Peruse the advertisements for hot water boilers from an old 1913 Architectural Digest. These conveniences were a new technology for the public as the century started. As this century begins, we may see the emergence of a new technology to last a millennium.
Cold Fusion Now shot a 30-minute video interview with Andrea Rossi Friday March 2, while chatting with the inventor in his Miami Beach, Florida office.
The office was furnished with the standard office hardware, but complemented with a couch and dining table for comfort. There were books everywhere. Mr. Rossi is a serious reader, consuming all kinds of material from fiction to science. Knowing he has been a jazz drummer, and is currently without a set, we brought him a green ceramic doumbek to play when he needs it.
Our first question was about the source of the heat in the E-Cat.
“The source of the heat are the radiations that are emitted as an effect when hydrogen and nickel in the presence of catalyzers react. We have a precise idea about the effect and the source of it. And they wrote a theory, but I am waiting until the patents are granted to describe the theory because the theory is strictly connected with the technology. We learned the theory from the technology and learned the technology from the starting theory.”
“What I can say now is that I changed very much my ideas in these last two years. Two years ago I thought that the E-Cat worked upon an effect that has been described, but now I have changed ideas in good part, and I think we have discovered very well the source of the effect. I think we have understood very well why the E-Cat works.”
At the end of the interview he responds to a question about his factory stating “I will not tell you where is my factory – not even under torture!”
“The fact is, all the times that I gave information about the name of a customer or the the name of a supplier, the poor guys have been submerged by tens of thousands of inopportune contacts. You can imagine under a safety point of view what the risk can be if we give in this moment the address where we are working. When it will be in operation, it will be impossible to make it hidden. But for now, we want to work in peace.”
Mr. Rossi continued,
“The robotized line is already under construction. The factory will be in the United States of America, the E-Cat will be a Made In The USA product, both in the industrial and the domestic version.”
“The day when we will start the production is also bound to the day when we will be certified.”
“I am sure that Underwriter Laboratories will modify something to make it safer, probably we will get requirements from them. So, we can not start a production before knowing what we have to produce and how we have to produce it, so we have to wait a little bit.”
“But we are already making the robots etc, we have started our software service to the robots to save money and, of course, we will have to make adjustments when we have the directions of the certificators.”
So, for all the people who need to know, when Mr. Rossi says “We are already manufacturing the line of production“, that means the factory is being stocked with the machines that will manufacture the E-Cats. In other words, no E-Cats are yet being manufactured yet, only the robotic lines are being installed, and the software programmed.
Cold Fusion Now is currently preparing to go back on the road, heading due West to the edge the North American continent. We apologize to readers for the lack of transcript, but that’s the way the tire rolls.
We thank Mr. Rossi for his time, DJ Le SPAM and SPAM Allstars for their music and support of new energy, and all the artists, musicians, and inventors who, in the face of hostility, continue to pursue their vision of a new arrangement for living in peace on planet Earth.
Cold Fusion Now!
Rossi made the following comment on his blog:
Dear Dr Joseph Fine:
– In a 45 MW plant, if Siemens gives us 30% of efficiency, the COP is not 6, is infinite: the energy to drive the resistances will be made by the E-Cat: if we make 45 thermal MWh/h, 15 electric MWh/h will be made, of which 7.5 will be consumed by the plant, 7.5 will be sold, together with30 thermal MWh/h.
– The price of a 45 MW plant will be in the order of 30 millions.
– the price of the energy made by our industrial plants will be made by the owners and by the market.
Warm Regards,
A.R
To put the above into perspective, the following is a chart listing the power density of typical engine types:
Power density of typical engine types
combustion gas turbine 2.9 kg/kw
medium speed diesel 10 kg/kw
nuclear gas turbine (including shielding) 15 kg/kw
nuclear steam plant (including shielding) 54 kg/kw
A Rossi 45MW LENR power plant is estimated to weigh 200 tonnes (in other words about 180,000 kilograms). Since 45 megawatts is 45000 kilowatts (I always got marked down in math class when I didn’t show my work on the test, but just wrote down the answer), a Rossi 45MW LENR power plant yields a 4 kg/kw power density.
Furthermore, a nuclear plant averages about 1,000MW of heat, the heat generated by about 22 Rossi 45MW power plants. The cost of a 1,000MW nuclear plant is conservatively estimated to be around 2.4 billion dollars, while the cost of 22 Rossi E-Cat plants (at 30 million dollars each) is 660 million dollars – a little more than a third of the price! With no cost for nuclear fuel, no cost to clean up and get rid of the nuclear waste, and no risk of Fukushima type of accident!!
