Year: 2011

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“Eppur s’accende…”: Professors Levi and Ferrari on Italian radio

Città del Capo Radio Metropolitana, a Bolognese radio station, recently interviewed Professors Giuseppe Levi and Loris Ferrari of the University of Bologna on their research contract with Andrea Rossi.  A summary of the interview is here.

The contract is for €500,000 plus value-added tax, and Rossi will be providing the equipment necessary to run the experiments. The study will last for at least a year, and it will take at least another six months for the results to be published, so the earliest we can expect to see the final results of the study is the end of 2012. However, the University of Bologna group may release some preliminary results as early as December, 2011.

The scope of the study will be to measure the energy efficiency and any emissions of radiation from the device Rossi provides. Some aspects of the research may be subject to trade secret protections.

Professor Ferrari acknowledged the need for repeatable results to demonstrate that the energy catalyzer does, in fact, work. He also acknowledged that the internal mechanisms by which the energy catalyzer is able to produce energy are unknown and says this will be “one of the key aspects to be investigated”. Professor Levi, for his part, is already certain of the device’s repeatability:

“Every time I was witness to a start-up of e-cat that produced energy. I’ve seen it many times now: It seems to repeat itself with great regularity, but I want to be prudent …” –Giuseppe Levi

New research is always welcome, especially if it leads to a workable (and testable) hypothesis on the functioning of the Energy Catalyzer. The University of Bologna research is unlikely to do much to sway the online debates on the E-Cat, however, as even the preliminary results are not expected until after Andrea Rossi’s October surprise.

(The summary of the radio interview in the link above is an English machine translation of the original story in Italian, which can be found here. Any corrections or clarifications by speakers of Italian are welcome.)

Related posts:

Query interviews Giuseppe Levi by Ivy Matt June 23, 2011

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Krivit’s second report: Rossi evades scientific debate

For those who were wondering whether New Energy Times editor Steven Krivit was willing to burn his bridges with Andrea Rossi, the answer is an apparent “yes”. Krivit’s first report provoked a heated response from Rossi, who accused him of industrial espionage on behalf of an Italian competitor. Krivit’s second report, recently released, will likely do nothing to assuage Rossi’s feelings.

Krivit’s overall judgment on the E-Cat is that there could be “something real” about it, but that the “claimed quantities of excess heat have been exaggerated, possibly by as much as two orders of magnitude.” Krivit does not explain this claim in detail in this particular report, however, deferring such technical details until a later report, but he does summarize his technical concerns with the testing of Rossi’s device:

  1. Analytical error: possible mathematical error based on the assumptions of the energy capacity of the steam.
  2. Procedural error: possible use of an incorrect measurement instrument.
  3. Analytical error: possible failure to correctly interpret a signal from the experiment that is clearly visible using only the naked eye that was apparent during the experiments.

Instead, Krivit’s second report is mostly devoted to pointing out Rossi’s lack of scientific qualifications and what Krivit regards as his misuse of those who have such qualifications to bolster his own credibility, while at the same time attempting to evade the scientific debate that naturally arises as a result of his claims. In particular, Krivit is frustrated by the unwillingness or inability of the scientists closest to Rossi to provide specific details on the results obtained from the E-Cat tests.

Rossi, on the other hand, keeps himself busy responding to questions on his website, the Journal of Nuclear Physics, but either avoids or gives evasive answers to questions about results or experimental design, often simply promising that he will have a 1 MW reactor available in October, and telling the questioners they will just have to wait till then. That is his privilege as a businessman and a private citizen, but Krivit expects more from the scientists whose expertise he has sought, and who lend him their support.

If Rossi thought Krivit was working on behalf of an “Italian competitor” before, he will certainly find confirmation for that suspicion in this report. First, Krivit notes the similarity between Rossi’s device and that developed by Francesco Piantelli (a colleague of Rossi’s partner Sergio Focardi) in the ’90s. (The primary differences are that the E-Cat allegedly uses a catalyst of some sort, known only to  Rossi, and that it uses nickel in nanopowder form. Piantelli used nickel rods in most of his experiments, although he did mention the possibility of using “metallic powder” in his 1995 patent application.) Second, Krivit reports on the work of three researchers in Naples who have shown him an experiment—and scientific-data he regards as promising. Whether these researchers have any connection to Piantelli—or, indeed, to cold fusion research—is unknown, but Krivit promises to report on their findings after he is finished with his reports on the E-Cat.

