1 MW E-Cat Cold Fusion Device Test Successful

1 MW E-Cat Cold Fusion Device Test Successful
On October 28, 2011, Andrea Rossi demonstrated his 1 megawatt E-Cat system to his first customer, who had engineers/scientists on hand to test/validate its performance. Due to a glitch, it provided 470 kW of continuous power for 5.5 hours during the self-sustained mode.
Here I am with Andrea Ross after the test of the 1 MW E-Cat plant in the background.

By Sterling D. Allan (who was present), with Hank Mills
Pure Energy Systems News
Well, the big day has come and gone. Andrea Rossi's one-megawatt-capable E-Cat cold fusion device has been tested in Bologna, Italy; and the unknown customer, who ran the test, is apparently happy.

There were some issues, so it couldn't be run at full power in self-looped mode, but what it did do was plenty impressive.

It ran for 5.5 hours producing 470 kW, while in self-looped mode. That means no substantial external energy was required to make it run, because it kept itself running, even while producing an excess of nearly half a megawatt. Rossi explained the reasons for this in the presentation he gave, which I videotaped and will be posting later.

That's half the rated capacity, but it is still a major accomplishment for the device that was completed earlier this week -- the first of its kind on the planet.

Early in the day with a glitch showing up, Rossi said that they had to make a decision about whether to go for 1 MW output, not in self-sustain mode, or with self-sustain mode at a lower power level. The customer opted to go for the self-sustain mode. Nothing was said about the prospects of a follow-up test, though I would imagine that the customer will be running many tests to understand this gadget they have purchased, and that information will be conveyed to Rossi.

When I asked him during the Q&A session if the customer was satisfied with the test, Rossi responded, "Yes, I think they are satisfied."

Here is a brief video excerpt highlight from Rossi during his 1-hour reading of the public report from the customer, followed by a question and answer session. I recorded the entire presentation, and we'll post that tomorrow, hopefully along with a transcription. Half the time was in Italian, as he would address each item in Italian as well as English.

In this excerpt, Rossi responds to the question, "So, is this a breakthrough?"

Here's a transcription of the excerpt video:
Mister Sonya has asked me if I think that the test of today is a breakthrough. I think yes, because I think today we have seen enough. No more small five or ten kilowatt units, but now we have overcame the [cannot understand].... disconnected. The basic engineering to make something that....

You know, to go in self sustain mode and make 400 [actually 470] kilowatt hours per hour... To understand that this is a breakthrough...

You can also think that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to try to have a COP of 1.1 with nuclear fusion. Today we have made a theoretically endless COP making 470 kilowatt hour per hour of completely free energy, free of fuel. Yes, I think this is a breakthrough.

Of course this is the first step, but it is a very important first step....
Early this year Andrea Rossi announced his plans to construct and test the world's first one megawatt cold fusion plant. The plant would utilize his E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer) technology that utilizes tiny quantities of nickel powder and hydrogen gas as fuel, while producing large amounts of energy in the form of heat. Importantly, the energy is produced without emitting any pollution, utilizing any radioactive materials, or producing any nuclear waste. Simply put, the E-Cat offers the world a source of cheap, safe, and clean energy. Although the exact plans for the launch of the technology were adjusted a few times throughout the course of this year, October 28th, 2011 was settled on for the date of the official test of the one megawatt plant by the first customer.

These first plants will cost around $2,000 per kilowatt to build one at a time, but once they are mass produced, Rossi expects the price to drop to around $100 per kilowatt installed.

Attendance at this test was limited for several reasons. First, the customer does not wish to be known at this time, nor to have its test engineers/scientists identified. I did not inadvertently discover the customer's identify, nor did I try to find out. I gave that group their space and did not probe. Second, the device is a nuclear device, and the regulations for a public demonstration are extremely stringent; so by making the event private, and only bringing one or two at a time to see it was a way to get around the safety requirements.

Most of us (around 30 guests total) arrived between 9 and 10 am; and by around 11 am, Rossi began taking people back to see the device while it was in operation, in self-sustained mode. Here's a video I shot, with Rossi's permission, during my 2-3 minute chance to see the unit during operation:

A neighboring facility, coincidentally, is named "Rossi", which is a common name in Italy.

Here I am with Mats Lewan and other Swedish associates.

Here I am with Peter Svensson from the AP

Professor Levi, who was Rossi's right-hand man today, will be heading the Bologna research on the E-Cat. Power for start-up (resistive coils that provided heat to the reaction chambers) was provided by the large and loud genset (was making all the noise) you see that is nearly as large as the small shipping container in which the 1 MW E-Cat plant was arranged. Once the reaction chambers got up to temperature, they were maintained by the heat produced by the reaction. I'm not sure why they kept the generator running after that, but I would guess it was for back-up or safety. I'm sure the engineers testing the system made sure what the power levels were at all times.

