The New Fire

C’ mon baby, light my fire.
—Jim Morrison

Our planet is heating up.

Whether its rising temperatures, or the limits of human tolerance, we’ve reached a bifurcation point, and a phase change is in progress: the age of Chemical Energy is ending.

The degradation of the physical environment mirrors the perversions of human perception that have reduced our bodies and souls to numbered sacks of biomass starved by our own virtual fantasies of infinite growth upon a finite Earth.

But as the world burns, a discovery of such magnitude that it guarantees humanity another chance at life is coming to light, literally, an opportunity to heal the wounds of industrial expansion and allow Earth’s biosphere to emerge as the greatest work of art ever shaped by man.

This newly developing energy technology is based on the discovery announced 22 years ago by Drs. Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, and after two decades of assiduous research, a simple hot-water boiler called the Energy Catalyzer will be the first model of breakthrough engineering based on that discovery with a planned commercial release for industrial applications in the last quarter of this year.

The heat-energy reactor is the invention of Andrea A. Rossi and he calls it the New Fire. The New Fire is described by it’s developers as a nickel-hydrogen exothermic reaction for it uses a fuel of hydrogen gas and a powder made of nickel. Infused into the nickel powder at high-pressure, the hydrogen reacts with the metallic nuclei creating a huge amount of heat well beyond that of any chemical interaction.

One early test of the Energy Catalyzer E-Cat reportedly produced over 15 kilowatts of heat energy over 18 hours. In Low Energy Nuclear Revolution a documentary video from PhiZero,[1] one of Mr. Rossi’s collaborators Sergio Focardi, himself a longtime researcher in these types of nickel-hydrogen systems, said of the early E-Cat tests, “On average the relationship between thermal energy gained and input electrical energy was on the order of around 200 times.”

Another collaborator of Mr. Rossi’s, Giuseppe Levi, described an early test of the E-Cat where an astounding 120 kilowatts of power was produced, at which point it was turned off. “We restarted it, and the system ran for one hour at 40 kilowatts,” said Mr. Levi. “I saw that it was capable of being self-sustaining.”

You cannot step into the same water twice.
—Heraclitus

The Fleischmann-Pons Heat Effect FPHE was first studied in a glass beaker using a heavy-water solution and a small, solid piece of the metal palladium, but with that initial system, the effect of excess heat was difficult to reproduce. Today, nano-sized particles of metal such as nickel, platinum, titanium, and others, are the medium that support reproducibility. The plethora of metals that create the nuclear active environment where the reaction occurs is further diversified by the fuel of hydrogen, which can be either in gas or liquid form and even in the form of water.

There are three forms of hydrogen: protium, deuterium, and tritium, and possibly even more in the form of hydrinos, hydrogen purported to exist in fractional ground-states. Both protium and deuterium have been used to initiate energy-producing reactions, while tritium is a sometime by-product of the reaction whose presence reveals the nuclear nature of the reaction.

Hydrogen makes up about 75% of the chemical mass of the universe and is the most abundant material that exists. Indeed, three-fourths the mass of our Sun is hydrogen, and the reactions that keep our Sun alive begin with the fusion of hydrogen nuclei deep in the interior. On Earth, hydrogen makes up the bulk of water.

Chemically, water is H2O, meaning two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom together make up a water molecule. Continually replenished on Earth by the solar wind and cosmic particles from interstellar space, hydrogen is “the ultimate renewable energy resource”.[2]

Hydrogen can be burned just like oil or gas, and this is what many alternative energy advocates are proposing when they discuss hydrogen technologies, but that is not what the New Fire does. Chemical burning of fuel is a process that involves the outer electrons of atoms as they mix and match, forming new compounds as well as energy. Wood and oil burn, but the New Fire is a reaction of nuclear dimension whereby protons, the nuclei of the hydrogen atoms, interact with electrons and other nuclei to liberate energy many times greater than any chemically-induced process.

Neither is the excess heat of the New Fire the process of fusion that occurs in the Sun’s plasma. While the theory behind the reaction is unknown at this time, scientists piece together scraps of 20th century modern physics in an attempt to describe a 21rst century phenomenon: clean, dense energy from the most plentiful material in the universe.

