Posted on 02/11/2012 8:31:52 AM PST by Kevmo
THE DAWN OF THE ENERGY AGE
February 09, 2012 3:35 PM
I'm sure that I've written things that you didn't agree with and probably thought were downright crazy. Well, strap yourself in, because I'm about to take crazy to a whole new level: Within five years, the number of gas customers for the Middleboro Gas & Electric Department will start to plummet. Within 10 to 15 years, there won't be a single customer remaining for either gas or electric. The year 2012 will be looked at by future historians as the dawn of a new age of man - The Energy Age. This will happen because of widespread adoption of a new power source that will provide heat, cooling and electricity for your house for less than $100 per year. It will produce no waste of any kind: No radiation, no greenhouse gases, not even ash. It will replace oil, gas, and coal power plants as well as solar panels and windmills.
The proof of this will come within one year or two at the most. If it doesn't come, you can all have a good laugh at my expense for being gullible. You won't find it discussed much in mainstream media - yet - and most prominent physicists will tell you it's impossible because you can't overcome the Coulomb Barrier without large amounts of energy. They're wrong. High-energy physicists will be slow to believe that their life's work and multi-million dollar fusion/fission reactors will become irrelevant by a device barely more complicated than an air conditioner.
LENR
This new power source is called one of LENR, LANR or even cold fusion. I'm partial to LENR - Low Energy Nuclear Reaction. Devices using this technology are simple: Powdered nickel mixed with pressurized hydrogen gas, a little heat, and some common substances to accelerate the reaction. The result is heat - a lot of it - that can be used to heat and cool houses, produce steam, and eventually run turbines that produce electricity. The physics behind it is not well understood - NASA scientists prefer the Widom-Larson theory, but you'd have to be a physicist to understand it. There seem to be several companies on the verge of delivering products based on this technology. Andrea Rossi's Leonardo Corp has the E-Cat - the Energy Catalyzer - and Defkalion is marketing their Hyperion reactor. Defkalion is offering to let independent parties study their device. Rossi's E-Cat has been demonstrated multiple times but has not been verified by independent scientists - he claims to be protecting his intellectual property and will let the products speak for themselves. The Rossi E-Cat is based on the work of scientist Sergio Focardi, whose work was based on an accidental discovery by Francesco Piantelli. This accidental discovery probably would have been overlooked if not for the work of Pons and Fleischman - who became laughingstocks over their claims of cold fusion in 1989.
It is without doubt that LENR is real. It is without doubt that NASA scientist Dr. Joseph Zawodny has submitted a patent application for a device that sounds exactly like Rossi's device. What is debatable is how it works and whether or not Rossi and others have a viable product - a question that will be answered soon. I believe they have.
The Death of the G&E
Rossi claims that he will be shipping residential E-Cat units within 12-18 months. He claims they will be a cube about 15 inches on each side with a reactor core the size of a pack of cigarettes and sell for just $500. It will heat your house and supply air conditioning via a heat pump and eventually include turbines for electrical generation. The fuel will come from a small canister that you will change every six months for about $14 - similar to changing a filter in your refrigerator. Once perfected, a small canister of fuel might power your house for decades. Rossi is working with National Instruments on the control systems, claims to be in discussions with Home Depot for distribution, and reportedly has submitted a working prototype to Underwriter's Laboratory to have the devices certified as safe for home use.
If this is all true - and I think it is - the world is going to change dramatically and immediately in almost every conceivable way. From a local perspective, within a very short period of time, there will be no need for our gas and electric utility. Maybe some people will keep the service connected for the rare instance when their units break down, but even that will end if there is any charge for it. Eventually the MG&E will collapse with revenues that are insufficient to support their overhead. Their life may be extended somewhat because power plants will also convert to LENR, which will drop the cost of commercial power generation drastically. In the end the G&E will be dissolved - forced into obsolescence by ultra cheap home power generation.
Global game changer
LENR will prove to be the most disruptive technology since Oook discovered fire. The entire geopolitical and economic foundation of the planet is going to be in upheaval as oil quickly goes from being the lifeblood of the world economy to something that is used in relatively small quantities to make plastics and other synthetic materials.
On September 22 of last year, NASA held an LENR forum that included presentations by several scientists including Dan Bushnell - Chief Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center and Dr. Joseph Zawodny. The summary slide of Zawodny's presentation included these points:
- A cheap, abundant, clean, scalable, portable source of energy will impact EVERYONE.
- Singular solution to peak oil, climate change, fresh water, and associated geopolitical instabilities.