I think it is safe to say that the Rossi 45MW LENR power plant will be in heavy demand both by the maritime and utility industries. It is difficult to understand why both the US military and international corporations aren’t beating a path to Rossi’s door.
At the very least, you would think that the Japanese, who suffered terribly when their nuclear power plants (that furnish something like one third of Japan’s electricity) suffered catastrophic damage during the recent natural disasters, and who still suffer from the after-effects of the nuclear bombs dropped on their cities during WWII, would be intrigued by Rossi’s business plan.
A paper that seeks to give the interested reader some background on what cold fusion is and how one might put recent developments into context has been released by Edmund Storms and Brian Scanlan, both of Kiva Labs, an independent energy research company with labs in New Mexico and Connecticut.
Dr. Storms has been researching cold fusion, also known as LENR low-energy nuclear reactions, LANR lattice-assisted nuclear reactions, and CANR chemically-assisted nuclear reactions, since the initial announcement by Drs. Fleischmann and Pons in 1989. Formerly of Los Alamos National Labs, he is the author of The Science of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, a comprehensive survey of the field published in 2007 by World Scientific.
Download the paper What Is Cold Fusion and Why Should You Care? .pdf here.
In one part, the paper takes special note of the difference between hot and cold fusion. Hot fusion produces dangerous radiation products, has cost tens of billions of dollars, and has not produced any viable energy technology over six decades of research.
“The circumstances of cold fusion are not the circumstances of hot fusion”, said Nobel prize-winner Julian Schwinger, before resigning from the American Physical Society due to their complete rejection of cold fusion research. Cold fusion does not produce radiation the way hot fusion does, nor does it use any radioactive or toxic materials.
Read: What Is Cold Fusion and Why Should You Care? by Edmund Storms and Brian Scanlan
You, Ogg, squat at the entrance of your cave. It is the early dawn of humankind and you sit upon your haunches, feeling neither contented nor discontented as you stare blankly into a late afternoon sky. There is a man approaching, slowly, carrying a bundle slung over his back. You believe him to be a cousin and so watch unalarmed as he makes his way, toward you along the trail. For a brief while, he disappears at the base of your hill then reappears, suddenly very close. Too late you realize he is a stranger. But he is smiling. Had it not been for his disarming smile you would have not allowed him to close the distance, but would have risen to threaten and drive him off. Now here he is before you, with a bundle of wood in a sling on his back. Being a civilized cave-man you feign you are disarmed by proffering your hand, all the while you think of the spear hidden under the skin that brushes your right ankle.
He speaks. “I am Zog, and I bring you happy tidings and the hope of a bright future. I bring you fire!”
“Fire?” you echo quizzically, you’ve never heard that word. “What is fire?”
Zog smiles knowingly. He nods and understands your station as one of the new, the uninitiated. “Fire is good,” he explains. “It makes light, it makes heat, it makes smoke, it makes meat tasty. And, I will demonstrate it to you.”
Well, you think, that is new. Light, heat, smoke, tasty meat. It all sounds to promise an entertaining end to the day. “Please, yes, do show, here,” you prompt Zog, sweeping your hands before you like a good host inviting a stranger into your home.
Zog dumps the bundle of kindling and fagots on the ground, quickly arranges them into a pyramid, draws rocks from a pouch and proceeds to sing, chant and clack the rocks together as he dances about the wood. He dances a long, long time and works the rocks furiously. At the first wisp of smoke, Zog falls prostrate upon the ground, blows kisses and breathes breathy chants into the base of the heap of wood. Then it happens!
There is a glimmer of light and with a small pop and crack, a living, glowing genie springs from the center, tentatively at first. It grows quickly, so quickly you are startled by this new, never before seen life. It reminds you of a snake as it hisses and writhes. It glows and throws heat. It snaps and cracks and grows louder and louder. The stink of smoke alarms you as it pinches at your nose. But the flames mesmerize and fascinate. Finally the pile is alight, and bright with FIRE!
Zog, quickly lifts the large joint of raw meat you were gnawing and lays it atop the growing flames and the scent of cooking flesh seduces. “This is FIRE! Enjoy.” He packs up his rocks and departs.
The fire makes light, and it is good. The fire makes soothing heat, and it is good. The fire makes smoke and drives away the buzzing, biting insects, and it is good. The fire makes meat tasty and it is very, very good. You, Ogg, watch the fire late into the night as it dies down into a twinkling small echo of the winking sky above. As fire dies, you settle into a tired but excited sleep, looking forward to a new, and more hopeful day.
