How do we know that it was water he was pouring down the drain. There are other possibilities. For example, Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) reacts with nickel (among other metals) to produce heat, steam and Oxygen (O2).
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How to Prove that the Rossi/Focardi eCAT LENR is Real (or fake)
LENR.QUMBO.com ^ | April 6, 2011 | Alan Fletcher
Posted on Sunday, June 05, 2011 7:52:15 PM by Kevmo
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2730401/posts
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Actually, it's not. I went through that entire thread, and there's no mention of Hydrogen Peroxide, which seems kind of strange since it does include many less likely gimmicks.
As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, a 90% Hydrogen Peroxide solution with a metal catalyst is so energetic that it is used to power the flying jetpack. It would require a much lower concentration to produce the amount of heat seen in the e-cat. 35% concentrations of Hydrogen Peroxide is a commonly available for the food industry (and on Amazon.com).
Hydrogen Peroxide is transparent, colorless, odorless and mixes readily with water. If the water being pumped into the e-cat did contain a sufficient amount of Peroxide, it would produce the same heat and steam as the e-cat does produce.
I'm not saying that this is how the e-cat actually works, but I haven't seen anything to suggest it should be ruled out. A simple, well-known chemical reaction is far easier to accept than a whole new physics which contradicts everything we think we know about nuclear reactions.
The fact that they throw away the water coming out of the device without doing any testing of it is very suspicious, especially since the document at the top of this very thread describes how it is carrying away a significant amount of heat with it, which is exactly what he's claiming to be interested in testing!