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:
- Analytical error: possible mathematical error based on the assumptions of the energy capacity of the steam.
- Procedural error: possible use of an incorrect measurement instrument.
- 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