Category: Science and Technology

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Funding dam almost breaks for Brillouin Boiler that uses – water!

He’s young, brilliant, and the designer and engineer of a hot water boiler based on LENR technology in – Berkeley. His name is Robert E. Godes, the Chief Technical Officer at Brillouin Energy, a company he founded that’s now hosting visits from venture capital groups finally ready to partake in “the greatest investment opportunity of the 21rst century”.

In December 2006, Mr. Godes’ first test cell was an open beaker using palladium wire and ordinary distilled water, yet this simple system achieved an excess heat up to 45%.

The newest device began operating in October of last year and is a pressurized nickel-hydrogen system that has allowed superior calorimetry measurements. According to the Early Phase 2 Data Report, this cell generated excess heat output greater than 100% in February of this year. (You can read the Phase 1 and Phase 2 Data Report on the Brillouin Energy website).

With steady progress meeting each company milestone, the lab runs with a skeleton staff, including volunteers. Negative perceptions about the field of LENR research have discouraged potential investors. One possible private donor seeking a technical evaluation was informed by a National Science Foundation member (whose review entailed “a quick scan” of the Brillouin Energy website) that it was “quite possible they had created the ‘instant death’ version of cold fusion”.

Sigh.

The very much alive Mr. Godes does believe this is a nuclear reaction, but to quote Nobel Laureate Julian Schwinger, whose 1991 A Progress Report paper you can down-load from the Brillouin Energy website, ”The circumstances of cold fusion are not those of hot fusion.”

Brilloun Boiler
Robert E. Godes uses proprietary electronic "Q-pulses" to stimulate the reaction. Q-pulses are a central feature of his Quantum Fusion Hypothesis which attempts to explain LENR reactions theoretically.

The reaction is not only safe, but clean, and the fuel is abundant. According to Mr. Godes:

“Fusing the Hydrogen out of H2O results in 355,000 times more energy than is contained in the same volume of gasoline. The Hydrogen used in the fusion process is continually replaced by solar wind and interstellar space: the ultimate renewable energy source.”

Thanks to recent demonstrations of Andrea Rossi‘s Energy Catalyzer and the plans to commercialize this technology, venture capital has finally taken notice of the potential. Brillouin Energy is fielding calls from new investors and will now be working with Los Alamos National Lab LANL to replicate Brillouin’s work. First, a confirmation report from a nationally recognized lab, and then the funds.

We recently asked Mr. Godes a few questions about his boiler design and what’s next after funding.

Q&A with Robert E. Godes of Brillouin Energy

CFN How did you first get interested in this form of energy production?

REG I was talking with another engineer at work in 1992. He told me about Cold Fusion. When I asked him about the use of palladium for the cathode, he told me that they used palladium to filter hydrogen. Filter hydrogen? I asked. Helium will not pass though it? No!

CFN Which came first, your Hypothesis or the experiments?

REG I knew that the Hydrogen atom was almost twice the size of Helium (corrected!) atom. So when I herd that helium would not pass but hydrogen would, I formed my hypothesis almost instantly. At that point I started studying material science. Once the hypothesis was solid, it was used to drive the design of the control systems to run the experiments.

CFN You are also using nickel-hydrogen system for your reactor. How does your design and process differ from Andrea Rossi’s?

REG The IP [Intellectual Property] I filed in 1995 includes some aspects of what Rossi is doing, but there are problems in trying to move the technology he is developing into production. He may have trouble meeting his deadline for the 1MW reactor as it could be difficult transferring the technology to other licensees for production.

He had a smiler problem with a potentially great technology doing direct thermal to electrical conversion. The manpower needed to produce and tweak Rossi units will limit profit margins. He would have a much easier time doing small units consisting of single devices for consumers, but insurance companies will not allow home use due to safety issues. The safety issues with the Rossi device will not likely have to do with radiation. Brillouin Energy Corp. (BEC) technology will be more reliable making it the market winner. Safety issue #1: we use the hydrogen out of ordinary water (H2O) in the form of water.

The technology BEC is developing will be easier to manufacture and transfer to licensees for market penetration and get approval for commercial and consumer use. I have significant experience in moving products from engineering to production with involvement in some products being produced at more than 100K units / year.

We only started working with the pressurized unit in Q2 2010. However we have already identified a large number of the variables that need to be controlled and how to control them. When we start production I expect it will be a much smoother ramp up than what Rossi is facing right now.

CFN What has your experience with the Patent Office been like?

REG Our first patent was initially rejected just on the basis of being cold fusion. However after some back and forth they said it actually looks like 5 to 7 patents and what would you like to prosecute first. So the application is still in process. My guess is we will not be granted a patent until we produce lots of data at industrially useful levels.

CFN What’s the next step in developing this newest test cell?

REG We have identified several variables that need to be controlled and ways to control them. Once we have access to the capital, we will be able to automate the process refinement and have several units to run the development in parallel. Till then, we are still making progress and figuring out how to best leverage the equipment we have.

CFN We look forward to your progress. Good luck!

REG Thanks, Ruby. What we really need is clean, dense, always available source of energy.

Related Links

Brillouin Energy Corporation —company website

Brillouin Energy Technical Powerpoint with Audio —download.pps.

The Quantum Fusion Hypothesis Infinite Energy Magazine Vol 14 issue 82 —download .pdf

Infinite Energy Vol 14 issue 82 —Table of Contents

Brillouin Energy Video of early open beaker test —download .wmv (Windows Media)

New Energy Outreach – in the Mall! –Ruby Carat April 10, 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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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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Query interviews Giuseppe Levi

Query, the official journal of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CICAP), has a new interview with University of Bologna Department of Physics Professor Giuseppe Levi.

The interview covers New Energy Times journalist Steven Krivit‘s controversial visit to Bologna, written documentation of the university’s E-Cat tests, and the university’s new research contract with Andrea Rossi. Of particular note, regarding the contract:

“Then you have the freedom to publish your results, I guess.”

“Absolutely. This was of course a conditio sine qua non. In this part of the total freedom to publish results that are positive or negative. At the measures we are totally free to do so.”

Members of the University of Bologna research team conducting tests on Rossi’s E-Cat will include Professors Levi, Ferrari, Bonetti, Campari, and Villa.

(The interview in the link above is an English machine translation of the original interview in Italian, which can be found here.)

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