But when you rise, you find fire is gone. In its place lies a mockery of what was once the flaming pyramid of sticks and fagots, that crumbled before your eyes into a heap of black and glowing red worms. Fire lies now, only a gray powder. You poke your fingers into the center of the fluffy mass and spread it about in a vain search for the evidence of light…of heat. But fire is gone. You hold your fingers to your nose and sniff. A light puff of wind sends the friable remains away. Fire is no more. Though the man who brought it is gone and fire is gone, you know that you have seen it.
You too, want to make fire. And so you gather together wood. You collect rocks. You dance about the bundle and clash the stones and chant in pantomime of Zog’s performance as best you can recall. Much time passes and you give up but you try again the next day, and the next, and next. You witnessed fire’s brief, fantastic event and hold dear the memory. You anxiously await fire’s return.
Others inquire as to your behavior and you tell them of the arrival of Zog, the building of the pyramid, the chanting, the clacking, the ritual and the fantastic event of fire. Fire is good, fire is great, fire is a wondrous thing. It took only one spectacular event to convince you of the reality of fire. The people listen but do not understand and your attempts to bring forth fire only amuse them. They leave, tittering and laughing.
You insist upon repeating the story with greater and greater insistence and the others begin to look upon you with less interest and less amusement. Finally, those who first listened patiently to you become soured on your story. Eventually you are cast out of the tribe. You lose your position, your friends and your cave and are compelled to live on the perimeter.
But through the obscuring fog of scoffery, laughter and invective of the non-believers you hear rumors of others who, like yourself, also had a visitation from Zog and they too have witnessed the fire and they, like you, have after one brief spectacular event, become believers in and strivers after fire.
After Cold Fusion Now sent letters to Congressional Sub-committees requesting hearings on ARPA-E funding, and subsequent hearings were held into their funding priorities, ARPA-E has announced a funding opportunity for researchers in “Transformational Energy”.
What source of energy is more transformational than the ultra-clean fusion-sized power from hydrogen in a transition metal?
We urge all who can to apply for this funding. Sure its paperwork, and maybe you’ve been denied before, but this time, it could be different, it could mean important dollars moving into this field for the first time.
And if they don’t fund any cold fusion projects, well, we’ll….we’ll….
we will do nothing less than hold those responsible accountable.
From the press release of March 2, 2012 – 2:31pm from ARPA-E.gov:
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) issued a $150 million funding opportunity open to all transformational energy technologies to support the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above approach to solving our nation’s most pressing energy challenges. This Open Funding Opportunity Announcement is a call to our country’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to propose early-stage research projects that would not otherwise be able to attract private investment, but could lead to breakthrough energy technologies. This is the second open funding opportunity released under ARPA-E. The first was in 2009.
“Today we are calling on our nation’s best and brightest to catalyze energy breakthroughs in all areas imaginable through this Open Funding Opportunity Announcement, which illustrates the true purpose of ARPA-E,” said Director Majumdar. “Innovation is our nation’s sweet spot, and it is critically important that we look at every possible energy solution in order to ensure America’s future prosperity and security.”
This Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) joins ARPA-E’s other recently issued FOA – Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy (MOVE) – which will make $30 million available to find ways to harness our abundant supplies of domestic natural gas for vehicles and was announced by President Obama last week at the University of Miami.
More details on all of ARPA-E’s Funding Opportunities and Requests For Information are available HERE. Individual awards under the Open FOA will range between $250,000 and $10 million.
President Obama launched the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) in 2009 to seek out transformational, breakthrough technologies that are too risky for private sector investment but have the potential to translate science into quantum leaps in energy technology, form the foundation for entirely new industries, and in the future have large commercial impact.
Including its most recent round of selections, ARPA-E has funded a total of more than 180 projects, for $521.7 million in awards across 12 program areas. Demonstrating the success ARPA-E has already seen, the Agency announced last year that eleven of its projects that received $40 million from ARPA-E for innovative research, were able to use this funding to demonstrate results, which allowed these teams to secure more than $200 million in outside private capital investment.
ARPA-E’s third annual Energy Innovation Summit featured 107 speakers, including: President Bill Clinton; Microsoft Founder and Chairman, Bill Gates; Xerox CEO, Ursula Burns; FedEx CEO, Fred Smith; BDT Capital Chairman, Lee Scott; Deputy Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter; MIT President, Susan Hockfield; U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu; and ARPA-E Director, Arun Majumdar. The Summit attracted 2,440 attendees from 49 states and 26 countries and featured a Technology Showcase displaying over 240 breakthrough energy developments from ARPA-E’s awardees, finalists and other teams.
News Media Contact: (202) 586-4940
Apply for the ARPA-E Open Funding here at their website.
Related Links
$29.5 billion requested by DoE; $0 for cold fusion by Ruby Carat February 12, 2012