- Drop-in replacement for traditional utility heat sources. Minimal impact to existing infrastructure
- Enables widely distributed generation. Homes and businesses generate what they need - on site.
- Enables whole new approaches to all of NASA's missions - we can affordably get off this rock!
LENR is real and it's coming fast. Or else I'm a crackpot. Or both.
mark.j.belanger@gmail.com
http://nemasket.net
Just another regurgitation of the Rossi scam copy and pasted by Kevmo. Same vomit, different day.
Add my magnets around the gas line and wear this special bracelet and you’ll get 300 mpg unless the black helicopters show up.
Kind of a strange article
10 parts hyperbole - zero parts science.
Back in the 1950s, there were articles stating that nuclear energy would be so cheap that we wouldn’t need to meter electricity any more, and our power could be generated by the nuclear potential found in a glass of water.
Back in the 2010s, there were articles stating that wind and solar power would give us a near-limitless and potentially pollution-free source of energy that would allow each homeowner to work “off the grid” and bring the cost of energy down to nearly nothing.
I’m detecting a pattern of wish fulfillment here. Hey, maybe it’s true. I’ll order one from Amazon. Until then, though, I’m remaining skeptical.
As you say, people have been "working" with "cold fusion" since 1989, has anyone generated even 1 watt of electrical power with the subject technology?Earlier this week, Kevmo posted THIS article, commenting on a public demonstration of a cold fusion reactor at MIT. The best run produced 0.08 Watts for about 102 minutes.
CERN is also holding a conference about LENR (in March, I believe). They made a point of saying that coffee and tea would be served afterwards. Using the above device as an example, if they could store the heat it generated perfectly, it would take about 10 days to produce enough energy to brew a cup of tea. So, at this time, LENR is not yet ready to make a cup of tea.
The part I find most amazing is that the Rossi fan boys who believe that Rossi is really generating 10,000W of power with his gadget are, nevertheless, getting all excited about Swartz generating 0.08W. Either Swartz's demonstration is totally trivial, or Rossi's is totally fraudulent.
Would have better luck with a magnifying glass.
the scum of DC would make it illegal by shoving EPA rules and regs down our throats.
***They can’t do anything about the guys developing cold fusion in other countries.
If LENR is so far off, why is NASA filing a patent for this technology? You don’t see them doing that for Polywater or Zero Point Energy.
I have a BS in mechanical engineering and an associate in internal combustion engine design. The latter featured more thermodynamics, chemistry (fuels & lubricants), heat transfer than what was required for the BSME. That is I got to do calorimetry studies to measure the heating value of various fuels.
It is quite awhile since I actually did one of those studies but it still sticks in mind all of the factors that need to be recognized and accounted for when measuring heating values. The procedure required a closed "bomb" which contained the carefully weighed fuel sample along with an enough oxidizer to permit full combustion. Before closing the bomb, a small piece of nicrome wire was connected between two terminals in the wall of the bomb container to allow ignition of the sample. The assembled bomb was then placed in a large cylindrical tank of of water which had been weighed as the cylinder was filled. Temperature probes were then placed to measure both water and ambient air temperature. A stirring apparatus was used to induce a slow circulation of the water bath. Temperatures were observed until the water bath with the bomb achieved observed room temperature for a specified period (10 minutes typical). After achieving equilibrium, the circuit to the nicrome igniter was closed and periodic observations (every 15 sec. typical) of both water and air temperature commenced. These observations continued until the water temperature returned to room temperature.
Knowing the weight of the water in the bath and the sample weight you then were required to calculate the heating value of the sample fuel. The actual calculation required you to make allowances for the heat input from the igniter wire and from the mechanical work performed by the stirring apparatus. To arrive at the correction factors required a separate calorimeter runs w/o a fuel sample to measure the input from the igniter and another run to observe any correction needed for stirring.
Oops, I almost forgot! After the actual calorimeter run w/ fuel sample achieved equilibrium w/ room temp the bomb was removed from the water bath and carefully opened. The residual ash was removed and carefully weighed. The ash sample was then placed in a desiccator and thoroughly dried and then weighed again. Knowing the weight of the sample (fuel & oxidizer) before combustion and the wet ash weight after allows you to calculate the weight of the CO2 produced. Knowing the dry weight allows you to calculate the amount of water vapor produced by combustion. The last correction factor is to calculate the heat released by the condensation of the water vapor into liquid water, knowing that the heat of vaporization of water is 540 Calories/gram.
That is how small quantities of heat are measured. Careful attention to experimental design, actively looking for procedures which could introduce error, performing calibration runs to observe any such errors and either reduce them to zero or identify them so that corrections may be applied to the experimental values. I would venture that the CERN people are familiar with all of this, my doubts are that the people peddling these devices are not so scrupulous.
