The Evidence for LENR

“Over 2 decades with over 100 experiments worldwide indicate LENR is real, much greater than chemical…” —Dennis M. Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center

Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) using nickel and hydrogen is a clean, very very cheap, and super abundant new energy technology. It would be fair to say that it is the silver bullet for our current continual energy crisis – and as a consequence sounds too good to be true.

In November of 2009 the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) published Defense Analysis Report DIA 8-0911-003 titled “Technological Forecast: Worldwide Research on Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Increasing and Gaining Acceptance” ( http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/BarnhartBtechnology.pdf ).

The paper gives a rundown of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction work being done around the world. Among other things it notes: “DIA assesses with high confidence that if LENR can produce nuclear-origin energy at room temperatures, this disruptive technology could revolutionize energy production and storage, since nuclear reactions release millions of times more energy per unit mass than do any known chemical fuel.”

“Energy density many orders of magnitude over chemical.” —Michael A. Nelson, NASA

Here is a detailed description of a LENR generator and formula that was producing energy over unity. In the March of 1994 US government contract F33615-93-C-2326 titled “NASCENT HYDROGEN: AN ENERGY SOURCE” ( www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/GernertNnascenthyd.pdf ), “Anomalous heat was measured from a reaction of atomic hydrogen in contact with potassium carbonate on a nickel surface.”

This phenomenon (LENR) has been confirmed in hundreds of published scientific papers as is shown by this document titled “Tally of Cold Fusion Papers” ( http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RothwellJtallyofcol.pdf ). It gives readers a sense of the scale, variety, and sources of the material available about this subject. It also gives some indication of how much has been published on cold fusion, and where they were published.

Of special note is a PowerPoint presentation by George Miley of the University of Illinois ( https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/mragheb/www/NPRE%20498ES%20Energy%20Storage%20Systems/Nuclear%20Battery%20using%20Clusters%20in%20Nanomaterials.pptx ), who has successfully replicated the LENR “cold fusion” reaction.

In the ebook “Secrets of E-Cat,” (Consulente Energia Publisher, 145 pages, 68 illustrations, Pdf format, 7 €, http://www.consulente-energia.com/cold-fusion-book-secrets-e-cat-by-mario-menichella-secret-ecat-andrea-rossi-focardi-energy-catalyzer.html ) author Mario Menichella says:

“The modern history of cold fusion begins with the premature announcement made in the United States by the two electrochemical Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, who in 1989 convened a press conference…there were numerous attempts to replicate (their) result, but for some years had little success, so that soon the question of cold fusion was labeled by the media and mainstream science as a “hoax.”

Menichella continues, “The probably better experimental work…carried out in Siena since the early Nineties, by a group of physicists composed by Sergio Focardi (University of Bologna), Francesco Piantelli (University of Siena), Roberto Habel (University of Cagliari), but it did not lead to a system capable of generating useful amount of excess energy for normal industrial or domestic applications. In Siena, in fact, the three scientists – using hydrogen and nickel as the two only “ingredients” of the reaction, plus an appropriate amount of heat supplied to the system – managed to get out a double thermal energy than the electrical energy provided in input.”

You may be wondering why the ebook is called “Secrets of E-Cat.” As you can see, LENR (otherwise loosely known as “cold fusion”) is a proven scientific phenomena, but the excess energy from this exothermic reaction was not large enough for normal industrial or domestic applications. In comes Andrea Rossi, the e-cat fusion developer, an Italian inventor who has a Masters Degree in Engineering from Milan University.

To quote the article “ANDREA ROSSI BIOGRAPHY – STORY”
( http://ecatfusion.com/e-cat/andrea-rossi-biography-the-e-cat-fusor-story ):

“In 2007, Andrea Rossi arrived at the very critical point in his research and concentrated his time on his invention. He also hired Sergio Focardi, a physicist from the University of Bologna who is an acknowledged expert in field. The physicist’s work on nickel hydrogen reactions proved to be invaluable…In 2009, Mr. Rossi introduced to the public a process and a device called the E-Catalyst. This is a revolutionary process in energy production and is also called low energy nuclear reactions. It could be a breakthrough invention since it can solve some of the energy problems of our planet.”

I recommend watching the video contained in this article titled “Nobel laureate touts E-Cat cold fusion” (http://pesn.com/2011/06/23/9501856_Nobel_laureate_touts_E-Cat_cold_fusion/ ). Dr. Brian Josephson, winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics, stars in the video whose stated purpose is to wake up the media to the E-Cat story, which has not been widely reported on in the mainstream media of the English-speaking world.

