Cold fusion competition heats up as a rival to Andrea Rossi emerges

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/30/cold-fusion-rival

[font face=Times, Serif][font size=5]Cold fusion competition heats up as a rival to Andrea Rossi emerges[/font]

By David Hambling | 31 December 11

[font size=3]It's been an exciting few weeks since Andrea Rossi demonstrated his one-megawatt E-Cat power plant with apparent success. Critics still believe that the test was a sham, the mystery customer is a fake, and there is no concrete evidence the technology works. Rossi has been busy since then, and the E-Cat bandwagon is rolling onwards. But now he has rivals in the cold fusion business. Is this evidence that the technology is real and can be replicated? Or just that someone else wants a piece of a possible scam of the decade?

Cold fusion, otherwise known as "low energy nuclear reaction" (LENR) technology has yet to gain any scientific respectability. This hasn't stopped Greek company Defkalion Green Technologies launching its own range of cold fusion power plants, rivals to Rossi's E-Cat. In a press release (.pdf), the company announced they would be selling a range of units under the name Hyperion, from small domestic boilers to industrial power plants.

They have a detailed specification document for its product (.pdf) and say the launch is due early 2012. Unlike Rossi, it invites independent third parties to test its products and report the findings "under agreed protocol." Its customers will not be bound by non-disclosure agreements, whereas Rossi's dealings have been highly secretive.

Defkalion used to have a close working relationship with Rossi. Originally the company was to produce thousands of E-Cats a year from a factory on Xanthi using Rossi's design under licence. The relationship broke up in August, for reasons which have never been fully disclosed. The company has persevered with a cold fusion device of its own, which it insists has been developed independently and also that Hyperion is more stable than Rossi's E-Cat.

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[phantom power]

1. Interestingly, the nuclear binding energies appear to not rule this out

The binding energy (per nucleon) for copper is 8.8752 MeV, and the binding energy for Ni is 8.781 MeV (or 8.795 for Ni-62).

It's a squeaker, but then nobody is claiming huge torrents of energy being released either.

[struggle4progress]

5. I expect proton binding energies vary by isotope

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Indeed

Rossi specifically claims he enriches his nickle to include greater amounts of N-62 and N-64.

[TheWraith]

2. Kook fight! nt

[Yo_Mama]

3. I'll believe it when I see it

But the statement that they will allow independent third-party testing is at least encouraging, or will be when they have a product to test.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. It already interesting

in that they have published technical documents on their web site.

[Yo_Mama]

7. But does it work? n/t

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. I’m skeptical, but willing to watch

We shall see…