Regards,
GtG
PS Last time I did one of these experiments JFK was shot during the equilibrium phase of the experiment (no kidding).
This will be my standard post to moonboy that says you’re not worth trying to have reasonable discussion, also says “buzz off” & doesn’t leave crickets. But if it offends you to the point that you get it removed like my prior innocuous citation then I’ll have to come up with some other ‘ignore button’ post.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/2800058/posts?page=55#55
To: Moonman62
This means I have nothing more to say to you about LENR. Bye.
55 posted on Sunday, October 30, 2011 4:41:07 PM by Kevmo (Caveat lurkor pro se ipso judicatis: Let the lurker decide for himself)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
I have no idea why NASA does anything, I can say that big business has been know to blanket whole areas of science with "patent applications" to "sew up" the areas for later development or to block others from doing so. Everything from every possible gear-set arrangement for automatic transmissions (auto industry) to potential drug improvements (pharmacutal industry) has been done in the past and "new developments" have been refiled to extend the patent protection so as to slow down competitive developments. I am an old phart and still have trouble w/ Newtonian Physics, Quantum Theory is mumbo jumbo has far as I can see but I do respect the laws of Thermodynamics because they have withstood the test of time with nothing added or deleted.
My question for you is if low energy nuclear reactions are indeed possible, just what is it that is holding the entire universe together. Why doesn't everything just blink out in a flash of unbound energy in a massive chain reaction? If I recall that was a real concern back during the Manhattan project.
Regards,
GtG
PS I wouldn't sell my utility stocks just yet...
“patent applications” to “sew up” the areas for later development or to block others from doing so.
***There’s no reason to do that if it’s a chimera.
My question for you is if low energy nuclear reactions are indeed possible, just what is it that is holding the entire universe together. Why doesn’t everything just blink out in a flash of unbound energy in a massive chain reaction?
***I don’t see what LENR has to do with this level of cosmology.
That could explain why all of cold fusion's excess heat anomalies remain unexplained and inconsistent after all these years. They are measurement errors.
Powdered nickel mixed with pressurized hydrogen gas
95% of Worlds Nickle comes from either Canada or Russia.
There is one source in Montana.
I believe there was a team that reported just last month at a LENR conference that they found that a meter they were using didn’t produce accurate results for the “spikey” data they had, and when they switched to an accurate measuring device (oscilloscope) their “excess power” readings disappeared.
MOST of the people doing research in LENR are scientists of impeccable credentials. Perhaps you should actually READ some of the published papers on their calorimetry and results. Lots of links to papers in the Library Section at LENR-CANR.org, including many with full explanations of the calorimetries used.
“Excess powers in the range of 5-8 W with 170% efficiency were reported for the glow discharge experiments.”
1) http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/NagelDJscientific.pdf
“The registered meanings of Excess Heat power obtained in the experiments amounted to 120 – 170 W with Heat Efficiency (the ratio between output heat power and the input electrical power) 200 – 340 % in HVEC experiments.”
“The most unusual feature for the Pd-B electrode was the observation of excess power and positive feedback at a very early stage of the experiment (Day 3) at a low current density (48 mA/cm2) and at a low cell temperature (29 °C).[1] This Pd-B experiment ran 68 days with excess power production often exceeding 400 mW. The cell was driven to boiling on Day 68 with the excess power exceeding 9 watts.”
2) http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/Srinivasaniccfthinte.pdf
Most recent survey of the field is probably McKubre’s talk in 3) on page xv.
3) http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/ViolanteVproceeding.pdf
4) http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/ViolanteVproceedinga.pdf
“The registered meanings of Excess Heat power obtained in the experiments amounted to 120 – 170 W with Heat Efficiency (the ratio between output heat power and the input electrical power) 200 – 340 % in HVEC experiments.”
That is significant! (previous posts were reporting 0.08 W continuous, which suggests measurement error). I was going to make a comment about a COP exceeding one when I had a flash back. The laws of Thermodynamics stipulate that the COP of a process cannot exceed 1 (the part that is hardly ever mentioned is coming up!) barring the presence of nuclear processes.
Since the experiment ran at a measured 170% thermal efficiency I would take that as an iron clad guarantee that "nuclear processes" were, in fact, providing the excess energy. Is there any other artifact generated besides the thermal energy released? Electromagnetic waves or particles of any sort? It does seem rather odd that these reactions release nothing but heat w/ no discernible byproducts.
Nuclear power, safe as Churches, who would have thought...
Regards,
GtG
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