By the way, here is a article titled “The New Breed of Energy Catalyzers: Ready for Commercialization?” ( http://www.cleantechblog.com/2011/08/the-new-breed-of-energy-catalyzers-ready-for-commercialization.html ), which contains a relatively current survey of all the companies that are trying to bring LENR to commercialization.

The subject of LENR, a clean, very very cheap, and super abundant energy technology, is too deep to comprehensively cover in this limited space. Using only nickel and hydrogen, both very abundant and cheap, in a LENR exothermic reaction, could be a source of almost unlimited energy for humanity, with a cost close to nothing, and no environmental pollution. Hopefully the limited evidence for LENR cited above will go part of the way toward convincing an open minded reader of the validity of this too good to be true energy technology.

“Total replacement of fossil fuels for everything but synthetic organic chemistry.” —Dr. Joseph M. Zawodny, NASA

The Rossi 45MW LENR Power Plant is a Real Bargain Compared to Nuclear

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.

The Emergence of LENR and it’s Predictable Effect on the Economy

To estimate how the emergence of LENR in the market place will predictable impact the US economy, it is best to study the known effects higher oil prices have.

US demand for oil arises from demand for the products that are made from it. When the price of petroleum products increases, consumers use more of their income to pay for oil-derived products, and their spending on other goods and services decline.

Every penny of increase in gas prices takes one billion dollars out of the U.S. economy. So when the price of gas goes up $1, that’s one hundred billion dollars sucked out of the U.S. economy, or about $1000 a year out of the typical American household.

Furthermore, oil is necessary for the production of a wide range of goods and services, because it is used for transportation in businesses of all types. Higher oil prices can cause worker layoffs and idling of plants if the cost increases can’t be passed onto the consumers, or cost increases cause consumer demand to slack.

Finally, higher oil prices cause increases in other energy prices.

Currently, LENR energy technology is little known and the market does not seriously expect it to be commercialized soon. That perception will change, (arguably) starting with the first independent confirmations of Defkalion LENR technology, continuing to grow with the first LENR generators introduced to the market, and finally reaching a fever pitch as the mass media bombards the public with analysis of future LENR applications, fueled by the sky high cost of oil.

According to Defkalion, 18 factories have been sold, and when each one is built it will produce 300,000 LENR generators per year. According to Rossi, construction of his first factory will begin in February, and will eventually produce a million LENR generators a year. Presumably the blue prints for this heavily automated plant will be cloned repeatedly thereafter. Such rapid expansion will very likely result in a public relations storm, and consequential market reaction.

There will be no immediate significant decrease in fossil fuel usage due to the commercialization of LENR, but there will predictably be a dramatic psychological impact. Investors will see the medium and long-term implications of significantly lower energy prices, and consequentially lower the assessed value of soon-to-be obsolete energy infrastructure, conventional energy companies, and long-term contracts for their relatively expensive product.

Furthermore, as the creative destruction of our current conventional energy infrastructure proceeds, more resources will be devoted to new and better ways to exploit the LENR exothermic reaction. As more and more LENR generators come on line, the trend will drive down the price of energy in the future’s market.

When the price of energy decreases, consumers will use less of their income to pay for energy-derived products, and their spending on other goods and services will predictably increase.
Furthermore, since energy is necessary for the production of a wide range of goods and services, lower energy prices will predictably cause the hiring of more workers and the expansion of plants because the cost decreases won’t always be passed onto the consumers, or cost decreases will lead consumer demand to increase.

To summarize, in my opinion the best way to estimate how the emergence of LENR onto the market place will effect our economy is to look at the know effects of higher oil prices. Take for instance the current spike in oil prices: just when companies have finally stepped up hiring, rising oil prices are threatening to halt the U.S. economy’s gains. On the other hand, LENR will predictably lower energy prices, amplifying U.S. economic gains.

Cheaper products, more jobs, more money to spend – WOW! The positive feedback effects could mean geometric economic expansion. The future will be so bright, we’ll have to wear shades!

Updates Part 2 – E-CAT Test Aftermath

photo from radio24
Photo from Radio24

After the October 6th Energy Catalyzer test, there’s been continual updates, graphs, number crunching, and speculation on what is next, trickling in throughout the web.

