The first independent confirmation of LENR (in a simple way - cold synthesis)?

LENR - Low-energy nuclear reaction. Low-energy nuclear reaction.

I must say at once that this is only the first step, and further more serious testing and one more confirmation from another independent team are needed.


E-Cat inventor Andrea Rossi , a device that uses cold fusion to generate large amounts of cheap eco-friendly energy, was tested in March 2014 by an independent group of scientists who have now submitted a 54-page report.

They investigated a small E-Cat for 32 days, during which the reactor produced 1.5 megawatt-hours of energy. This is "much more than can be obtained from any known chemical source for a reactor of this size."

Interestingly, the report itself says that 32 days is a predetermined period of the experiment. That is, the reactor was shut down artificially, and, by that time, it had not yet shown signs of a decrease in the output power.

The study of the fuel before and after the tests showed that the isotopes in the used fuel could only be obtained through nuclear reactions. This conclusion struck the researchers: "... of course, it is very difficult to understand exactly how these synthesis processes can take place at such low energies."

This E-Cat report (pdf) was prepared by six reputable scientists from Italy and Sweden. Despite the fact that this version of E-Cat is very different from previous ones , the researchers say that it also uses “hydrogen-rich nickel” as a fuel with some additives (mostly lithium). Andrea Rossi, the inventor of the reactor, states that E-Cat uses cold fusion - a low-energy nuclear reaction, LENR - for copper synthesis by combining nickel and hydrogen atoms, releasing large amounts of energy.

When analyzing the fuel before and after the 32-day experiment, the researchers found that the isotopes almost completely evolved from the “natural” mixture of Nickel-58/60 to Nickel-62. And this reaction, according to scientists, is impossible without nuclear fusion reactions. Researchers say that only 1 gram of fuel was used. For more information on the scientific / chemical processes behind the LENR, read our previous article on the Rossi device.


Weighing New E-Cat Reactor

Researchers are very careful in their conclusions; they do not state directly that it is LENR / cold fusion that are the source of energy in E-Cat. Instead, it says about the "unknown reaction."
In the serious scientific community, LENR is still not perceived as a joke (or even a taboo subject in general). The situation turns out to be amusing: the researchers really try to understand exactly how E-Cat produces so much energy and still come to the conclusion that the only option is synthesis, but then it cools down the heat, adding that this is just a reason, not a serious assumption.


Test stand

In any case, let us now discard the necessary skepticism and look at what is really interesting: a completely insane amount of energy produced by E-Cat. The table below lists some numbers from this 32-day trial. The most important numbers on the right: COP (performance factor) reaches 3.74, and the net power output is up to 2373 watts. For a minute, this is a small device that shows similar data for 32 consecutive days. The total amount of energy produced in 32 days was 1.5 MW * h.



It turns out that the E-Cat, studied by scientists, has an energy capacity of 1.6 × 10 ⁹ Wh / kg and a power of 2.1 × 10 ⁶ W / kg.
The orders of these values ​​are higher than anything tested so far: the reactor is obtained about 100 times more powerful than the best supercapacitors and possibly a million times more energy-intensive than gasoline. According to the researchers, "such values ​​put E-Cat above any known traditional energy sources."

Obviously, if you believe these independent studies and if E-Cat really uses cold fusion, this is quite impressive news. After all, this is an extremely cheap, environmentally friendly, energy-intensive source that can literally change the world.


Estimated type of commercial product

However, before you change the world, you have to go through a period of very close attention from the large scientific community. E-Cat's previous independent review of March 2013 was very quickly discredited by critics. Now it seems that the new report is made more qualitatively, with fewer holes and inconsistencies. The test report was sent to Arxiv, to a prepress article server, with the hope of a future publication in the Journal of Nuclear Physics.

The next few weeks can be extremely interesting. According to Sifferkoll , some big bank downloaded a new E-Cat report just a few minutes after it was posted to the network - and oil futures still remain volatile. And this morning, the University of Glasgow announced that it was going to sell its investments in fossil fuels. Hmm ...

Upd.
An important detail: the report says that to estimate the energy released, heat and other radiations emitted by the reactor were measured, and not electricity directly. That is, we are laying more losses on the conversion.

Upd.2
In the report, the researchers claim that they artificially limited the input power (900W) due to fears that something might melt and leak, or anything else would happen. They write that with an increase in input power of about 100W (from 790 to 900), the output power jumped to 700W, and the temperature rose from 1260 ° C to 1400 ° C in a couple of minutes. And that to study the limits of the capabilities of this reactor, other experiments are needed.