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
“By the way, here is a current survey of all the companies that are bringing LENR to commercialization:”
That’s a bit of a stretch since the three companies are actually doing testing to produce a workable model that MAY come to the market in several years IF it can be perfected and IF someone is willing to fund it.
Look up, see the title of the thread way up there.
“Look up, see the title of the thread way up there.”
The thread is about E-Cat. The author of the article can call it cold fusion if he wants, but I don’t think Rossi has described it as such.
The inventor claims nickle plus hydrogen combines via a low energy nuclear reaction leaving copper as the ash, what else would you like to call it.
I’m not saying he can do it, but that is what we are discussing here.
We got nothing from the space program that we couldn’t have gotten for 1% of what we paid.
>> “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” <<
.
Since none of us is providing any investment in this, it matters little how we perceive Rossi. The burden of examining his device, and demonstrations lies with those willing and able to invest therein.
This has always been the case with innovation, until the government steps in to poison the pot.
That's actually a summary of a Network World column. The person who wrote it has a blog on the Forbes website.
You're turning things around. The only burden the investors have is TO INVEST. The burden to prove innovation will still be with Rossi.
Just as Keely did with his Keely Motor Company, Rossi may be able to find investors who are unwilling or unable to determine whether the device is real or not.
Even those who defend Rossi seem to recognize that having a 500 kw generator set running during the entire demonstration of a self-sustaining 470 kw output is at least worthy of comment.
Perhaps it will take years to uncover the truth. It may well be that the most entertaining comment at the time will be, "What were they thinking by allowing a running generator right next to the container?"
If that were to happen, what would your response be to that question? How is it not laughable to have that generator running?
“How is it not laughable to have that generator running?”
Actually, the generator set supplying the power makes it easier to verify. You have a better opportunity to measure input power by fuel usage.
The Vorts have a good explanation for this...
[Vo]:Why Rossi Insists on the 1MW plant
Steve Kearns
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:27:41 -0700
The answer is clear if you look at his most recent failure. He came up with a
device for doing thermoelectric conversion(waste heat to electricity) at a much
better efficiency thanwas available. Even though it was verified by
outsiders, it turned out to beimpossible to scale up to industrially useful
size... theefficiency sank to useless levels when he attempted to make larger
versions. So he learned the hard way that you can have a demotechnology that
can mysteriously stop working when you attempt to scale it to industrial
levels.
Why should we believe he has a commercially viable product?
***Because he sold it to a customer. If he staged the whole event then he won’t have money in his pocket to build more of these. There is only one missing element that makes this inductive issue a deductive one — the customer has not stepped up. Once that happens, you no longer have any leg to stand on, seagull.
We’ve had plenty of “non-believers” on these threads, they remain skeptical and ask questions and that’s that. No one calls them seagulls until they start doing what seagulls do.
The term “demonstration” in this context simply means an elaborate choreographed parlor trick to scare up more money.
***The only thing missing in this beautiful scenario that you’ve developed is evidence. Produce it.
Did you read the LINK I referenced earlier in this thread?
***No.
It’s a very interesting story,
***Not interesting enough for me to click on it.
Well, he is.
It comes from the fact that there have been a whole bunch of seagulls visiting these threads and doing their ‘business’ and pretending like that’s a worthwhile thing.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQa7Gz5EV9Cg0rfwKph9wJA6AtH8umQVLqfUOSVZBEPCxLI9lJW5GB05yU
I would be really disappointed if the scam was that amateurish. My guess would be some sort of consumable intended to last for a day or so. If I was representing the buyer, I’d tell Rossi, “okay, now don’t touch it, let it run continuously for the next four weeks, and oh, by the way, we’ll have rotating crews watching it 24/7 to ensure there’s no tampering going on.”
You mean like starting each thread with a reference to seagulls, then continuing to use that meme throughout the thread. You mean that sort of “posting over and over”?
***Hey, I have offered to post what the skeptics want known about Rossi in each thread, and the offer was met with silence. The reason why the seagulls are here is not to make sure the information gets out. It is to harrass. Some of the seagulls have admitted to being entertainment trolls. Some have admitted to trying to squelch discussion. Some are just jerks and we all know it.
Like DoughtyOne said, all the patience of a 3 year old who has heard the word Ice Cream.
then we’ll talk.
***Then why are you talking now? Isn’t it obvious to you that this technology is not at the point you would prefer it to be? There’s such a high duhh factor to that perspective that it begs the question of why you would be hovering over such a thread in the first place.
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