For a good summation of the test as being positive, yet could have been better, and a really good part on the psychological aspects of “inventor” versus “outsiders” which helps understand the possible nature of the testing set up which has been criticized, check out Hank Mills article – E-Cat Test Validates Cold Fusion Despite Challenges

Now an update on the U.S. partnership which I wrote yesterday that it appeared to be no longer. According to a comment on e-catworld it may still be on and the issue could be the shipping of the plant, and the partner wanting to write Rossi’s name on the U.S. bound “send to” portion of the shipment, but due to the serious U.S. legal implications regarding the shipping and hence production of, what they would see as, a “nuclear plant”, lawyers could have advised Rossi against having his name as receiver, and advised that the U.S. company should take responsibility for shipping. The commentator speculates the contract would still be signed, but the inauguration would be in Europe, not U.S.

The U.S. partner? I’ve been seeing speculations on a few sites that it could be Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as for one that’s where the URL “E-Cat.com” redirects to. On the surface it might not sound as big as the NASA or GOOGLE speculations, but then again:

Kleiner Perkins is not a consulting company. It is a premier venture capital company with several technology funds. They were key to starting Google and Amazon and a number of other major companies. Their Green Fund is headed by Al Gore (former us VP under Clinton), and another major fund is headed by former General Colin Powell.

They are “top dog” in the VC world. If they are actually behind this, then this is as real as it gets.

“If”
(NewVisions comment from E-catWorld)

Any designers in the house?

Some updated information on projected pricing, designing, and longevity of the E-Cat from Rossi posts.


Projected pricing-
500euro per kw. (2500 euro for an E-Cat?)

Projected Longevity – “life of the E-Cat is 20 years”

And finally a call out for designers:

Andrea Rossi
October 8th, 2011 at 1:43 AM

Dear Francesco Toro,
The E-Cat basic module “for the People”, that we will put in commerce within months, will be 40 cm long, 40 cm large, 40 cm high, will weight 60 kg, the shape of a cube. I need a design cheap ( I want to put it in commerce at a price of 500 euros per kW) but nice, very nice. I will buy the design which I will choose and everybody has my honour word that I will not use designs not paid. I need it within two months.
Go to the report of Nyteknik (google “Nyteknic E-Cat Test October 6″) to see the pipes position: that will be it.
Please send proposals to
info@leonardocorp1996.com
I am sure that from the enthusiasm od our Readers will pop up a masterpiece.
Warm Regards,
Andrea Rossi

Rally Monkey!

Per il signor Rossi, e tutti i colleghi raduno a Bologna:
vi auguriamo il successo di questo test importante
della vostra energia rivoluzionaria tecnologia ed
una consegna rapida di Nuovo Fuoco per il pianeta!

To Mr. Rossi, and all colleagues gathering in Bologna:
we wish you success on this important test run
of your revolutionary energy technology and
a swift delivery of New Fire to the planet!


May we wake up tomorrow
and step on a path to freedom,
peace and prosperity for all the world.


Maggio ci svegliamo domani
e passo su un sentiero verso la libertà,
pace e prosperità per tutto il mondo.

Event Coverage from World Wide Lab:

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E-Cat Press Mats Lewan NyTeknik Energi

“Secrets of E-Cat” Book Review and Q&A with author Mario Menichella

Book Review “Secrets of E-Cat
by Brad Arnold

Brad Arnold read Mario Menichella‘s Secrets of E-Cat almost immediately after the English version was released so we asked him for his impressions. Following his review is a Q&A with author Mario Menichella.–CFN

“The aim of this essay, therefore, is not to determine whether the E-Cat is an amazing product or the scam of the century – this verification and the scientific validation is only a secondary theme of the book, although it is treated in some depth – but to bring an understanding of how it works to all those who, like me, would like to try to replicate it.” –Mario Menichella Secrets of E-Cat [pg 6].

The 144 page e-book “Secrets of E-Cat” is a good read. It doesn’t dwell on the politics or gossip surrounding Rossi – in fact the author is friends with both Rossi and Focardi – but instead it analyzes the mechanics of the E-Cat, or Energy Catalyzer. Since Mr. Menichella is an inquisitive physicist, he was able to lend more light than heat to the subject.

What is the E-Cat, how much energy does it produce, how is an E-Cat made, what is the secret catalyst, and what are possible theories for why LENR Ni-H (Low-energy nuclear reactions Nickel-Hydrogen systems) work. These are the questions the book explores. Safe to say that Rossi’s secret Italian sauce is still secret, but never the less several interesting possibilities are raised. It really isn’t fair to the author that I steal his thunder by going into specifics, but it is curious that iron is found in some of the products of Rossi E-Cat reactions.

