E-cat inventor in live chat with readers (Andrea Rossi, "cold fusion" inventor answers questions)

NyTeknik ^ | Mar 11, 2011 | Mats Lewan

[Normandy]

Questions poured in when the Italian engineer, Andrea Rossi, the inventor of the so-called 'energy catalyzer' which may be based on cold fusion, met with Ny Teknik's readers in a live chat. Read all questions and answers here.

Rossi's 'energy catalyzer' was shown to an invited audience in Bologna in January 2011 and produces heat by an unknown reaction. The reactor of the device is loaded with nickel powder in the presence of secret catalysts, and pressurized with hydrogen.

Question: Dear mr Rossi! When can I buy a small energy-catalyst machine at about 7-15 kW to temperate my house? What will it cost? Are you going to construct a machine (for ex with a Stirling machine) which also can produce electricity enough for the private household? / Åke Östlund

Rossi: To produce Energy Catalyzers (E-Cat from now) for the households, it takes time for the necessary certifications. This is the reason why we are starting from industrial applications, or even centralized thermal energy distribution systems: in these applications the authorizations are less difficult, because the plants are operated by skilled professionals. Yes, we are also designing electric power systems, which use the well known cycles: Carnot Cycle, Stirling, etc. As for the costs, we foresee 1 cent per kWh for the electric energy, 0,3 cents per thermal kWh, 2.000 Euro per kW of power.

[DManA]

I’ve been following this for months, years.

I’m a passive observer. I’m am sitting above the plane of mark-dom. I have no skin in the game financially or emotionally.

[Hodar]

There aren’t any sources, no one has been able to turn/build/create any element other than Hydrogen and it was unstable and fell apart.

We cannot make any element, from sub-atomic particles. Since the only particles we can manipulate are atomic-sized. It's like disecting bacteria with a fork-lift. We have never made anyting - including Hydrogen from particles we can only detect for a couple billionths of a second in a super-collider.

[dila813]

Did I say that we made Hydrogen from sub-atomic particles? Because if you reread, I didn’t say that.

[dila813]

Go give them your money.

Randomly getting a few gold atoms out of the process of fission of much heavier elements is a lot different then turning one element from one to the other. This is in a whole different league.

These are just waste products from the reaction, you can’t control it and make it efficient.

[dila813]

If you read on the second page of this article, you will see this guy has already been to prison once for scams.

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According to Rossi, the capital used on the project derives from the sale of the Italian company Eon, which he founded in 2003. Eon sold electric generators ('gensets') fueled by biodiesel produced from organic waste – a process Rossi developed in the 1980s that formed the basis for his company Petroldragon.

His own version of Petroldragon’s rise and fall, which eventually led to prison sentences for Rossi, is that the activity became illegal because of a rule change in organic waste, at about the time the Camorra organizations began to focus on waste management
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[Straight Vermonter]

Nuclear fusion breaks apart big atoms, into smaller atoms. Fission builds these atoms up.

Nope, the opposite is true.

[dangerdoc]

I followed this for years on sci.fusion back before www bacame popular. I remember when Mallove was murdered. I remember when sono fusion was going to do it when everybody gave up on metal lattice loading. I even know who Archimedes Plutonium is.

Man those were the days. Usenet rules baby.

This story is too much like the ones I heard 20 years ago. Some scientist had a fully functional machine making excess heat for months and commercial production was always just around the corner.

[aruanan]

Nuclear fusion breaks apart big atoms, into smaller atoms. Fission builds these atoms up. We can do both - making it energy efficient has been the Holy Grail.

When you fuse something you make separate pieces into a single piece. Fission is the opposite of fusion. This is why people speak of fission as "splitting the atom."

Also "bigger atoms" aren't composed of "smaller atoms."

[dila813]

It is easy to fall for this stuff with the things scientists are trying to pass off as real science. It is easy to get confused.

[GOPJ]

I hear it will power my perpetual motion machine...

[dila813]

This guy might have even been legit at one time. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mob isn’t behind this and is making him run scams to pay back a debt he owes.

Maybe he played the numbers too many times.

[dila813]

You know, I hear that a lot from marks. Hey, I didn’t give any money, I wasn’t invested in it emotionally.

But..do you realize that you are actually giving the con something more valuable to him in the execution of the con than the mark that immediately rejects the con and walks away?

Think about it.

If you giving credence to the guy even passively, you help the con succeed in getting other marks to give it up.

[DManA]

If I thought about it I’d be climbing down into mark-dom like you.

[dila813]

The only way to not be part of a con is to know about it. If you don’t know you play one of the three roles.

I am the party crasher. I am only crashing this party because I like Freepers and wouldn’t sit by and let someone hurt my friend.

[DManA]

There’s no party. If it works he’ll sell a bunch of them. If he can’t sell any it will have been a fraud. Let the market decide.

I imagine the first batch will have to sold way below cost to entice someone to try an unproven technology.

[hobbes1]

Nickel is the 25th most abundant element on earth. We ain’t gonna run out anytime soon.

you're kidding right.

As soon as this works, vast nickel deposits will be declared national parks or wildlife refuges the world over, and Krugman will begin writing about Peak Nickel.

[dila813]

If I was an evil person, which I am not, I could have hit the guy up with some code words to get a cut of marks I bring him.

Then I could have come here and be a shill.

I bet I could have got him to admit everything to me.

[DManA]

Attention all FREEPERS: caveat emptor!!!

How’s that?

[dila813]

?

[dangerdoc]

If there is a working technology, the first units are the most expensive. They will try to fit niche markets and recoup their costs, price decreases follow as improvement in production and economies of scale kick in. For example, the cell phone in the 80’s and even the solid oxide fuel cells that are just entering the markets now.