There were 100 E-Cat modules, each with 3 reaction chambers in them, for a total of 300 reaction chambers. An additional 20 or so units had been installed on the top of the shipping container, compared to the earlier photos and videos we had seen. Steam was produced by the units and exited through the back in the bottom of the two pipes. The steam was not put to use to run a load but the heat was dumped via two radiators, distilled, and circulated back into the system. When looking inside the plant, I noticed that one of the E-Cat units had a little steam escaping from the front of it.

The top pipe in the back, which was closed, was for emergency cool-down, if needed.

Each unit was run independently through a computerized control. The input and output temperature readings were recorded by computer, and the data will be provided to us probably later this evening or tomorrow morning. When I went by there, I think the input was measuring 19 C, and the output was 109 C.

Radiation measurements were taken by Dr. Bianchini David, from the University of Bologna. He said no extraneous radiation was detected at any time emanating from the reaction chambers, or from the piping, or from the water tanks, or in the vicinity of the apparatus. Apparently, gamma radiation is produced during the reaction, which is shielded by water, iron, lead, and a final coating on the apparatus. David said that he has not measured gamma radiation from the device, because he has not had access to the reaction chamber while it has been unshielded.

None of the units were taken apart following this test, as was the one back on the October 6 test. I asked Rossi whether any radio frequencies were used in the test, and he said "no".

I would estimate that there were about 12 people assisting with the test arrangement, including: 3-4 security guards, 1 caterer, 2 receptionists who checked to make sure everyone was invited and wore the required badges, 3-4 engineers helping take measurements, Foccardi was helping take guests 1-2 at a time back to see the unit.

I especially enjoyed mingling with the other guests, including: Mats Lewan from NyTeknik; Irene Zreick from Focus.it; Peter Svensson, Technology Writer for the Associated Press, NY, who told me that the reason the mainstream press hasn't been covering this is because Rossi has been very picky about who he lets in; Enrico Billi, a nuclear physicist and friend of Rossi's, who is presently living in China and helping to open doors there for this technology; Professor Christos Stremmenos, from the University of Bologna, who told me all about his theory of how the technology works; Pierre Clauzon, nuclear engineering professor from France, who told me about several theoretical physicists trying to understand cold fusion in general and the E-Cat in particular; Uzikova Irina, a nuclear plant designer from Russia; Stefan Heglesson, representing a Swedish interest in the technology; Loris Ferrari, Associate Professor of Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Bologna, who will be one of the five professors to do the two year test of the E-Cat, which hopefully will be funded as a result of today's test. They will study both the "how" and the "why" of the technology.

Mats and I agreed to post our stories at the same time. Peter was going to go first, having been given an exclusive by Rossi, but it's going to be a few days before he gets the necessary info and editorial approvals before he's able to run a story in the Associated Press.

Probably the biggest opening for skeptics will be the continually running genset that is probably rated for 500 kW (my guess), and appears to have been connected by cables to the E-Cat. "Where's the mystery?" So knock yourselves out, skeptics. It's the customer who has to be happy, and apparently this one was satisfied that those cables were not contributing to the 470 kW output during self-sustaining mode.

Here's a video where Rossi talks to us briefly following the test, saying that a report will come shortly; and giving us the reason for why we couldn't go back during the test except 1-2 at a time.

And here's a video of a couple of 1 MW generators that were in the room where we were hanging out, which were from an earlier project Rossi was involved with, running on biofuel.

# # #
Links
News:October 28, 2011 Test of the One Megawatt E-Cat (Our index page at PESWiki)
http://db.tt/wu4OLbgk - a link to download a file which contains the report about the test
http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3303682.ece - Mat Lewans' story

Two parts:

According to Rossi's patent application, an unstable isotope of copper beta decays. The resulting positron annihilates an electron releasing a great deal of energy.

Is this possible? I'm only reposting what was in wiki but the most stable radioisotope of copper has a half life of 62 hours if he using it, it sounds like it will decay pretty quickly to a stable form and where does the hydrogen come in?

The problem is that in the same patent application Rossi claims the ecat fuses a stable isotope of nickel with hydrogen resulting in a stable isotope of copper. But a stable isotope of copper won't beta decay, and the fusion that produced the copper isotope uses energy rather than produces it.

Taking both of these statements together, it sounds like it's going around in circles and using up the energy it created in the first part in the second part. Is it possible that either of the two approaches works by itself?

