Cold nuclear fusion: experiments create energy that should not be

Original author: Stephen K. Ritter
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This area is now called low-energy nuclear reactions, and real results can be achieved in it - or it can turn out to be a stubborn junk science.


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Dr. Martin Fleischman (right), electrochemist, and Stanley Pons, chair of the chemistry department at the University of Utah, answer questions from the science and technology committee about their controversial work in the field of cold fusion, April 26, 1989.

Howard J. Wilk [Howard J. Wilk] - a chemist, a specialist in synthetic organics, has not worked in his field for a long time and lives in Philadelphia. Like many other researchers working in the pharmaceutical field, he was the victim of reductions in R & D in the drug industry in recent years, and is now engaged in part-time jobs not related to science. With free time, Wilk tracks the progress of a company from New Jersey, Brilliant Light Power (BLP).

This is one of those companies that are developing processes that can generally be referred to as new energy extraction technologies. This movement, for the most part, is a resurrection of cold fusion - a short-lived phenomenon in the 1980s involving the production of nuclear fusion in a simple desktop electrolytic device, which scientists quickly dismounted.

In 1991, the founder of BLP, Randell L. Mills [Randell L. Mills], announced at a press conference in Lancaster (Pa.) About the development of a theory according to which an electron in hydrogen can pass from its usual, basic energy state into previously unknown, more steady states with lower energy, with the release of huge amounts of energy. Mills called this strange new type of hardened hydrogen, " hydrino"[hydrino], and has since been working on developing a commercial device that captures this energy.

Wilk studied Mills theory, read papers and patents, and did his own calculations for hydrino. Wilk even attended a demonstration at the BLP site in Cranbury, New Jersey , where he discussed with hydrino Mills. After that Wilk still can not decide whether or not Mills surreal genius raving scientist, or something in between.

the story began in 1989 when electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons made a surprising statement at a press conference iversiteta Utah that they have tamed the power of nuclear fusion in an electrolytic cell.

When the researchers applied electric current to the cell, in their opinion, deuterium atoms from heavy water, which penetrated the palladium cathode, entered into a fusion reaction and produced helium atoms. The excess energy of the process turned into heat. Fleischman and Pons argued that this process could not be the result of any known chemical reaction, and they added the term "cold synthesis" to it.

After many months of investigating their mysterious observations, however, the scientific community agreed that the effect was unstable, or absent altogether, and that errors were made in the experiment. The study was rejected, and cold fusion became synonymous with garbage science.

Cold fusion and hydrino production is the holy grail for extracting infinite, cheap and clean energy. Scientists cold synthesis disappointed. They wanted to believe in him, but their collective mind decided that this was a mistake. Part of the problem was the lack of a generally accepted theory to explain the proposed phenomenon — as physicists say, it is impossible to believe an experiment until it is confirmed by theory.

Mills has his own theory, but many scientists do not believe it and consider hydrino unlikely. The community rejected cold fusion and ignored Mills and his work. Mills did the same, trying not to fall into the shadow of cold fusion.

Meanwhile, the area of ​​cold fusion changed its name to low-energy nuclear reactions (NEJAR) [low-energy nuclear reactions, LENR], and it exists further. Some scientists continue to attempt to explain the Fleischmann-Pons effect. Others have rejected nuclear fusion, but are exploring other possible processes that can explain excess heat. Like Mills, they were attracted by the potential of commercial applications. They are mainly interested in the extraction of energy for industrial needs, households and transport.

A small number of companies created in an attempt to bring new energy technologies to the market, business models are similar to models of any technological startup: identify a new technology, try to patent an idea, generate investor interest, get funding, build prototypes, hold a demonstration, announce the dates of workers devices for sale. But in the new energy world, deadlines are the norm. No one has yet made the last step with a demonstration of the working device.

New theory


Mills grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, received a degree in chemistry from Franklin and Marshall College, a medical degree from Harvard University, and studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a student, he began to develop a theory, which he called the " Big United Theory of Classical Physics ", which, he said, is based on classical physics and offers a new model of atoms and molecules that depart from the fundamentals of quantum physics.

It is believed that the only electron of hydrogen snoops around its nucleus, being on the most acceptable orbit of the ground state. It is simply impossible to move the hydrogen electron closer to the nucleus. But Mills claims it is possible.

