to that of their atom, the hydrogen nuclei (naked protons) readily diffuse into the defects of the nickel crystalline structure as well as in tetrahedral or octahedral void spaces of the crystal lattice.
It should be underlined that, in addition to the deposited hydrogen electrons, in the nickel mass included are also electrons of the chemical potential of the metal. Jointly these electrons constitute the conductivity electronic cloud, distributed in energy bands (Fermi), and quasi free to move throughout the metallic mass.
it is conceivable that, for a very short time period (e.g. 10ˆ-18 sec), a series of neutral mini atoms of hydrogen could be formed, in an unstable state, of various size and energy level, distributed within the Fermi band, which is enlarged due to the very short time (Heisenberg).
The neutral mini-atoms of high energy and very short wave length – which is in phase with the “cyclic” orbit (de Broglie) – are statistically captured be the nickel nuclei of the crystal structure with the speed of nuclear reactions (10ˆ-20 sec).
For these mini-atoms to fuse with the nickel nuclei, apart from their neutral character for surpassing the Coulomb barrier, they must have dimensions smaller than 10ˆ-14 m, where nuclear cohesion forces, of high intensity but very short range, are predominant. It is assumed that only a percentage of such atoms satisfy this condition (de Broglie).
The above considerations are based only on an intuitive approach and I trust this phenomenon could be tackled in a systematic and integrated way through the “theory of time dependent perturbations” by employing the appropriate Hamiltonian
The mechanism proposed by Focardi – Rossi, verified by mass spectroscopy data, which predicts transmutation of a nickel nucleus to an unstable copper nucleus (isotope), remains in principle valid. The difference is that inside the unstable copper nucleus, produced from the fusion of a hydrogen mini-atom with a nickel nucleus, is trapped the mini-atom electron (β-), which in my opinion undergoes in-situ annihilation, with the predicted (Focardi-Rossi) decay β+ of the new copper nucleus.
The β+ and β- annihilation (interaction of matter and anti-matter) would lead to the emission of a high energy photon, γ, (Einstein) from the nucleus of the now stable copper isotope and a neutrin to conserve the lepton number. However, based on the principle of conservation of momentum, as a result of the backlash of this nucleus, the photon energy γ is divided into kinetic energy of this nucleus of large mass (heat) and a photon of low frequency.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the system does not exhibit the Mössbauer* phenomenon for two reasons:
1. The copper nucleus is not part of the nickel crystal structure and behaves as an isolated atom in quasi gaseous state
2. Copper, as a chemical element, does not exhibit the Mössbauer phenomenon.
In conclusion, it should be underlined that the copper nucleus thermal perturbation, as a result of its mechanical backlash(heat), is transferred to its encompassing nickel lattice and propagated, by in phase phonons (G. Preparata), through the entire nano-crystal. This could explain why in cold fusion the released energy is mainly in the form of heat and the produced (low) γ radiation can be easily shielded.
Further
The nuclear signatures that can be expected when contacting hydrogen
with nickel, were derived from thermal results recently obtained (Rossi energy
amplifier), using the type of reaction paths proposed as the explanation of the
energy produced. The consequences of proton or neutron capture have been
studied. It was shown that these consequences are not in line with the
experimental observations. A novel tentative explanation is thus described.
Should this explanation be true, it is proposed to call pico-chemistry the
novel field thus opened.
Strong nuclear signatures are expected from the Rossi energy amplifier
and it is hoped that this note can help evidence them.
It is of interest to note that in a mechanism is proposed, that strongly suppresses the gamma emission during the run (it is the same mechanism that creates very low energy neutrons, subsequently captured by the nickel. This does not suppress the emission after shut-down, which should be observed, together with the transmutations described above.
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