There is an analysis of Rossi’s treatment of the nickel before it goes into the reaction chamber – what size particles and if he selects for isotope. Rossi said he tried about 10,000 experiments – there are a lot of combinations. What the book made clear was that Rossi was the first to be able to get a large amount of energy from nuclear fusion reactions at relatively low temperatures.

If you want to build a LENR Ni-H device, the book could very well help you do that, even fingering a nickel powder distributor, but don’t expect 6 (to 200) over unity. It feels good to know the basic working principles behind the E-Cat, but I wish the author had been more specific about the energy density of nickel (this is an important subject, because the more energy dense nickel is, the more spectacular LENR technology is).

At one point, the book mentioned that Rossi’s 5kW E-Cat used one gram in 5 days of continuous use. Then later, it was theorized that a 10kW E-Cat would use the same. That would mean that (as the book says) nickel was 100,000 times as energy dense as diesel fuel. I’d like to contrast that with the claim Rossi made on his patent application, which was that a gram of nickel was equivalent to 517 tons kilograms of oil. That would mean nickel was over 5 hundred million thousand times as energy dense (according to my calculations).

Editor’s note: Yes, Mr. Arnold’s calculations were correct. However, there is an error in the patent application that has been addressed; the available energy is equivalent to 517 tons kilograms of oil per gram of nickel. [NYTeknik]

Thus, the calculations in the book are correct. “1 gram of oil can gives a chemical energy in the order of electron Volts, while 1 gram of nickel can give – in a typical nuclear reaction – an energy in the order of MeV, which is about 10^6 larger.”-Mario Menichella

By the way, all you need to do to figure out energy density is to calculate how many grams of (for instance) oil would be the same as a gram of nickel. Just go to this site and plug in 517 kilograms, and you get the answer 517,000, which means that 517,000 grams of oil equals a single gram of nickel in terms of producing the same amount of heat energy (the nickel in a LENR reaction, and the oil by burning it).

Also according to the book, Rossi was sometimes getting 200 times the return energy. In public demonstrations, Rossi’s E-Cat was only getting a little over 6 from unity. The issue is safety. Right now the E-Cat is limited to lower temperatures and more electrical usage because the reaction (which, by the way, takes a few minutes to initiate) must be controlled, or it could spike and explode (any pressured container, even a small one, is a danger).

I suppose a lot of this will become clear as the mass media picks up on the story. We are all looking forward to Rossi’s 1 megawatt E-Cat being introduced to the public the last week of October. Until then, Mr. Menichella’s book “Secrets of E-Cat” is a good substitute and primer. — Brad Arnold

Author Mario Menichella
Author Mario Menichella
Q&A with Secrets of E-Cat
author Mario Menichella

CFN Mario, you are the first to write a book on the E-Cat. What are your impressions of the technology?

MM Your question would require a long answer. I think that the E-Cat produces excess energy, but in this moment we do not know, through an official test or certification, how much it is. However, the machine is able to function in a self-sustained mode, as declared in an interview by the Italian physicist Giuseppe Levi: he saw the machine operating for a long time without electric energy provided in input during a private test lasted 18 hours, at the beginning of 2011.

A few weeks ago, on September 8, I met Andrea Rossi in a meeting I organized in Bologna and he told me that his 1-MW prototype is guaranteed to have a 1:5 input/output power ratio: i.e. if, I have 5 thermal kWh in output for every electric kWh provided in input.

CFN This is very exciting news…

MM Yes, I do not want to bore your readers with calculations, but I am a physicist working also as energy consultant, so I have made an accurate estimate, for a customer, of the cost of 1 thermal kWh produced with a 10-kW E-Cat sold at a reasonable price of about 20,000 euro, corresponding to 2,000 euro/thermal kWh, as Rossi has always hypothesized.

The result I found is surprising, because such cost is less than the half that in the case of the alternative technologies in the heating field: heat pumps, solar panels, Diesel boilers, natural gas boilers, wood chip boilers, electric stoves. So, the E-Cat, with the current 1:5 input/output power ratio, has already the potential to revolutionize the heat market, especially in the temperature range 175-500 °F (80-250 °C). It can also be used, with savings, for medium or large cogeneration applications. The above power ratio, instead, is not enough for a pure electricity production.