Related posts:

Mr. Rossi talks E-Cat by Ruby Carat June 21, 2011

Mr. Rossi calculates the E-Cat’s energy by Ivy Matt June 24, 2011

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Mr. Rossi calculates the E-Cat’s energy

Steven Krivit, editor of the New Energy Times, has another video out from his visit to Bologna. In this video Andrea Rossi calculates the energy produced by the E-Cat used in his demonstration to Mr. Krivit.

To summarize the video, Mr. Rossi calculates that the total energy produced in the E-Cat is 4906.1 watt hours per hour. The total energy consumed is 770 watt hours per hour. Thus, according to Mr. Rossi’s calculations the E-Cat used in his demonstration achieved an energy output/input ratio of approximately 6.37. In hot fusion terms the E-Cat (the one used in this particular demonstration, at least) appears to have achieved Q =  6.37.

To put this claim in perspective, the Joint European Torus (JET) magnetic confinement fusion experiment achieved Q = 0.67 in 1997, which still remains the world record for fusion power in the high-energy plasma fusion realm. Right now the focus of hot fusion research is on achieving Q = 1, with somewhat less attention being given to the practical concerns of converting useful amounts of fusion energy into electrical power. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s  National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser fusion experiment is currently expected to achieve Q = 1 next year. The only other hot fusion experiment for which such a claim is made is dark horse Lawrenceville Plasma Physics‘ Focus Fusion-1 (FF-1), which is hoped to achieve Q = 1 in a similar time frame. What is widely regarded as the safest bet for fusion power, ITER, isn’t expected to achieve Q = 1 until at least 2026, assuming the current schedule holds.

By contrast, cold fusion researchers have been claiming an energy output/input ratio of greater than 1 for years now, though not to the extent that Mr. Rossi has. Rumors are that Francesco Piantelli, a former colleague of Mr. Rossi’s partner Sergio Focardi, will be announcing a similar claim soon, but for now it looks like Mr. Rossi is in the lead. The next hurdles: the University of Bologna’s tests on the E-Cat and the Greek authorities’ tests on Defkalion Green Technologies’ Hyperion products. If Mr. Rossi’s device makes it through these tests successfully it appears the way will be open for the final test: customer opinion.

Related links

Mr. Rossi talks E-Cat. — Ruby Carat June 21, 2011

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Defkalion internal tests


Defkalion Green TechnologiesA day after the press conference held by Defkalion Green Technologies S.A. there is still apparently no mention of it in the English-speaking mainstream media, the most prominent news outlet reporting on the event being Next Big Future.

Meanwhile, a company representative using the moniker Defkalion GT has begun answering questions on the company’s forum. In response to a question by forum member barbierir about Defkalion’s internal E-Cat tests, Defkalion GT answered that the company has conducted a large number of in-house tests on the E-Cat prototype over several months.

In addition, Greek authorities will be testing DGT’s Hyperion products for performance, stability, functionality, and safety during the first 10 days of July. The results of those tests will be released after the authorities certify the products. The results of any other third-party tests on the Hyperion products before the October launch will be announced by DGT and published on their website.

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Low Energy Nuclear Revolution

A week ago Phizero s.r.l., an Italian developer of control systems for industrial automation, released “Low Energy Nuclear Revolution,” a 40-minute documentary on the E-Cat story. Today they’ve released a version with English subtitles.

The documentary briefly covers the history of cold fusion before going on to introduce some major players in the E-Cat story, though not Andrea Rossi himself. Those interviewed include professors Sergio Focardi, Emilio Del Giudice, Francesco Celani, Christos Stremmenos, and Giuseppe Levi, doctors Stefano Bagnasco and David Bianchini, reporter Angelo Saso, and author and blogger Daniele Passerini. The documentary gives a good look at some of the people most closely associated with Rossi, how they entered the cold fusion field, how they became involved in Rossi’s work, and what sort of evidence persuaded them that Rossi’s work was worth examining.

The documentary is narrated by Ing. Giacomo Guidi, a nuclear medicine researcher (and, one might perhaps assume, very familiar with the physics of nuclear reactions). According to Phizero the documentary is the “[f]irst part of a big work in progress.” The staff of 137 Films, the producers of The Believers, are mentioned in the credits, but what relation this documentary has to The Believers, if any, is not made clear.

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