Viareggio Cold Fusion conference: science, politics, and an Italian competitor

A conference titled “Has cold fusion become a reality?” was held at 4:00 PM July 23 at Villa Borbone in Viareggio, Italy. The conference was hosted by Italian solar energy company Delta Energie. Among the participants were Andrea Rossi via Skype; his research partner, retired University of Bologna physicist Sergio Focardi, via a pre-recorded presentation; Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare physicist and cold fusion researcher Francesco Celani; astrophysicist and futurologist Mario Menichella; renewable energy researcher and author Roy Virgilio; and author and blogger Daniele Passerini, who is also a long-time friend of University of Bologna physicist Giuseppe Levi.

Fusione Fredda by Roy Virgillio Roy Virgilio is the author of a small Italian paperback book on cold fusion and an acquaintance of Francesco Piantelli, an early researcher in nickel-hydrogen reactions. Daniele Passerini has provided a summary of events on his blog and promises a video of the conference will appear online in a few days. Giorgio at Talk Polywell has provided an English translation of the more important news from the conference:

16.13 – Rossi is contacted on Skype, he confirms delivery of the 1MW plant according schedule. The first industrial plant will be delivered “patent pending”, hoping that this will push the European patent application.
Domestic reactors will have to wait a couple of years due to certifications.

16.57 – Focardi in his pre-recorded interview states again that he does not know the Nuclear process that brings an atom of nikel to capture a proton and transform it into Copper, but the chemical analysis prove that this is what happens.

17.03 – The temperature when the reaction starts is 60-70° C.

17.05 – Focardi states that many samples of reactors has been tested, including closed circuit reactors.

17.56 – Celani states that he is researching on nanoparticles deposited on thin and long strings of Pd, in Deuterium atmosphere.
He states he is getting 400/W/g at 500°C with good reproducibility.
He has worked also with Ni strings in Hydrogen atmosphere and he is getting an efficiency of 1800W/g at 900°C, but with difficulties in reproducibility.

18.26 – Roy Virgilio takes the word. He states that Piantelli research is going good. A new company (NickEnergia) has been formed 5 month ago and is already licensing his know how to other industries to produce reactors of different sizes. [The name of the company appears to be Nichenergy. —Ivy Matt]

18.35 – Piantelli is not willing to to make any type of publicity. He will arrive on the market with a commercial product and let the market decide if the technology is real or not.

18.37 – Piantelli is not using catalizers, just Nickel and Hydrogen.

18.39 – The first reactors that will be offered for sale will be on the range of the Kw. After they will scale up.

Another interesting tidbit from the conference.

19.10 – Among the public Milly Moratti takes the word and states that there are clearly now experimental evidences of Cold Fusion.

Now, for the one who do not know, Milli Moratti is the wife of Massimo Moratti, one of the richest man in Italy and owner of the Saras Petrol Refinery, The biggest in Italy and one of the biggest in Europe.
That’s a 5,3 Billion Euro Company.
She has money and the political knowledge.

Thanks, Giorgio!

That’s good news about the research and political interest, disappointing news about the timeline for the arrival of the domestic reactor.

Several other items of interest were brought up at the conference: Celani’s allegation that the public denigration of cold fusion research and the hiring of the best cold fusion researchers by US military and government labs likely stem from the same policy, the military interest in cold fusion research being the production of tritium for use in thermonuclear warheads; his naming of Japanese researcher Yoshiaki Arata as the “real father of cold fusion”, having studied deuterium in the gas phase (loaded into a metallic lattice or powder, presumably) since 1958; and Virgilio’s comment on Piantelli’s insistence that what occurs in the nickely-hydrogen reaction is not properly cold fusion, but rather some other type of low-energy nuclear reaction consisting of a complex sequence of events.

It seems clear now—if it wasn’t before—that the “Italian competitor” Andrea Rossi has mentioned several times on his website is Francesco Piantelli, with whom Sergio Focardi worked for many years. In his recent dust-up with physicist Julian Brown, Rossi said Brown had claimed that his competitor had a patent on the matter granted in 1995. Piantelli applied for a patent, “Energy Generation and Generator by Means of Anharmonic Stimulated Fusion”, in 1995, but the patent was never granted. However, whether the patent was granted or not, it could still be used as evidence for prior art in a claim against Rossi’s 2008 patent, which is probably the idea Brown was trying to convey to Rossi.