I already exhausted my minimal understanding of nuclear reactions in the post you responded to.

So the only detail left to conquer is that nKW output ECat requires nKW input power for the generator pumps?

Nonsense that you assume the same "n" on both sides of the equation. In fact, to assume such also forces you to assume that Rossi's customer, who was there (as you weren't) is an idiot.

I would like to point out two things. No one on this forum knows the capacity of the gen set at the site (all the numbers tossed around here are guesses) and second, no one knows what its output was during the test.

Maybe I shouldn't have to note this, but given the apparent low level of understanding around here, I will anyway: a nominal 100 kVA gen set is quite capable of producing 0.01 kVA of power, if that's the actual load. The fact is that no one around here as a clue what the load was on that gen set.

I believe that 1 megawatt of electrical output is more valuable than 10 megawatts of low quality heat output.

That is a true statement. As for the rest of it, I don't know what to say except that my comment was directed at the absurdity of saying that you can create 10 megawatts of energy out of 1 megawatt of energy. Your example is ignoring at least one of the inputs, in this case some sort of change in the energy state of the nickel powder, perhaps at the nuclear level. I don't know where the excess energy comes from, but I know it does not come from thin air.

Perhaps someone here knows the exit temperature of the water in these demonstrations.

It's in the report, linked above. It is remarkable to me that so much of this discussion is carried on by people who haven't even bothered to get the facts.

Ave. input temp: 18.3C

Ave. output temp: 104.5 C

>> “This, however, is much better than the 9000 per kilowatt for solar.” <<

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Or the trillions for zero KW while our Energy department pretends to be searching for fusion break-even.

>> “or does it mean Rossi convinced someone to open their wallet?” <<

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You appear to be glossing over the fact that people with that much in their wallet tend to be more skepitical than the average bear.

“I don’t know what to say except that my comment was directed at the absurdity of saying that you can create 10 megawatts of energy out of 1 megawatt of energy.”

Indeed you cant create energy out of nothing, however a heat pump can have a coefficient of performance as high as eight or so under ideal conditions. The difference is of course that they only move heat they don’t make it. They can move it from a low temperature source to a higher temperature output.

>> “It is remarkable to me that so much of this discussion is carried on by people who haven’t even bothered to get the facts.” <<

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Hey John, remember this is FR, where most are way too busy posting pictures of cats to bother reading up on the facts.

You appear to be glossing over the fact that people with that much in their wallet tend to be more skepitical than the average bear.

Not always.

Is it a 'magic box' or a high-tech hoax?

>> “Is it a ‘magic box’ or a high-tech hoax?” <<

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Or neither.

The inventor would have to be a fool to reveal even a shred of the physics to the non-paying observers (us).

Perhaps he is in the dark himself too, as to the physics, but has some concrete observations on the behavior of his “fuel” that are reliable within the range in which he has so far operated.

DoughtyOne said: "This will play out over time."

Yes. And the more people there are who are willing to be convinced without being able to examine the entire apparatus in detail, the longer it will take. The Keely hoax lasted 26 years until after the death of Keely.

Some on FR take the approach that we must take Rossi at his word and that the burden of debunking his demonstrations is on the skeptics. That is not the case. It's Rossi's burden and he has performed little better than some of the successful charlatan's of history.

There is a new clean energy technology that is 1/5th the cost of coal. Don’t believe me? Watch this video by a Nobel prize winner in physics: http://pesn.com/2011/06/23/9501856_Nobel_laureate_touts_E-Cat_cold_fusion/

Still don’t believe me? It convinced the Swedish Skeptics Society: http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3144827.ece

LENR using nickel. Incredibly: Ni+H+K2CO3(heated under pressure)=Cu+lots of heat. Here is a detailed description of the device and formula from a US government contract: www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/GernertNnascenthyd.pdf

According to Forbes, electricity will be “too cheap to meter” if the Oct 28 demonstration succeeds: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgibbs/2011/10/17/hello-cheap-energy-hello-brave-new-world/

By the way, here is a current survey of all the companies that are bringing LENR to commercialization: http://www.cleantechblog.com/2011/08/the-new-breed-of-energy-catalyzers-ready-for-commercialization.html

You have mixed the context of the discussion. We are talking about a fusion device that requires electricity for internal pumping and preheating. There were people happy if the machine could put out ten units of heat for one unit of electricity. We are discussing fusion not over unity devices.

We aren’t spending trillions on hot fusion and the money we have spent has produced some useful technology.

I agree we won’t see commercial hot fusion in our lives but I don’t begrudge funding for research. Like the space program, scientists do useful things when pushing the boundaries of current technology.

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