Third-Party E-Cat Test Results Published

The debate about whether or not Andrea Rossi's E-Cat technology really works are put to rest with a definitive, third-party test report having been released today stating that at the most conservative, the Hot-Cat technology showed at least a ten-fold increase in power density over what could possibly have been ascribed to any presently-known chemical process.

     “Even by the most conservative assumptions as to the errors in the measurements, the result is still one order of magnitude greater than conventional energy sources.” -- Report Abstract

    “The results obtained indicate that energy was produced in decidedly higher quantities than what may be gained from any conventional source.” --  Report Conclusion


The "Hot-Cat" being tested.


Photo of the reactor that was run to destruction in an earlier test. The two hottest areas were reportedly from the areas where the fuel is placed, and the dark horizontal lines are the shadows of electrical resistances that are used to keep the reactor. Foto: Giuseppe Levi (NyTeknik)

By Sterling D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News


The debate about whether or not Andrea Rossi's E-Cat technology really works should be quieting now, with a very readable, definitive third-party test report having been released today, stating that at the most conservative, the Hot-Cat technology showed at least a ten-fold increase in power density over what could possibly have been ascribed to any presently-known chemical processes.

The long-awaited, third-party report on the E-Cat is a single report, but the report offers two independent studies carried out in December 13-17, 2012 and March 18-23, 2013 in Andrea Rossi's premises in the city of Ferrara in Italy, without the inventor's involvement

The first was conducted by Giuseppe Levi, of the University of Bologna, in collaboration with Evelyn Foschi. The second was conducted by the previous scientists, joined by Torbjörn Hartman, Bo Höistad, Roland Pettersson and Lars Tegnér at Uppsala University in collaboration with the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

As for credentials, Hanno Essen used to be chairman of the Swedish Skeptics' Society. He is one of the scientists who visited Andrea Rossi in 2011 and was impressed. Here is what he concluded then, according to a Swedish TV Documentary made about the E-Cat.



As for the recent testing, reported in this third-party report, the first test lasted 96 hours continuous, and the second lasted 116 hours continuous. In both cases, the tests were limited to observe an E-Cat at high temperature in operation, by measuring the electrical energy input into the system and the heat produced by the module. And in both tests, the two E-Cats were provided by Andrea Rossi, and the scientists conducting the independent tests had no way of opening the reactor to see what it contained. Rossi was not involved in the testing, other than being available if they had any questions.

As in the original E-Cat, the reaction is fueled by a mixture of nickel, hydrogen, and a catalyst,
which is kept as an industrial trade secret.

High-resolution thermal imaging cameras were used to record the heat inside the reaction tube, with the data recorded on a second-by-second basis. Electrical power output was measured using a large bandwidth, three-phase power analyzer.

The report was published at Cornell University's arXiv.org, titled Indication of anomalous heat energy production in a reactor device. At the footer of the home page of arXiv.org is the following statement: (emphasis added)

"arXiv is an e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics. Submissions to arXiv must conform to Cornell University academic standards. arXiv is owned and operated by Cornell University, a private not-for-profit educational institution. arXiv is funded by Cornell University Library, the Simons Foundation and by the member institutions."

No significant radioactivity above background radiation was measured during the tests. 

The report refers to the device being tested as the E-Cat HT, where HT stands for high temperature. Up until now, in all the reporting that has been done of this technology, we have been colloquially referring to this as the "Hot-Cat".

In the interview Frank Ackland of E-CatWorld and I did with Andrea Rossi on May 7, 2013, here is what he said about this matter.

Third-Party Testing of Hot-Cat

Regarding the 3rd-party testing of the Hot-Cat design, Rossi gave the following information.

  • Testing was conducted from March 18-23
  • Included 120 hours of continuous running, with no interruptions
  • Included four professors from different parts of the world (names are confidential for now)
  • Was very expensive
  • The tests were run in the absence of Rossi, though he was available if they had any questions
  • Tests were done with their instrumentation; they controlled the cabling
  • Rossi still doesn't know the exact results but said they were "smiling" and indicated that it was "very good"
  • The report will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, which takes some time

I would imagine that at least some, if not all, of the professors involved in conducting that test are now named above in the list of authors on the report. 

Note that a correction to what Rossi said is that there were actually two tests, not one, with no interruptions.

The tests were funded by Elforsk and Alba Langenskiöld Foundation.



Not Necessarily a Vindication of "Cold Fusion"

Note that scientists do not yet understand the mode of action of how Andrea Rossi's Energy Catalyzer (E-Cat) works.

"Fusion" is the combining of two elements. Near the end of his life, Martin Fleishmann bemoaned that he ever called his process "cold fusion", because he doesn't believe that "fusion" is what is actually taking place, though the reaction is most likely a nuclear process. The general phenomenon has been replicated more than 17,000 times according to Jed Rothwell, author of the industry bedrock website: http://lenr-canr.org/ 

Andrea Rossi's technology has been called "cold fusion" by some, but from what I understand from one of the top scientists working with Andrea Rossi, Bill Donavan, fusion is not involved at all. It is all transmutation. The Hydrogen goes to Deuterium (non-radioactive) through a series of steps, liberating a huge amount of energy in the process, as the primary transmutation reaction. And the Nickel goes to Copper (non-radioactive) through a series of steps, as a low and infrequent secondary transmutation reaction.