CFN What prompted you to write this book on the E-Cat?

MM The obvious answer is because I am a writer on science and this is my job. However, I wrote my last book in 2006, and I did not plan to write a new book in my life. But a series of coincidences led me to change my decision. When, on February 2011, I read about the first public presentation of the E-Cat made on January 14 in Bologna (Italy), I immediately understood the potential of such a machine. So, I write to Rossi to compliment with him. But I was really involved in this adventure only when I was contacted by Claudio Puosi and his wife, Vessy Nikolova, to organize a popular conference on cold fusion and E-Cat in Viareggio, an event which held on July 23, 2011, with the contribute of Sergio Focardi (through a long recorded interview) and Andrea Rossi (interviewed in real-time by phone). Then I decided not to disperse the information I had on this argument, and I wrote an instant book, with a somewhat investigative approach.

CFN Who is the audience you wrote for?

MM I wrote for many years long articles on single scientific hobbies in Italian magazines and in dedicated web sites, describing interesting fields like: amateur seismology, model rocketry, search for meteorites with a metal detector, and so on. My model was the old famous book “The amateur scientist” by C. L. Stong. The E-Cat is one of the most intriguing topic for an amateur scientist, because it is an object with a huge potential and a fascinating mystery regarding its core, the “secret catalyst”. But my public is not composed only of amateurs. Due to the economic importance of such invention, I think that small, medium and big companies could be interested in trying to reproduce a similar device, not to say about many open-minded researchers in Universities and other scientific institutions, who are now changing their opinion on cold fusion (and LENR).

CFN Is it really possible for a competent amateur to replicate the E-Cat technology?

MM Theoretically, yes, because you can split the problem in two parts. The first is to replicate the old apparatus developed by Focardi-Pianteli in Siena, with its input/output power ratio of 1:2. It is well described in many scientific articles, so it is not an impossible task. The second part of the problem is to discover the “secret catalyst” used by Rossi, and this is more difficult: you need to be very lucky!

However, it is a fascinating enterprise, and you can also try, in your experiments on the Ni-H cell, non-standard routes to achieve an energy gain: world literature on low-energy nuclear reactions is full of different kinds of techniques for loading the gas in the metal and for providing some forms of excitation to the system, and they are the two typical key-factors to trigger a cold fusion nuclear reaction.

CFN Can you confirm that NASA is interested in Francesco Piantelli’s nickel-hydrogen system?

MM Yes, I can confirm, but not from news coming from Piantelli or collaborators: our sources of information are in USA. However, you are touching a very “hot” topic. Behind cold fusion there are big interests both in the civil and military field, but I am not authorized to reveal the entire information I have. Today, public information is only a little part of the “reality” on cold fusion: everything else is covered by some kind of secrecy. For example, some of the hypothesis on the secret catalyst used by Rossi – that you can find in my book – are supported by confidential information that I could not reveal explicitly. I can only say that, probably, Piantelli will be – directly or indirectly – involved in experiments/research funded by the USA through NASA.

CFN How does Mr. Piantelli’s work differ from Mr. Rossi’s?

MM Piantelli described quite precisely the experimental apparatus in his patents, and anyone was able (or tried) to replicate it. The main differences from Rossi’s work are two. The first is that he does not use a catalyst, like in the old Focardi-Piantelli experiments. The second difference is that we know for sure he uses nanostructured nickel, created through a very expensive dedicated machine. He works mainly on the nickel geometry, even if in his experiments other 5-6 factors are important to trigger the nuclear reaction.

CFN What is it that makes Italian researchers so successful at LENR?

MM The mean level of Italian research in physics is very high: Italy is the main contributor, in terms of people involved at every level, in the experiments of nuclear physics performed at CERN (Geneve). Another factor is creativity, which is quite typical of the Italian researchers. Also luck, obviously, has a big role. We do not know how Rossi discovered his secret catalyst, so we are missing an important piece of information about his “route to success”. However, success requires also patience and many unsuccessfully attempts.

CFN Thanks for the good news, Mr. Menichella!

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Related Links

Know the Secrets of E-Cat press release by Ruby Carat CFN September 23, 2011

Secrets of E-Cat by Mario Menichella from Consulente Energia

Viareggio Cold Fusion conference: science, politics, and an Italian competitor by Matt Ivy CFN July 23, 2011

CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research Geneve, Switzerland
English homepage

Convert Units from tons to grams at www.convertunits.com

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