Posted on 07/26/2013 7:41:19 PM PDT by Kevmo
Defkalion LENR / "Cold Fusion" demonstration at ICCF-18
The last 2 days Defkalion held public demonstrations of their gen 5 LENR reactors (which they prefer to call HENI (Heat Energy from Nuclei Interactions)). It will be remembered that Defkalion had a commercial agreement at one time with Rossi and his e-cat, but in August 2011 the relationship broke up. Defkalion continued on with work and have created a similar, though slightly different, reactor. Recall, what separates Rossi and Defkalion from the rest of the experimenters at this time (except perhaps George Miley who, I think, is working rather quietly with NASA on powering unmanned space vehicles) is that they are able to take all those experiments which have demonstrated more energy out than in, and step it up to a higher useful COP and energy levels, having reactors output something between 7KW and 10KW on an extended basis.[1]
Yesterday Defkalion did a long (appx 8 hour) live webcast of a demonstration that went as follows:
Their reactor consists of the reactor where the nickel fuel and hydrogen are combined. They heat the reactor via heating resistors.[2] And once they are ready to start the reaction they apply some type of high voltage plasma generation, apparently just a spark within the reactor.[3] Heat was measured by water calorimetry, which always leads to complications once the output approaches and exceeds 100 deg C because of all the complications with generating steam and determining what percentage of the water flow turned to steam.
1. Set up their reactor with about 5 grams of nickel fuel and 55 grams of other related unspecified materials. They filled the reactor with Argon for a control run.[4] They ran the reactor with no excess heat generated.
2. The pumped out the Argon for 45 minutes (usually an 8 hour process but constrained because of the demo timeline). They pumped in hydrogen.
3. They ran the reactor and after it heated up and exactly when the HV spark was applied the reactor started generating excess heat. With about 3 total KW in, the reactor put out over 5KW.[5] They turned down the input to under 2 KW and the reactor continued to put out between 3KW and 5KW. In the demonstration the day before they showed over 7KW output with the same reactor.[6] The COP when running was officially between 4 and 6 if you believe Defkalion's conservative output power measurement. But if you adjust for the steam output (see footnote 5) it could have been as high as 12 or 13.
Overall the test was credible and demonstrates at what stage this technology is in. Clearly there will be a desire to make the technology easier to control and more precise in being controlled.
But overall, being able to generate 5KW to 7KW of power from 60 grams of material clearly indicates something very unusual is going on that is far beyond any known chemical reaction.
Another data point Defkalion gave was that the reactor generates large magnetic fields when operating and thus was shielded within a small faraday cage. Again, the explanation for this is unclear and it is a new piece of information not previously associated with the e-cat or Rossi, as far as I know.
Defkalion claims to be working with multiple large companies on applications for their technology. Rossi claims now that production of his e-cats has been reproduced without his help by his commercial partner with whom he works.
So the wheels of progress are turning. I would fully expect other products based on this technology, besides Rossi's currently available 1MW reactor, to start appearing in the next year or two.
On the other hand, it is clear this entire field is in its infancy. There is no theoretical model even remotely generally accepted to explain this phenomenon yet. The University of Missouri should be highly commended for hosting ICCF-18 and for its new push into research in this area.
But other very important practical matters remain as well. You still have to apply significant energy to get the reactor going. So the LENR reactor is not independent. Rossi has mentioned using gas generated heat to start his reactor. Are there other ways? Also the market for a LENR reactor will be expanded by a factor of easily 100 when the reactor can directly generate electricity. The entire modern model of centralized electrical generation would be affected by such a development.[7]
There are many many years of fruitful research and development to be done. The field of physics will not be left untouched. Any current physics graduate student interested in this field should earnestly consider jumping into this field. It will only be a matter of a few years when all the shame and disgrace associated with "cold fusion" has been removed and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. At that point there will be tons of professors and grad students chasing the field.
mdn
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1. See another review by Sterling Allen here.
2. They claimed the reactor had to be at at least 179 deg C, the Debye temperature of nickel. This was an important piece of information. It is unclear why this is a requirement. It should be noted that Rossi also heats his reactor to get the reaction going. See Debye Model. The heating is applied at over 2500W and then is turned down as the reaction becomes stable.