Eric Baard, journalist writing about Mills, he once noted how shockingly the thought about the controversial hydrogen model looks like: “telling physicists that they were wrong, it's like telling American mothers that they misunderstood apple pie”.

One of the physicists is Andrea Rathke, a former researcher at the European Space Agency, about whom the agency’s website said that he “exposed a large number of nuts”. In 2005, Ratke analyzed the theory of Mills and published a paper in which he pointed out that this theory is erroneous and incompatible with everything that physicists know ( New J. Phys. 2005, DOI: 10.1088 / 1367-2630 / 7/1/127 ).

He is currently working as a researcher at Airbus Defense & Space, and says he has not monitored Mills since 2007, since the experiments did not observe unambiguous signs of excess energy. “I doubt that any later experiments have been scientifically selected,” said Ratke.

“I think it is generally recognized that Dr. Mills’s theory, which he put forward as the basis of his statements, is contradictory and incapable of making predictions,” continues Ratke. “One might ask, 'Could we have so successfully stumbled upon an energy source that just works, following the wrong theoretical approach?' ".

In the 1990s, several researchers, including a team from the Lewis Research Center, independently reportedabout reproducing the mills approach and getting excess heat. The NASA team in the report wrote that "the results are far from convincing," and did not say anything about hydrino.

Researchers have suggested possible electrochemical processes for explaining heat, including the irregularity of the electrochemical cell, unknown exothermic chemical reactions, recombination of separated hydrogen atoms and oxygen in water. The same arguments were also quoted by the critics of the Fleishman-Pons experiments. But a team from NASA clarified that researchers should not discard this phenomenon, just in case Mills came across something.

Mills speaks very quickly, and is able to talk about technical details forever. In addition to predicting hydrino, Mills argues that his theory can ideally predict the location of any electron in a molecule, using special software for modeling molecules, and even in such complex molecules as DNA. Using standard quantum theory, scientists find it difficult to predict the exact behavior of something more complex than a hydrogen atom. Mills also claims that his theory explains the phenomenon of the Universe expansion with acceleration, which cosmologists have not fully understood.

In addition, Mills says that hydrinos appear when hydrogen is burned in stars such as our Sun, and that they can be found in the spectrum of starlight. Hydrogen is considered the most common element in the universe, but Mills argues that hydrino is the dark matter that cannot be found in the universe. Astrophysicists are surprised to see such assumptions: “I have never heard of hydrino,” says Edward W. [ Edward W. (Rocky) Kolb ] from the University of Chicago, an expert on the dark universe .

Mills reported successful isolation and description of hydrino using standard spectroscopic methods such as infrared, Raman, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In addition, according to him, hydrino can react, leading to the emergence of new types of materials with "amazing properties." This includes guides who, according to Mills, will revolutionize the world of electronic devices and batteries.

And although his statements contradict public opinion, Mills’s ideas do not seem so exotic compared to other unusual components of the Universe. For example, muonium is a well-known short-lived exotic entity, consisting of an anti-muon (a positively charged particle resembling an electron) and an electron. Chemically, muonium behaves as an isotope of hydrogen, but it is nine times easier.

SunCell, hydrin fuel cell


Regardless of where the hydrino is located in the plausibility scale, Mills told him ten years ago that BLP had already advanced beyond the scientific evidence, and she was only interested in the commercial side of the issue. Over the years, BLP has raised over $ 110 million in investments.

The BLP approach to creating hydrino manifested itself in different ways. In the early prototypes, Mills and the team used tungsten or nickel electrodes with an electrolytic solution of lithium or potassium. The supplied current split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and under the right conditions, lithium or potassium played the role of a catalyst for the absorption of energy and the collapse of the electron orbit of hydrogen. The energy arising from the transition from the ground atomic state to a state with a lower energy was released in the form of a bright high-temperature plasma. The heat associated with it was then used to create steam and power the generator.

Now in BLP test the device SunCell nowin which hydrogen (from water) and oxide catalyst are fed to a spherical carbon reactor with two streams of molten silver. The electric current supplied to silver triggers a plasma reaction with the formation of a hydrino. The reactor energy is captured by carbon, which acts as a “black body radiator”. When it is heated to thousands of degrees, it emits energy in the form of visible light captured by photovoltaic cells that convert light into electricity.