Not having a definitive theory won’t stop this technology from materializing out of the Mystery Landscape, nor will it be stopped by the virtual silence of the mainstream scientific community and media which has been deliberately hostile to this research in the past. Historically, just about every new technology ever introduced was brought into existence without a theory first. Humans discovered fire hundreds of thousands years ago, and it’s possible that as far back as 800,000 years, our ancestors made opportune use of natural fire in the environment.

They did not have to know how it worked, only that it did.

It was Marshall McLuhan who noticed that “the biggest secrets are kept by public incredulity”. We the public are surviving in the after-image of 20th century myopia with little knowledge of this epoch-making advancement in energy technology. But when the mass of men realize that a solution to scarcity exists, and this solution is available to all, power will re-distribute around the globe “at the speed of thought”.[3]

The New Fire will be able to replace radioactive fuel assemblies one-for-one, generating ultra-clean steam heat for today’s power plants, but an off-grid, clean technology that uses a fuel of water decentralizes power allowing individuals and local communities to better control their own energy choices.

The New Fire is not an incremental change in existing energy technology introduced by multi-national corporations. The New Fire does not recognize the hierarchy of centralized authority, and will not be stopped by parochial notions such as “reputation”. The New Fire burns through satellite links sparking the minds of young people who haven’t the prejudices of their parents, and who will not wait patiently while their future is mortgaged by distant incorporated entities.

The New Fire comes from the curious tinkerings of those who believe they really can change the world, and aren’t afraid to succeed.

In their book Breakthrough Power, authors Jeane Manning and Joel Garbon describe some of the opportunities that exist with a green and plentiful energy like the New Fire. The list included:

“rewarding, life-affirming work that enhances human dignity and contributes to the planetary clean-up and advancement of global society. Low-cost energy permits recycling on an unprecedented scale, and the unsightly gigantic heaps of trash that previously blighted the landscape are transformed into valuable mines of recovered resources.”

“The world’s thirsty families are supplied abundant and pure drinking water extracted from the atmosphere itself or by desalination of ocean water. Depleted farmland is restored to productive agriculture. Stream, rivers, and aquifers are no longer exhausted by damaging diversion and over-pumping, but are restored to their natural balance, permitting fish stocks and streamside ecosystems to thrive once again…”

“Food can be grown anywhere – even in the desert or arctic conditions – in compact, multi-level greenhouses whose natural heating and lighting are augmented by energy easily and cleanly extracted from space itself.” –Breakthrough Power

And

“…imagine how both the environment and and the forest industry would benefit if new energy technology resulted in a fuel-less helicopter. Suddenly selective harvesting of trees from the air would be economical. No logging roads would be needed. Instead of clear-cutting swaths of forest, heli-loggers could selectively thin the weakest tress. Forest could be restored to pristine “old growth” status.”

“Without the need for hydroelectric power, there is no need to dam rivers. With certain dams dismantled, salmon in the northwest would be able to easily return upriver to spawning grounds. The vitality of cool, clear, unimpeded flowing waters could be restored.” [4] –Breakthrough Power

The ideas and dreams of new-energy researchers have imagined some of the possibilities that the New Fire may bring. Jed Rothwell‘s Cold Fusion and the Future describes many more solutions to be derived from this technology. But all these fantastic possibilities are not guaranteed.

We as citizens have to be ready to participate in co-creating our society and demand the tools to do so. We cannot expect others to create the reality we want to live in if we’re not willing to put any effort in that.
—Birgitta Jonsdottir Icelandic Parliment July 5, 2011 Ca$h Flow

Humans may never appreciate the beautiful and delicate world we inhabit until other worlds are explored, for as exotic and amazing as they are, toxic gases and the severe cold vacuum of space will not support our life without layers of artificiality. The pleasant air, the sweet water, the elegant variety of life that complements beautiful formations of forest, plain and desert are unique in our corner of the universe, with not another living sphere in sight.

Earth, our home – it is this world we must care for. It is this world we must preserve, this time, with our eyes wide open, and the New Fire to light the way.

Supporting links:

1. Low Energy Nuclear Revolution from PhiZero by Ivy Matt June 23, 2001
2. Robert E. Godes Funding dam (almost) breaks for Brillouin boiler that uses – water! –Ruby Carat July 7, 2011
3. “Now, we’re living at the speed of thought.” Bob Neverit Ca$h Flow July 6, 2011
4. Breakthrough Power by Jeane Manning & Joel Garbon www.breakthroughpower.net
5. Cold Fusion and the Future Part 1: Revolutionary Technology Jed Rothwell Infinite-Energy