3. I did not hear it but others said Defkalion claimed the spark was periodic at 10KV at 110ma and perhaps 11pps. The overall power applied was just over 200W.
4. The pressure was 1.2 bar.
5. It was likely much more because the steam coming out of the system was not at 100 deg C it was heated to the output temp of the reactor, over 150 deg C. So it appears like Defkalion's calculations were very conservative.
6. Apparently the argon test and quick evacuation limited the performance of the reactor once refilled with hydrogen.
7. Rossi has spoken about "direct electricity generation" experiments they have done. Could this be an attempt to harness the large magnetic fields that Defkalion has now disclosed?
Thanks for the update.
There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Large magnetic field, lots of heat and some pressure. Low Energy Nuclear Reactions.
Hmmmmmm..... wouldn’t it be odd(interesting/confusing/controversial) if we found out that is how planet Earth generates it’s magnetic field and it’s internal heat ?
Good Grief! Run a window unit off of it for a month and see what the power bill is. End of experiment.
Similar experiments have been run, with COP between 1.5 , 6.0 and even infinite. And, LENR has been replicated more than 14,700 times. Even though the effect is exceedingly difficult to generate, even by trained scientists. But these results threaten the entire livelihood of hot-fusion physicists, so there is continued hostility.
Thanks Kevmo. Ain’t it funny how the self-appointed science experts will believe that some hacker can remotely crash your non-telematic-equipped car or that the tiny transmitters in a smart meter will make you sterile, yet they laugh and think anyone who posts informative articles about LENR is an idiot!
Let not your heart be troubled, Galileo had it much worse!
Thanks in advance; Stanwooddave.
Most excellent update! Direct electrical generation is the holy grail to push investment and research.
Don’t sweat it. Nuclear plants have to use off-site power to get up and running.
Sounds very promising, Kevmo.
I’ve been watching the LENR thing for a few years now, and I’ll admit I’ve been getting pretty excited.
But tonight I’m watching the “Umiak I” episode of “Mighty Ships” on the Smithsonian Channel. In it they are transporting a load of “nickel concentrate” from one port near the mine to Lord-knows-where.
Once the bulk cargo is loaded, they force any remaining air out of the hold and replace it with pure nitrogen gas.
Why? Because “this type of nickel concentrate is self heating. If there is too much oxygen in the hold, then the nickel could actually IGNITE.” What?
They go on to say that oxygen levels of over 8% is worrisome.
I didn’t know that.
New Jersey’s Health’s Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet states,
“Nickel powder and Raney Nickel are FLAMMABLE SOLIDS and DANGEROUS FIRE HAZARDS.”
http://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/1341.pdf
IPCS INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON CHEMICAL SAFETY
Health and Safety Guide No. 62
NICKEL, NICKEL CARBONYL, AND SOME NICKEL COMPOUNDS
HEALTH AND SAFETY GUIDE
4.2.2 Fire hazards
With the exception of nickel carbonyl, most nickel compounds of
commercial interest do not normally constitute a fire hazard. Liquid
nickel carbonyl is extremely flammable and autoignition is possible at
its boiling point (42.2°C). Nickel carbonyl vapour can ignite
spontaneously at room temperature.
http://www.inchem.org/documents/hsg/hsg/hsg062.htm
What I’m trying to say folks is the following:
Take a certain type of nickel concentrate powder (I dunno, call it a catalyst) with some air, add some electricity, maybe some flammable gas (H2) and some other whatnot. Put it all in a chamber, flip a switch and you might have what appears to be a self sustaining little furnace.
Sure, it will be a little difficult to control, could get rightly hot, and you wouldn’t have any atomic radiation coming out of it. You might even convince some that you are achieving COP through something called LENR.
Sure, it will be a little difficult to control, could get rightly hot, and you wouldn’t have any atomic radiation coming out of it. You might even convince some that you are achieving COP through something called LENR.
***It would still be a chemical reaction. The excess heat which has been observed is far more than what can be accounted for with any chemical reaction. That’s why they call it excess heat.
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