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Regarding commercial developments, Mills sometimes looks like a paranoid and sometimes like a practical businessman. He registered the trademark "Hydrino". And since his patents claim hydrino invention, BLP claims intellectual property on hydrino research. In this regard, the BLP prohibits other experimenters from even conducting basic hydrino studies, which can confirm or deny their existence, without first signing the agreement on intellectual property. “We invite researchers, we want others to do this,” says Mills. “But we need to protect our technology.”

Instead, Mills appointed authorized validators claiming that they can confirm the validity of BLP inventions. One of them is an electrical engineer from the University of Bucknell, Professor Peter M. Jenson [ Peter M. Jansson ], who is paid for evaluating BLP technology through his consulting company Integrated Systems. Jenson argues that the compensation of his time "does not in any way affect my findings as an independent researcher of scientific discoveries." He adds that he "refuted most of the discoveries" that he studied.

“The scientists at BLP are doing real science, and so far I have not found any errors in their methods and approaches,” says Jenson. “Over the years, I have seen many devices in BLP that are clearly capable of producing excess energy in meaningful quantities. I think that the scientific community will need some time to accept and digest the possibility of the existence of low-energy states of hydrogen. In my opinion, the work of Dr. Mills is indisputable. ” Jenson adds that the BLP faces difficulties in the commercial application of technology, but the obstacles are business, not scientific.

In the meantime, BLP has held several demonstrations of its new prototypes for investors since 2014, and published videos on its website. But these events do not provide clear evidence that SunCell really works.

In July, after one of the demonstrations, the company announced that the estimated cost of energy from SunCell is so small — from 1% to 10% of any other known form of energy — that the company “is going to provide autonomous individual power sources for almost all fixed and mobile applications that are not tied to the grid or fuel sources of energy ". In other words, the company plans to build and lease SunCells or other devices to consumers, charging a daily fee, and allowing them to get rid of power grids and stop buying gasoline or solarium, while spending several times less money.

“This is the end of an era of fire, an internal combustion engine and centralized power supply systems,” says Mills. - Our technology will make all other types of energy technologies obsolete. Climate change issues will be solved. ” He adds that, apparently, the BLP may start production, for the start of stations with a capacity of MW, by the end of 2017.

What is in the name?


Despite the uncertainty surrounding Mills and BLP, their story is only part of a common saga about new energy. When, after the initial statement of Fleischmann-Pons, the dust settled, two researchers began to study what was right and what was not. They were joined by dozens of co-authors and independent researchers.

Many of these scientists and engineers who often worked on their own funds were interested not so much in commercial opportunities as in science: electrochemistry, metallurgy, calorimetry, mass spectrometry, and nuclear diagnostics. They continued to set up experiments that produced excess heat, defined as the amount of energy produced by the system, relative to the energy required for its operation. In some cases, nuclear anomalies have been reported, such as the appearance of neutrinos, α-particles (helium nuclei), isotopes of atoms and transmutations of some elements into others.

But in the end, most researchers are looking for an explanation of what is happening, and they would be happy even if a modest amount of heat would be useful.

“NEJR are in the experimental phase and are not yet theoretically understood,” says David J. Nagel , a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University. George Washington, and a former research manager at the Morphlot Research Laboratory. “Some results are simply unexplainable. Call it cold fusion, low-energy nuclear reactions, or something else — enough names — we still don’t know anything about it. But there is no doubt that nuclear reactions can be launched with the help of chemical energy. ”

Nagel prefers to call the NEJAR phenomenon "lattice nuclear reactions", since the phenomenon occurs in the crystal lattices of the electrode. The initial branch of this area focuses on the introduction of deuterium into the palladium electrode by applying a high energy supply, explains Nagel. Researchers reported that such electrochemical systems can produce up to 25 times more energy than they consume.

The other main branch of the region uses combinations of nickel and hydrogen, which gives up to 400 times more energy than it consumes. Nagel likes to compare these NEJR technologies with an experimental international fusion reactor., based on well-known physics - the merger of deuterium and tritium - which is built in the south of France. The cost of this 20-year project is $ 20 billion, and its goal is to produce energy that exceeds the consumption by 10 times.

