E-Cat cold fusion reactor

techntrek
techntrek Solar Expert Posts: 1,372 ✭✭✭
As usual, I'm skeptical as heck, but this one has supposedly has (limited) outside confirmation. No full-scale double-blind tests yet. ;)

http://www.naturalnews.com/032455_cold_fusion_E-Cat.html

2.6 kw from 300 watts input. On another link I saw a picture of a 10 kw unit that easily fit on a desk top, so that would mean easy home installations and even possible vehicle installations.
4.5 kw APC UPS powered by a Prius, 12 kw Generac, Honda EU3000is

Comments

  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    99.99% Scam!

    http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1150242
    http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3295411.ece
    http://dabacon.org/pontiff/?p=929
    Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of thermodynamics.
  • techntrek
    techntrek Solar Expert Posts: 1,372 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    2 of the 3 links you posted appear to confirm the output of the device, the 3rd isn't directly related. How does this prove a "99.99% scam"?
    4.5 kw APC UPS powered by a Prius, 12 kw Generac, Honda EU3000is
  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    I guess you could say we've learned from years of experience. Just call me extremely sceptical. I'm the offspring of Doubting Thomas when to comes to announcements like this. I'll wait for the double blind affair ;)
  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor
    techntrek wrote: »
    2 of the 3 links you posted appear to confirm the output of the device, the 3rd isn't directly related. How does this prove a "99.99% scam"?

    That why I posted them, even the most positive 'believers' realize that what they are seeing is either totally new materials science or impossible.
    Whereof what's past is prologue..
    http://ktwop.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/rossi-and-his-cold-fusion-e-cat-still-smells-like-a-fraud/
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbwWL5ezA4g
  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    You can believe it when it becomes available at the retail level.
    Until then, even if it is real don't hold your breath waiting. :roll:
  • peakbagger
    peakbagger Solar Expert Posts: 341 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    The majority of the reports of the test are third hand or done by "cheerleaders". If the individual has a legitimate product, venture capital firms would be swarming. There are plenty of third party firms that could test the device and resolve a lot of the questions. Based on the limited reports, this sure didtn appear to be the case.
  • techntrek
    techntrek Solar Expert Posts: 1,372 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    I'm still skeptical, too. I was just pointing out that nsaspook's links made no sense in the context of his posting.
    4.5 kw APC UPS powered by a Prius, 12 kw Generac, Honda EU3000is
  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor
    techntrek wrote: »
    I'm still skeptical, too. I was just pointing out that nsaspook's links made no sense in the context of his posting.

    Those 'positive' links when read by anyone with a engineering or physics background shout out scam, tricks or disinformation. I guess I could have posted this also.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Rossi_%28entrepreneur%29
    Electricity from waste heat

    In the US Rossi started the consulting firm Leonardo Technologies, Inc. (LTI). He secured a defense contract to evaluate the potential of generating electricity from waste heat by using thermoelectric generators. Such devices are normally only used for refrigeration (Peltier effect), because the efficiency for generating electrical power is only a few percent. Rossi suggested that his devices could attain 20 % efficiency. A demonstration that he conducted at the University of New Hampshire produced 100 volt at 1 ampere (100 watt) during a week. Larger modules would be manufactured in Italy. Rossi sent 27 termoelectric devices for evaluation to the Engineer Research and Development Center; 19 of these did not produce any electricity at all. The remaining units produced less than 1 watt each, instead of the expected 800–1000 watt.[9]
    Claims regarding nuclear fusion
    Main article: Energy Catalyzer

    In January 2011 Andrea Rossi and Professor Sergio Focardi claimed to have successfully demonstrated commercially viable cold fusion in a device called an Energy Catalyzer, although in an interview Rossi claimed that his Energy Catalyzer is not working on the basis of cold fusion, but weak [force] nuclear reactions.[10] The international patent application received an unfavorable international preliminary report on patentability because it seemed to "offend against the generally accepted laws of physics and established theories" and to overcome this problem the application should have contained either experimental evidence or a firm theoretical basis in current scientific theories.[11] Journalists were not allowed to examine the core of the reactor, and there is still uncertainty about the viability of the invention.[12]
  • phred01
    phred01 Solar Expert Posts: 35
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    This is Rossi's blog
    http://www.journal-of-nuclear-physics.com/?p=338
    Looks like units are going to be delivered shortly and commissioned If the E-Cat truly works there is going to be a flurry of RE efforts
  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    http://blog.newenergytimes.com/2011/11/26/rossi-declines-italian-and-u-s-government-testing-offers/
    Andrea Rossi, inventor of the Energy Catalyzer, or E-Cat, has declined an offer from an Italian government laboratory for independent testing of his device.

    According to Francesco Celani, a physicist with the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Frascati, Rossi says he has sold his device and that he has no other unit available for independent testing.

    http://www.focus.it/scienza/dove-va-l-e-cat-e-la-risposta-di-rossi-alla-proposta-di-celani-1203/dear-eng-rossi_PC12.aspx
    http://blog.newenergytimes.com/2011/01/14/focardi-and-rossi-reality-or-scam/

    It sounds more like a solid-oxide fuel cell than a reactor of any type. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_oxide_fuel_cell
  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/30/cold-fusion-rival
    Curiously, Rossi does not accuse Defkalion of stealing intellectual property. Instead, he insists that it has never known the details how the E-Cat works. He says it cannot make its device operate without his secret catalyst, which it was hoping to acquire. "There are clowns saying they have a technology copied from us, actually they have just a moke up (sic), waiting for the piece of info they need to make a real copy," Rossi wrote in his Journal of Nuclear Physics blog, congratulating himself for outwitting them.

