In an interview on Smart Scarecrow Show with Sterling Allan of Pure Energy Systems Network, Andrea A. Rossi, President and CEO of Leonardo Technologies and the inventor of the first commercial cold fusion energy generator on the market said ‘the Customer’ who purchased the first commercial cold fusion technology has “big experience in power plants and thermodynamics. We are learning very much.”

Responding to a question about the purchase of the 1 MW unit, Mr. Rossi replied that “I think that electricity from our E-Cats will come sooner than expected.”

Cold fusion technology does not yet produce electricity. These first pioneering devices that independent new energy entrepreneurs are racing to produce create hot water and steam for heating. But as their potential matures by adding thermo-electric converters and steam turbines, the production of electrical power will provide the next phase of world-changing development.

In an interview with Frank Acland at E-Cat World, information that “Siemens AG were with [Mr. Rossi] in his Bologna factory and they demonstrated a turbine that could produce electricity at 30 per cent efficiency from a steam temperature of 251 C” was confirmed in a video interview with Mr. Rossi for Cold Fusion Now.

Siemens Steam Turbine

Siemens Steam Turbine SST-150 (up to 20MW)

Looking at the Siemens product line for steam generators, we see steam temperatures on the order of 500+ degrees Celsius required. A turbine that works at such a low temperature of 251 degrees Celsius is a major new development for the advent of the New Steam Age.

In response to a question by Alfonso Troisi on the Journal of Nuclear Physics, Mr. Rossi further commented “We are working hard on this issue. The Siemens turbine, anyway, will be for plants over 15 electric MW of power, no way to make it fit for small applications. Probably we will start soon the production of a 15 MW plant, totally self sustained utilizing part of the electric energy it produces to drive the E-Cat modules and using the remaining thermal energy for heating.”

To make 15 MW electricity with a 30% efficiency would require 50 MW steam generator since

    \begin{align*} 0.30x &= 15 \text{MW} \\ x &= \frac{15 \text{MW}}{0.30} \\ x &= 50 \text{MW} \end{align*}

But we would also want to power the steam generator itself.

The Megawatt units that comprise the Leonardo Technologies product line are advertised at a coefficient of performance COP of 6. As a measure of energy efficiency, the coefficient of performance COP is essentially the ratio of the useful energy out to the input electric energy used in the process.

Assuming the 50 Megawatt unit has a COP of 6 means that the average electrical input requirement would be:

    \begin{equation*} \frac{50 \text{MW}}{6} = 8.3 \text{MW} \end{equation*}

Thus, the 50 MW steam generator with a COP of 6 would require an average electrical input of 8.3 MW.

Taking the 15 MW electrical output of the turbine and subtracting the 8.3 MW needed to run the generator gives

    \begin{equation*} 15 \text{MW} - 8.3 \text{MW} = 6.7 \text{MW} \end{equation*}

That means there would be 6.7 Megawatts of electricity to utilize. If a household uses an average 1.5 kilowatts of power, this is enough electricity to provide electrical power to almost 4500 homes, or a suite of factories.

Of course, putting this generator in a centralized location and distributing through a grid would increase the loss of power. Switching units from power in watts to energy in joules, this graph from 2007 shows the usable energy delivered in the US was 34,396 PetaJoules with a wasted amount of energy, called Rejected Energy!, of 57,943 PetaJoules. The system delivered an efficiency about 35%.

US Energy Flow 2007

US grid system has low efficiency.

One of the features that makes cold fusion technology so attractive is the ability to provide power on location, where it’s needed, without a grid delivery system. However, developing efficient micro-turbines for electricity generation in small power modules is not yet feasible.

Nevertheless, cold fusion steam generators that can provide enough power to utilize commercially and power themselves, the COP becomes infinite. When the steam generator can power itself, there is essentially no external input of power. As a ratio of thermal power-out to electrical power-in, when the power-in is zero, the value of the ratio goes to infinity. Then, we’ll have the long-sought energy revolution.

In an interview with Cold Fusion Now, Mr. Rossi said Leonardo Technologies has steam temperature up to 200 degrees Celsius, and will work with Siemens on increasing that temperature to power their new turbine design.

Whether Siemens is a Customer or a partner, the talent and experience from their engineering lab will provide the E-Cat manufacturers with the best technology available, making the claim of market-leader by price and design much more credible.

1 Megawatt Technical Data E-Cat from Northern European distributor ecat.com.

Related Links

Why Cold Fusion/LENR has not been seized upon by private industry by David French February 23, 2012