Nagel says that the NEJAR region is growing everywhere, and the main obstacles are lack of funding and unstable results. For example, some researchers report that to trigger a reaction, it is necessary to reach a certain threshold value. It may require a minimum amount of deuterium or hydrogen to run, or the electrodes must be prepared, giving them a crystallographic orientation and surface morphology. The last requirement is usual for heterogeneous catalysts used in the purification of gasoline and petrochemical plants.

Nagel admits that the commercial side of NEJAR also has problems. The developed prototypes, in his words, are “rather rough”, and a company has not yet emerged that has demonstrated a working prototype or has earned money on it.

E-Cat from Rossi


One striking attempt to put NEYAR on commercial rails was made by engineer Andrea Rossi from Leonardo Corp , based in Miami. In 2011, Rossi and his colleagues announced at a press conference in Italy the construction of the “Energy Catalyzer” desktop reactor, or E-Cat, which produces excess energy in a process where nickel serves as a catalyst. To substantiate the invention, Rossi demonstrated E-Cat to potential investors and the media, and appointed independent verifications .

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Rossi claims that a self-sustaining process occurs in his E-Cat, in which the incoming electrical current triggers the synthesis of hydrogen and lithium in the presence of a powder mixture of nickel, lithium and lithium aluminum hydride, which results in a beryllium isotope. Short-lived beryllium decays into two α-particles, and excess energy is released as heat. A part of nickel turns into copper. Rossi talks about the absence of both waste and radiation outside the apparatus.

The announcement of Rossi caused the same unpleasant feeling in scientists as cold fusion. Rossi causes many people to mistrust because of its controversial past. In Italy, he was accused of fraud because of his previous business scams. Rossi says these accusations are a thing of the past and don’t want to discuss them. He also once had a contract for the creation of heat installations for the US Armed Forces, but the devices supplied to them did not work according to specifications.

In 2012, Rossi announced the creation of a 1 MW system suitable for heating large buildings. He also assumed that by 2013 he would already have a factory producing annually a million units with a capacity of 10 kW and the size of a laptop, intended for home use. But neither the factory nor these devices happened.

In 2014, Rossi sold the technology under a license to Industrial Heat, an open investment firm Cherokee , which buys real estate and cleans up the old industrial zones for new development. In 2015, Cherokee CEO Tom Darden, a lawyer and environmental specialist by education, called Industrial Heat "the source of funding for inventors of NEJAR."

Darden says that Cherokee launched Industrial Heat because investment companies believe that NEYAR technology is worthy of research. “We were ready to make mistakes, we were ready to invest time and resources to find out if this area could be useful in our mission to prevent pollution [of the environment],” he says.

Meanwhile, Industrial Heat and Leonardo had a fight, and now they are suing each other about violations of the agreement. Rossi would get $ 100 million if the annual test of its 1 MW system were successful. Rossi says the test is finished, but Industrial Heat doesn't think so, and they fear that the device is not working.

Nagel says E-Cat has brought enthusiasm and hope to the NEUAR region. In 2012, he argued that, in his opinion, Rossi was not a fraud, "but I do not like some of his approaches to testing." Nagel believed that Rossi had to act more carefully and transparently. But at that time, Nagel himself believed that devices based on the NEJAR principle would be on sale by 2013.

Rossi continues to research and announced the development of other prototypes. But he talks little about his work. He says that 1 MW devices are already in production, and he received the "necessary certificates" for their sale. Home devices, he said, are still awaiting certification.

Nagel says that after the recession of the joyful mood associated with the announcements of Russia, the status quo returned to NEJAR. The availability of commercial NEJAR generators has shifted by several years. And even if the device withstands the problems of reproducibility and will be useful, its developers will have a fierce battle with the regulators and its acceptance by users.

But he remains optimistic. "NEYAR can become commercially available even before their full understanding, as was the case with X-rays," he says. He has already equipped a laboratory at the University. George Washington for new experiments with nickel and hydrogen.

Scientific Heritage


Many researchers who continue to work on the NEJR are already retired scientists. This is not easy for them, because for years their work has been returned to non-reviewed from mainstream journals, and their proposals for reports at scientific conferences have not been accepted. They are increasingly worried about the status of this area of ​​research as their time runs out. They want to either fix their heritage in the scientific history of NEJAR, or at least calm down by the fact that their instincts did not disappoint them.

“It was very unfortunate when cold fusion was first published in 1989 as a new source of fusion energy, and not just as some new scientific wonder,” says electrochemist Melvin H. Miles. "Perhaps research could go as usual, with more accurate and accurate study."

