Posted on 10/28/2011 10:59:24 PM PDT by Kevmo
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
Those same guys are meeting this weekend in New Mexico and they claim something big is going to happen ~ they don't know what it is ~ but it's GLOBAL WARMING.
Gots' to watch who you want to go with. Latest story this morning is that the latest effort to prove AGW proved that Global Warming has stopped cold.
Now, about "mainstream physics", what's your take on the Korean atom bomb? Is it real, is it fake, and how is it they do those big explosions just short of what we can do?
Thanks
I received this today from my friend. He is a doctor, and was a senior scientist at Sandia Labs. He is also a big energy conservation guy, and pays attention to all the news.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I have read several reports of the E-Cat test done in Bologna, Italy yesterday, and have come away completely unimpressed. The demonstration is a series of hidden measurements, none of which can be verified. More to the point, the easiest and most direct evidence that the device “worked “ would simply be to heat a pool of stationary water whose temperature can easily be measured and whose mass is known. Instead, the “inventor” chose to use moving water and steam as evidence of net energy production, making it simply impossible to verify.
Looks like a big scam to me. If the inventor really wanted to show the world what he had done he would have not only used a difficult-to-fake energy measurement (that is, heating water) but also include radiation measurements from inside the mysterious apparatus to show that nuclear effects were taking place. The inventor claims he didn’t do these things because this wasn’t so much a public demonstration, but rather one to convince his investor that the device did what he claims it will do, and as such he didn’t want to reveal anything to potential competitors (or, of course, to the conventional energy interests who would move to squash the results if they were truly convincing).
No need to abandon liquid fossil fuels yet.
I think that once the details are known, all of the scams of this sort seem "amateurish". It's the skill of hiding the details from the "mark" that distinguishes the successful scam artist from the unsuccessful.
Choosing and manipulating the mark is the key to success. It has to be someone who is so eager to gain by the proposed discovery that they will tolerate disappointments and continual denial of critical information.
Now we are evidently to believe that Rossi's purchaser is going to pay money to buy a unit capable of generating 470 kw for six hours but requires a running generator next to it capable of producing 500 kw.
It was entertaining reading about Turner and his involvement in the scam involving the use of dial-up circuits for high-bandwidth. I completely disagree with Turner's politics. But I respect the guy's judgement in having purchased a mountain of entertainment products for a pittance.
As a wise man once said, "A man's got to know his limitations". Turner's limitation was a lack of scientific skills that would keep him out of trouble while pursuing a technical product and a lack of skepticism when a charlatan failed to provide critical information. The combination is a recipe for losing a lot of money.
It's inductively obvious that Rossi is dishonest.
Do you think it a chemical reaction? If not, would claiming it was be ethical?
If the thing does actually work, eventually real engineers will get involved with the scale up, and instead of bunch of tiny units they will have one big unit. This assumes the phenomena works on a larger scale. IF it does not then this will be a nightmare of small devices. These things will then be used for heating and cooling- homes and offices. (Using a lithium bromide chiller, requires a heat source - and this could be that very cheap heat source, taking a big bite out of electric demand.)
It sounds like the AP is not publishing its story.
The world is far too skeptical.
Your statement makes no sense at all.
Rossi didn’t even claim to be revealing anything to his ‘customer.’ He claims only to be selling machines.
>> “ IF it does not then this will be a nightmare of small devices” <<
.
Wrong!
It would be a godsend of small devices that would promote individual freedom rather than slavery to a monopoly.
>> “Do you think it a chemical reaction?” <<
.
As described, it would have to be a nuclear reaction, since the balance of chemical elements is stated to change.
>> “You’re turning things around. The only burden the investors have is TO INVEST. The burden to prove innovation will still be with Rossi.” <<
.
Only if the investors are that savvy. If they fail to make Rossi prove his claims, and the claims turn out to be false, they are responsible for their own loss, since it would be based in gullibility and their own unquestioning greed.
It remains impossible to swindle an honest man.
This is like that flying car that never gets anywhere, although the car does fly a little.
Pretty neat stuff if it all pans out.
***Yeah, but no matter how attractive it is, I recommend you do not hit it.
I don't think that is true at all. It is certainly easier to entice the dishonest, but that is not a requirement.
My SPAM filter showed an email from PAYPAL that could fool someone whose english wasn't very good. They would not have to be dishonest to have supplied all the information one would need to tap their PAYPAL account.
HEY KEVMO, IS THE DEGREE FAKE OR NOT?
Idiot.
That’s the closed-minded attitude I would expect from a “true believer”.
***That’s because you haven’t been reading these threads. I like LENR. I don’t care one way or another about Rossi. You’re taking it from the perspective of how this is the next scam and isn’t it interesting compared to other scams. I’m taking the perspective that this is the latest development in LENR. I don’t care enough about scams to click on links to them.
So, you admit that he’s lying about his credentials, but you have no trouble believing everything he says about his E-Cat,
***Wrong again. If it were only Rossi’s claims, I’d toss them like yesterday’s garbage. But there are others involved, such as Focardi who has been well known in LENR circles. And there’s Levi, who was a skeptic looking to make sure that Unibo did not get caught in a fraud.
even though, when you eliminate Rossi’s unsubstantiated claims, there’s nothing left.
***Straw argument. Rossi’s claims are substantiated. For this to be a fraud, a bunch of others would have to be in on it. It becomes an untenable conspiracy theory.
I guess denial is as powerful a force as greed.
***I guess you can lead a horse to the water of inductive reasoning but you can’t make him drink from it.
I do not think it is a chemical reaction. Claiming it was chemical would have led to Pons & Fleischmann continuing for years in their positions, generating tons of data instead of being keel-hauled out of town by the hot fusion boys. Was the treatment of Pons&Fleischmann ethical? Hell no.
The fact is, the main reason why they thought it couldn’t be chemical was that it generated far more heat than any known chemical reaction could generate. They could easily have said it was an unknown chemical reaction and they’re looking into it. Yes I think that such an approach would have been ethical.
You scored 5% on Usefulness, 90% loudness factor, 7% knowledgeability, and 4% on scientific method!
I’ll take your nonsensical reply as an admission by you that you know Rossi’s degree is fake, but you really don’t care.
You’re either on Rossi’s payroll, or lack essential critical thinking skills.
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