    The second part of the Sting is where the Plant or Stooge creates a buzz which secures the interest of the Mark, making it easier for the Scam Artist to perpetrate the swindle.
  • phred01
    phred01 Solar Expert Posts: 35
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    Is NASA really looking into this? http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/ & http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html
  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyteknik.se%2Fnyheter%2Fenergi_miljo%2Fenergi%2Farticle3535258.ece
    When investors measuring 6 September in Bologna, however, could no heat energy is found beyond the input electrical power.

    Investor Group had instructed the SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute , to monitor the measurement, and the researchers who attended measuring an input electrical power that was two to three times higher than Rossi himself measured (the measurement used the SP called True RMS Instruments ) .
  • phred01
    phred01 Solar Expert Posts: 35
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    Rossi has sold his interest to speculative investors so he won't be supplying Ecats soon
  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    A con game in process ... take the money and run.
  • Skippy
    Skippy Solar Expert Posts: 310 ✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    Last time I heard about these things, I read that there were a couple of them powering houses - no external hydro needed. . . which at the time I thought it was kinda cool . . .

    BUT . . . think about this a bit, if these things were to replace big oil - and that is what we are talking about - a new form of energy - you think the big boys would "let" it go thru ? They would shut it down faster than a solar panel hit by lightning . .

    On the other hand, if it did not work worth a darn, no threat - let the little people have their fun . . and loose their money . .

    I really hope these things are real . . a form of "new science" as said . . . but as also stated, I will wait till I can go too Wallie mart to get one. . . Then I will go to a good store and get one . .. :)
    2 - 255W + 4 - 285W PV - Tristar 60 amp MPPT CC / 3 - 110W PV -wired for 36V- 24V Sunsaver MPPT CC / midnite bat. monitor.
    1 KW PSW inverter 24V / 2.5 KW MSW inverter-24V ~ 105 AHR battery.
    3 ton GSHP.- 100 gallon warm water storage / house heat - radiant floor / rad
    9 -220W PV - net meter - Enphase inverters and internet reporting system.
    420 Gallon rain water system for laundry.***  6" Rocket Mass Heater with 10' bed for workshop heat.
    Current project is drawing up plans for a below grade Hobbit / underground home.
    Google "undergroundandlovinit" no spaces.
  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor
    Skippy wrote: »
    Last time I heard about these things, I read that there were a couple of them powering houses - no external hydro needed. . . which at the time I thought it was kinda cool . . .

    BUT . . . think about this a bit, if these things were to replace big oil - and that is what we are talking about - a new form of energy - you think the big boys would "let" it go thru ? They would shut it down faster than a solar panel hit by lightning . .

    On the other hand, if it did not work worth a darn, no threat - let the little people have their fun . . and loose their money . .

    I really hope these things are real . . a form of "new science" as said . . . but as also stated, I will wait till I can go too Wallie mart to get one. . . Then I will go to a good store and get one . .. :)

    The Laws of Thermodynamics have not been repealed; energy-wise the best you can hope for is to break even, and you can't break even.

    Charlatans depend on conspiracy theories to propagate their BS.

    There is no free lunch.
  • phred01
    phred01 Solar Expert Posts: 35
    The Latest on the E-Cat posted elsewhere....

    Well, all the secrets are out now, the US patent was granted last month, number 9115913.

    It is for a heat-exchanger apparently based on a chemical reaction involving Lithium, Aluminium and Hydrogen, with Nickel being present purely as a "catalyst".
    No special isotopes, no conversion of Nickel to Copper, no mention of fusion of any sort.
    No numbers for power density, only the vague figure of having to pump in 1kWhr for every 6 you take out (devoid of any reference to the time or size of charge needed to create this energy).

    There is a "radiation shield", but no actual mention of what sort of radiation. This could be a pair of sunglasses for all we know.

    There is a multi-stage chemical reaction described, which produces hydrogen, and for some inexplicable reason one of the claims is that at least one stage must be reversible. This system is supposed to be generating energy – why do we need to consume it again and reverse the reaction? Maybe that explains the need for regular heat to boost the "self-sustaining reaction", in that there is an absorption/desorption cycle going on with the hydrogen on or in the Nickel.

    If I were an investor I'd want a safer patent than this. Not that I have any concept of patent law, but this looks to me as watertight as his "independent" test reports.

    And his fuel contains an unexplained excess of finely powdered elemental Lithium (20%). He says elsewhere (e-cat Australia) that the Li fuses with the hydrogen, but I cannot see that anywhere in the patent.



  • inetdog
    inetdog Solar Expert Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭
    ggunn said:
    Re: E-Cat cold fusion reactor

    The Laws of Thermodynamics have not been repealed; energy-wise the best you can hope for is to break even, and you can't break even.
    Those are the first two Laws of Thermodynamics in my favorite formulation. Although for punch the first law is expressed as the equivalent "You can't win!"
    The third in that set is:
    "You cannot even get out of the game."
    SMA SB 3000, old BP panels.
  • Bunkysdad
    Bunkysdad Registered Users Posts: 38 ✭✭
    P.T. Barnum would be smiling!!
  • OutsourcedGuru
    OutsourcedGuru Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭✭
    I'm certain that cold fusion is possible. I do know that a lot of companies making this promise exist for the purpose of cashing in on the potential millions of dollars in investment opportunities.

    On an unrelated note, I helped my ex-girlfriend land a sweet contract working as a lead engineer at Brillouin Energy out of Berkeley, California. She snuck me photos of their device and it looks legitimate to me. Review their test results if you want.
    I'm a low-cost installer of solar in western New Mexico.