That is why LENR, for Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, is a more suitable name for the class of technology this comes under. "Low Energy", meaning that in contrast to the sun, where nuclear fusion reactions require tens of millions of degrees Celsius to take place, these reactions take place near room temperature. 

"Low Energy" does not refer to the output being wimpy. These reactions could power the energy needs of humans across our planet, cheaply, safely, and cleanly.


Different from 1 MW Plant


Testing the 1 MW unit prior to shipping to US customer/licensee in April, 2013. (Story)

Note that the Hot-Cat is a research and development variation of the LENR technology that has been for sale since October 28, 2011 when Andrea Rossi demonstrated a 1 MW Plant running at half power in self-sustain mode for more than five and a half hours, which I attended. (Story) You can purchase a 1 MW E-Cat plant for producing heat in the range of 103 - 130ºC for $1.5 million USD. (Story)

In his interview with us on May 7, Rossi said that the Hot-Cat runs at 350ºC and is "very stable." At this temperature, he said that creating electricity will be easy, and that they are making progress on building such embodiments.

Later in the interview, in response to a question: "Is Andrea Rossi still working with Siemens to generate electricity?" he replied to the affirmative, but said that the conditions were under NDA and he was not at liberty to elaborate.


Ragone Plot of Hot-Cat Energy Density

Where the data really shines is when inserted in a Ragone plot.

Jed Rothwell brought this chart by Alan Fletcher to my attention, showing the energy density of the Hot-Cat in relation to other conventional energy production and storage technologies. Click on the link or on the image below to get an enlarged view of the chart.



The official report states: "The results obtained place both devices several orders of magnitude outside the bounds of the Ragone plot region for chemical sources."

To be more precise, the highest specific energy is Gasoline (which has a lower peak power), shown at 3x103 Wh/kg. Whereas the specific energy of the Hot-Cat is shown at 5x107 Wh/kg -- over four orders of magnitude greater (1700x). And from the peak power scale, super capacitors (which have a very low specific energy) are listed at 1x104 W/kg, whereas the Hot-Cat registers at 4x105 W/kg, more than an order of magnitude greater (40x).

And they add (emphasis mine): "Lastly, it must be remarked that both tests were terminated by a deliberate shut down of the reactor, not by fuel exhaustion; thus, the energy densities that were measured should be considered as lower limits of real values."


Continuous Output

The power output was nearly constant for the duration of the ~100-day testing.



The Report

Here are some excerpts from the report published today at arXiv.org:

Indication of anomalous heat energy production in a reactor device containing hydrogen loaded nickel powder

Abstract: 

An experimental investigation of possible anomalous heat production in a special type of reactor tube named E-Cat HT is carried out. The reactor tube is charged with a small amount of hydrogen loaded nickel powder plus some additives. The reaction is primarily initiated by heat from resistor coils inside the reactor tube. Measurement of the produced heat was performed with high-resolution thermal imaging cameras, recording data every second from the hot reactor tube.

The measurements of electrical power input were performed with a large bandwidth three-phase power analyzer. Data were collected in two experimental runs lasting 96 and 116 hours, respectively. An anomalous heat production was indicated in both experiments. The 116-hour experiment also included a calibration of the experimental set-up without the active charge present in the E-Cat HT. In this case, no extra heat was generated beyond the expected heat from the electric input. Computed volumetric and gravimetric energy densities were found to be far above those of any known chemical source. Even by the most conservative assumptions as to the errors in the measurements, the result is still one order of magnitude greater than conventional energy sources.

Conclusions

The two test measurements described in this text were conducted with the same methodology on two different devices: a first prototype, termed E-Cat HT, and a second one, resulting from technological improvements on the first, termed E-Cat HT2. Both have indicated heat production from an unknown reaction primed by heat from resistor coils. The results obtained indicate that energy was produced in decidedly higher quantities than what may be gained from any conventional source. In the March test, about 62 net kWh were produced, with a consumption of about 33 kWh, a power density of about 5.3 · 105, and a density of thermal energy of about 6.1 · 107 Wh/kg. In the December test, about 160 net kWh were produced, with a consumption of 35 kWh, a power density of about 7 · 103 W/kg and a thermal energy density of about 6.8 · 105 Wh/kg. The difference in results between the two tests may be seen in the overestimation of the weight of the charge in the first test (which was comprehensive of the weight of the two metal caps sealing the cylinder), and in the manufacturer’s choice of keeping temperatures under control in the second experiment to enhance the stability of the operating cycle. In any event, the results obtained place both devices several orders of magnitude outside the bounds of the Ragone plot region for chemical sources.

Even from the standpoint of a “blind” evaluation of volumetric energy density, if we consider the whole volume of the reactor core and the most conservative figures on energy production, we still get a value of (7.93 ± 0.8) 102 MJ/Liter that is one order of magnitude higher than any conventional source.

Lastly, it must be remarked that both tests were terminated by a deliberate shutdown of the reactor, not by fuel exhaustion; thus, the energy densities that were measured should be considered as lower limits of real values.

The March test is to be considered an improvement over the one performed in December, in that various problems encountered in the first experiment were addressed and solved in the second one. In the next test experiment, which is expected to start in the summer of 2013, and will last about six months, a long term performance of the E-Cat HT2 will be tested. This test will be crucial for further attempts to unveil the origin of the heat phenomenon observed so far.


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