Earlier reports had claimed that Piantelli’s group had achieved 40 kW of thermal power and 7 kW of electrical power, but the recent report from Virgilio seems to point to a more modest claim. If the Piantelli device produces under 5 kW of thermal power, Nichenergy’s best option would seem to be to compete with Defkalion GT on price—and possibly time to market, if Nichenergy’s reactor is not also hampered by regulations on domestic use.

NOTE: this post has been updated to reflect what is apparently the actual name of Piantelli’s company, Nichenergy, based on updated information on Daniele Passerini’s blog.

7 Replies to “Viareggio Cold Fusion conference: science, politics, and an Italian competitor”

  1. So if your Article is correct, America is happy to throw everybody to the Wolves re. Cold Fusion and not even confirm it’s peaceful importance to the world.

    Main-line Science, Establishment and Journals apparently condone this action and like with so many other important subjects, close their eyes and ears.

    The Scientific World has deteriorated to a community of closed minded ineffectual followers instead of the leaders in research and discovery they should be.
    Every advance has to pass years of hurdles erected by mediocre, non-achievers dominating, funding, peer review, journals and, academia.
    The few Rebel, True Scientists, at every turn gamble with their careers if they try to persevere with an idea, “beyond known science.” unless they have achieved at least Nobel status and then their forward looking theories are just quietly laughed at and tolerated as the ravings of old men.

    The Media must take much of the blame for allowing such incompetent and unscientific (scientist means, seeker of Knowledge) people to infest science by blindly excepting any rubbish they give out.

    Let one person give solid sound reasons why the UFO enigma or the Placebo Effect are not openly and professionally treated and researched as the major scientific problems that they are.

    1. “So if your Article is correct…”

      An important caveat, although I would put it, “So if Celani’s inference, as related by Daniele Passerini, translated by Google Translate, and reported by me is correct…”

      Even if the claim is correct, I don’t suppose that the majority of scientists and journal editors would be aware enough of such a policy to be able to condone it.

      1. Hello Ivy Matt,

        My caveat is to the first two paragraphs only, the rest stays factual regardless.
        If they are not aware of the crisis in science that Cold Fusion has highlighted then one may think it is time they should Wake-up.

  2. Very interesting, thank you. But I wish we had fewer claims and more evidence. A tabletop fusion reactor may be difficult to make but it’s very easy to test properly and, far as I know, this has NEVER been done independently. How do we know this is not all some complicated mistake or even deliberate deception? Why not take any one of the claimed devices and arrange for *independent* researchers or labs to test them as a black box?

    For Rossi’s device, the tests would be:

    – a *very* long run comparing the power output of two E-cats, one containing hydrogen and the other not. After enough time to rule out stored or chemical energy sources, the two E-cats would be interchanged and the test repeated.

    – measurement of the output power of the E-cat by “sparging” the steam. Sparging is the collection of all steam output and condensing it in an insulated water bath. The temperature rise in the bath (along with the amount of water) would yield the energy output (enthalpy).

    – redoing Dr. Levi’s experiment: run the E-cat with enough coolant flow so the water remains liquid instead of steam. Then, measure the water flow rate and the “delta-T” — the difference between outlet and inlet temperatures. Again, run a LONG time.

    All of the above would be done with the independent provision of input power which would be accurately metered (including coolant pump power), and coolant which would be chemically tested (or would be pure bottled water from a commercial source).

    It seems that everyone is relying on claims rather than any sort of public tests. If the big industrialists, such as Ms. Moratti, have commissioned their own independent tests, fine– they should make the results public. That would NOT in any way jeopardize trade secrets so it is very suspicious when this “red herring” is used as an excuse.

    Absent test results which come from experiments in which the inventors are not involved, it is hard to know what is real and what might be error, delusion or deception. Yes, we will know when and if someone sells the products but I am surprised that everyone takes it on faith thus far that such products will indeed be provided for sale in a timely manner. The history of the energy production field is full of scams and frauds. You have only to look back at the history of Steorn (Ireland) to see a well documented story of enthusiastic claims and dismal test results followed by delays, evasion and deception. I hope that’s not what we have here.

    1. Morning maryyugo, hope you are well,

      We are both persevering.
      Not long to wait now hopefully.
      I hope in Oct/Dec everybody is united in celebrating a victory for the World.

    2. “But I wish we had fewer claims and more evidence.”

      Well, yes, so do I. I suppose I should have had Defkalion conduct those tests for me before I paid them €40,500,000 for that factory in Andorra. 😉

  3. hi ivy matt and comunnity , very good article… if i have any type of news from here in italy i ‘ll let u know

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