A former researcher at the China Lake Aeronautical Research Center, Miles sometimes worked with Fleischman, who died in 2012. Miles believes that Fleischman and Pons were right. But even today he doesn’t know how to make a commercial energy source for a system of palladium and deuterium, despite many experiments, during which excess heat was obtained, correlating with the production of helium.

“Why would anyone continue to research or be interested in a topic that 27 years ago was declared a mistake? - asks Miles. “I am convinced that cold fusion will someday be recognized as another important discovery that has long been taken, and a theoretical platform will appear explaining the results of the experiments.”

Nuclear physicist Ludwik Kowalski, an honorary professor at Montclair State University, agrees that cold fusion was the victim of a bad start. “I'm old enough to remember the effect of the first announcement on the scientific community and on the public,” says Kowalski. At times he collaborated with NEJR researchers, “but my three attempts to confirm sensational statements were unsuccessful.”

Kowalski believes that the first shame earned by the research resulted in a bigger problem, inappropriate for the scientific method.. Whether the researchers or NEJR are fair or not, Kowalski still believes that it is worth getting to the precise verdict “yes” or “no.” But it will not be found until cold fusion researchers are considered "eccentric pseudo-scientists," says Kowalski. "Progress is impossible, and no one benefits from the fact that the results of honest research are not published, and no one checks them independently in other laboratories."

Time will tell


Even if Kowalski received an unequivocal answer to his question and the statements of NEJR researchers were confirmed, the road to the commercialization of the technology would be full of obstacles. Many startups, even with reliable technology, fail for reasons unrelated to science: capitalization, liquidity movement, cost, production, insurance, uncompetitive prices, etc.

Take, for example, the Sun Catalytix. The company left MIT with the support of hard science, but fell victim to commercial attacks before it entered the market. It was created to commercialize artificial photosynthesis developed by chemist Daniel G. Nocera , now working at Harvard, to efficiently convert water to hydrogen fuel using sunlight and an inexpensive catalyst.

Nosera dreamed that the hydrogen thus obtained would be able to power simple fuel cells and give energy to houses and villages in backward regions of the world without access to the power grid, and giving them the opportunity to enjoy modern comforts that improve their standard of living. But the development took much more money and time than it seemed at first. Four years later, Sun Catalytix threw attempts to commercialize the technology, started making streaming batteries , and then in 2014 bought Lockheed Martin.

It is not known whether the development of the companies involved in the NEJR is hampered by the same obstacles. For example, Wilk, an organic chemist who monitors Mills' progress, is concerned about wanting to know whether attempts to commercialize BLP are based on something real. He just needs to know if Hydrino exists.

In 2014, Wilk asked Mills if he had isolated the hydrino, and although Mills had already written in papers and patents that he succeeded, he replied that there wasn’t such a thing and that it would be a “very big task.” But Wilk seems different. If the process creates a liter of hydrin gas, this should be obvious. “Show us the hydrino!” Wilk demands.

Wilk says that the world of Mills, and with it the world of other people involved in NEJR, reminds him of one of the paradoxes of Zeno, which speaks of the illusion of movement. "Every year they overcome half the distance to commercialization, but will they ever get to it?" Wilk came up with four explanations for the BLP: Mills’s calculations are correct; This is a fraud; this is bad science; it is a pathological science, as the Nobel laureate in physics Irving Langmuir called it.

Langmuir invented this term more than 50 years ago to describe the psychological process in which a scientist subconsciously moves away from the scientific method and so immerses himself in his work that it makes it impossible to objectively look at things and see what is real and what is not. Pathological science is “the science of things, not as they seem,” said Langmuir. In some cases, it develops in areas such as cold fusion / NEJAR, and does not give up in any way, despite the fact that it is recognized as false by most scientists.

“I hope they are right,” says Wilk about Mills and BLP. "Indeed. I do not want to refute them, I'm just looking for the truth. " But if “pigs could fly,” as Wilkes says, he would accept their data, theory, and other predictions that follow from it. But he was never a believer. "I think if hydrino existed, they would be found in other laboratories or in nature many years ago."

All discussions of cold fusion and NEJR end this way: they always come to the conclusion that no one has put a working device on the market, and none of the prototypes can be put on commercial rails in the near future. So time will be the last judge.

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