From my point of view, this is also used as an approach to secure federal funding for further research. I pay for it whether I want to or not. If the darn thing worked, they can patent it and make a small scale product to prove the process.
And when was the last time the patent office accepted applications for "Free Energy" or perhaps, "perpetual motion" machines?
If they won't accpet the application, you can't patent it. No patent, no royalties. Go ahead and make it and sell it without one, and GE, GM, hell even Micro$oft, will patent it and slap you down and you end up in the poor house with legal fee's and judgments. Or at the very least out sell you because the have the resources to go into full worldwide production a hell of a lot faster than you can.
BTW: I'm always willing to complain about wasteful government spending, but on something like this; do you honestly think they would invest time and resources in it if they didn't think it could be viable? And of course there's always the possibility that the government would buy it and burry it and use it in the black budget, while you and I are paying through the teeth for gas, oil, LNG and electricity.