E-Cat

[brantlew]

For the scientifically curious - I've been following this project for the last year, and didn't know if others had caught a whiff of it yet. Anyway, there is this eccentric Italian guy named Rossi that claims to have discovered a way to greatly enhance the "cold-fusion" effect (now called LENR) to the point where it can be commercialized and used for industrial and home use. He has given several semi-public demonstrations of the system and claims to have sold several industrial class devices to unnamed entities, but he has come under great scrutiny and controversy because he operates outside of the academic circles and methods. Currently he claims that he can heat water to over 600 degrees C with a 6x return on energy input. A lot of people claim hoax but his story has remained consistent, there seem to be real customers, and he claims he is on track to release a consumer version of the product sometime this year or next. I lean toward the optimistic side on this one, because so far he seems to have operated in a very consistent manner for a guy trying to create a commercial product. Anyone else follow this? Got opinions?


http://www.e-catworld.com/what-is-the-e-cat/

[Likay]

I'm not so sure. Usually a fusional process requires an extremely high pressure and/or temperature (temp obtained through pressure) which in natural circumstances only occurs in hydrogenbombs (fusion triggered by a plutonium or uraniumbomb) and stars... Bigger stars=higher gravity=higher pressure=faster fusionreaction. These circumstances are almost impossible to create under earthly conditions but there are tries.
National Ignition Facility fuses hydrogenisotopes into helium with the pressure and temperature achieved by firing several laserbeams onto a golden tube containing the isotopes.

Most projects uses a tokamak construction like ITER which fuses hydrogen into helium by heating hydrogen plasma into extremely high temperatures while holding the plasma into place with magnets. There are quite a few projects around.

Rossis fusion is said to work with low pressure and moderate temperaturelevels. In my intuition there needs to be a very high energy to fuse two atoms to form another element so "cold fusion" seems to me as a contradiction. It's certainly not impossible that there are some unknown factors here though. We live and learn all the time.

[Neil]

I know where this is headed. First Oculus Rift, next...cold fusion for gamers. Is there anything the MTBS community can't do?!?

Regards.
Neil

[brantlew]

Rossis fusion is said to work with low pressure and moderate temperaturelevels. In my intuition there needs to be a very high energy to fuse two atoms to form another element so "cold fusion" seems to me as a contradiction. It's certainly not impossible that there are some unknown factors here though. We live and learn all the time.

That is the general sentiment of most nuclear physicists, and since he doesn't follow the normal chain of open, peer- reviewed research most experts pretty much write it off. I remain responsibly skeptical but I have read enough tantalizing "evidence" and third-party accounts of the demonstrations that I remain cautiously optimistic.

For another interesting project that is backed by thorough science and accredited sources you should check out the Polywell project which is funded by DARPA and has been achieving some interested (but well guarded) results.

http://www.polywellnuclearfusion.com/Po ... actor.html