4700 watts of power from a small reactor of 50 cubic centimeters, may sound like a scam or a miracle energy. Yet this is exactly what happens in the device developed by engineer and physicist Andrea Rossi Sergio Focardi : the process is not yet clear, but the device works and produces clean energy at low cost. The reactor is now in its third iteration, but this time it was referred to the committee of the Swedish Skeptics Society where two scientists - the head of the Energy Committee of the Swedish Academy and the founder of the royal commission itself - were authorized to examine the entire apparatus, except the reactor containment. In their report states that "it is possible to identify any chemical reaction that produces 25kwh for combustion of any fuel in a container of 50 cubic cm, but not in this case: the only explanation is that something even stranger happens to your device, perhaps a new type of nuclear reaction. "
The Rossi - Focardi device may be producing economic and political fallout far beyond the U. Bologna labs where the LENR experiments and demos were performed. Greece will be the first location for a large-scale (1 MW) demonstration plant using the LENR E-Cat devices. If the large-scale experiment works, Greece may decide to use its inside status with Rossi to get into the world-scale energy business -- and leave the European Union.
Rossi has to prove that his catalytic technology actually produces nuclear-scale energy. If he can do that, the global repercussions will be immense.
1) Greece leaving the EU is a recipe for economic disaster, without or with the E-cat exclusive.
2) the economy of Greece is a sieve, all the revenues of this world would not fill their coffer and pay their debts as they stand now.
3) the ability to monopolize the revenues of the e-cat (if they are able to do so) would cause the government to depend less from taxes (and representation) and more on hand-out to their constituents. Like in many Arab countries.
4) if they start to siphon too much money out of the economic system, they will find themselves out of the economic system. The device is not really complex to reproduce, so other governments could simply allow copycat production to start and forget to enforce IP right on the e-cat production or legislate it out of IP for national interest reasons.
Rossi was already clear that he know someone will try to steal his tech and compete with him. He depend on IP laws to enforce his rights on his technology. Otherwise he will be the owner of a nice trademark and like Coke and will need to build on this.
We all hope Rossi's E-cat is for real and perhaps it is.
However, its worth considering that the "new" energy field has a sordid history of fraud and self-delusion. A good example of the former was Genesis World Energy (GWE), which claimed to have a catalytic fuel cell that could compete with conventional energy generation methods. They also claimed to have "400 experts" who were qualifying prototypes during 2002 and 2003.
GWE was exposed as a fraud in 2005 and its founder, Patrick Kelly, sentenced to 5 years in prison starting in 2006.
I will believe the E-cat device is real once they start coming out of that plant in Greece this fall.
I'd love to know a bit more about Rossi's catalyst. If it involves a noble metal, palladium or platinum - and a lot of catalysed processes do - then there's a supply constraint we haven't heard about, and the costings may be higher than we're hearing from R&F.
Skimming the above article made me think of the final scene of 'Back to the Future' where the doctor feeds an empty beer can and a banana peel into a 'Mr. Fusion' device that powers the Delorean / Time Machine.
He deny it is using any palladium or other precious metals. I think he don't need, because there is not electrolysis in the e-cat.
After he patent it, we will know.
If not, it will stay an industrial secret (until it last).
My opinion is that Rossi research could be redone by brute force, if needed, if enough people with money and skill believe it is true.
There is the possibility the catalyst is not really a element or a molecule, but a "condition" created inside the e-cat. This because Rossi gave to Essen and Kullander (and others) samples of the Nickel used inside an e-cat for months. It would be problematic to extract all catalyst if it is some material.
Probably, Rossi is giving some hint here and there, but he don't talk about what happen inside the e-cat. And, I bet, he is enjoying to give some misleading true hints.
"I will believe the E-cat device is real once they start coming out of that plant in Greece this fall."
Agree. Until now, I believe they are honest. But I know I'm fallible. So I will wait October to know if I was too credulous or not.
When I was a kid growing up in London just after the war, my only treat was to go once a month to Mr. Rossi in Hounslow to have an ice cream. I thought at the time Mr. Rossi must be a genius.
I wonder if they are related?
Seriously, I'd love for this to be true, but it's those dratted laws of thermodynamics again that make me doubt.