Cold Fusion's Surprise Comeback
Will It Become The Next Hot Technological Revolution?
By Bruce Wetterau
Call it cold fusion, or call it LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reaction), either way this curious phenomenon has been the ugly duckling of nuclear physics for the past two and a half decades. Is it about to transform itself into a beautiful, clean-energy swan--like that Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale--and deliver us from the energy crisis?
The decades-old bad rap that cold fusion is junk science--or worse, an outright hoax--reaches back to 1989 and the discrediting of a highly publicized cold fusion experiment. Two scientists, Martin Fleischman and Stanley Pons, went public with their tabletop cold fusion experiment in March, 1989. They claimed a previously unknown weak nuclear reaction produced heat by fusing hydrogen atoms at room temperature. But their theory flatly contradicted what was then accepted science, that fusion could take place only under intense heat and pressure like that found on the sun. Their cold fusion setup was also unbelievably simple--basically a cathode of palladium and an anode of platinum immersed in jar of "heavy water" (deuterium, which is a component of seawater). An electric current started and maintained the reaction.
Fleischman and Pons's claim that they had discovered a virtually unlimited new source of energy produced a brief sensation, and then a fierce backlash when a number of scientists reported they couldn't duplicate the experiment. By late 1989 cold fusion, and hopes for a quick solution to the burgeoning energy crisis, were relegated to the ash heap of junk science.
Despite the bad rap, some intrepid researchers kept working on cold fusion, now also known as LENR. In the two-plus decades since 1989, they have proved it to be a real phenomenon in experiment after experiment, and also refined techniques for achieving the reaction. Skeptics continue to complain, and a lawsuit erupted this spring between an inventor and his investors over the technology, but the accumulated scientific evidence has shown LENR is on the cusp of becoming a clean, safe, energy source. Amazingly, LENR reactions don't even produce harmful radiation or radioactive wastes.
U.S. Navy researchers underscored LENR's potential in a recently released report on their extensive investigations of the phenomenon. The report--written in 2012--was not released until this past summer. The researchers concluded, "LENR has the potential to be a paradigm-shifting, ‘game-changing’ technology...The ability to harness a new nuclear energy source for either thermal or electrical conversion...would have a profound commercial and military impact...Solid evidence (i.e., excess heat generation, hot spots, mini-explosions, ionizing radiation, near- IR emission, tritium production, transmutation, and neutrons) has been obtained that indicate that lattice assisted nuclear reactions can and do occur...." And, in a long overdue vindication of Fleischman and Pons's discovery, the Navy's report noted, "It is now known that those failures [to replicate by other scientists] were due to the fact that experimental conditions necessary to achieve the effect...had not been achieved."
What now seems likely to come out the other end of the laboratory is a heat source that is cheap to build, that will be small enough to power a car or a single home (forget those costly, vulnerable electric power grids), or large enough for commercial electrical generation. It will need virtually no fuel, and won't produce any pollution. And LENR devices will produce that energy day in, day out whether or not the sun shines or the wind blows. A beautiful swan indeed.
While the Navy report called for more research to fully understand the physics of LENR, the global warming crisis forces a more immediate question: Can researchers come up with a practical device to harness LENR? The first part of the answer is that, as of now, there are working devices in the experimental stages. The second part is, of course, money to fund the research. China, India, Japan, Italy, Russia, and Israel reportedly are devoting "significant resources" to LENR research. Here in the US, LENR research began attracting serious venture capital a few years ago.
The federal government has gotten interested too, albeit slowly. In 2013 the U.S. Department of Energy stuck a toe in the water, ending a longstanding ban on funding grants for LENR research. NASA reportedly is exploring LENR as a power plant for future space travel, and those U.S. Navy researchers had conducted extensive testing of LENR reactions over a period of years, culminating in their report. Waking up to LENR's vast potential, the House Armed Services Committee in May directed the Secretary of Defense to prepare a briefing for the committee on LENR and the potentially wide-ranging "disruptive effects" it could have.
Disruptive? Energy worldwide is estimated to be a $7 trillion industry and the need for more energy keeps growing, despite the pollution it produces. A new way to produce virtually limitless, clean energy, like a practical LENR device, will amount to the Holy Grail of solutions to the energy crisis. But it will also transform the way energy is produced and delivered worldwide. No small matter that--from politics to the economy to energy infrastructure, the changes will be massive. Billions--probably trillions--of dollars will change hands as the winners and losers adjust to the new reality brought on by the "game-changing" technology: an economy in which converting to money-saving, environmentally friendly LENR power plants renders dependence on fossil fuels a thing of the past.
Will the Ugly Duckling Sink or Swim?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see LENR's potential as a reliable, clean, heat source for uses like heating your house, generating electricity, or supplying heat for manufacturing processes. But when will we be able to buy an LENR home generator? Ultimately, commercializing practical devices like these will be the true test of LENR's success as an energy source.
Of the working experimental devices, the E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer) is probably best known, and until recently appeared ready to go into production. The E-Cat is the brainchild of Italian scientist and inventor Andrea Rossi, who in some quarters has the reputation of being a charlatan and con man. In others, he's believed a smart, if flamboyant inventor who has been the victim of the rampant skepticism about cold fusion, or of devious schemes to get hold of his E-Cat technology.
At its core, the recent version of Rossi's E-Cat is a small tube with a proprietary mix of nickel powder and other substances inside. Rossi uses a pulsing electrical current to stimulate the LENR reaction. The reaction inside the tube heats water flowing around it in a larger tube, creating steam, or at least giving off more heat energy than the sum of electrical energy needed to keep the LENR reaction going.
There's the rub in all LENR devices. Do they produce more energy than needed to keep the reaction going? The so called Coefficent Of Performance (COP) is the ratio of the energy produced, divided by the energy fed in. In the case of Rossi's E-Cat, the COP has been a matter of contention over the years. Most recently, he claimed a COP of at least 6, ranging to 50 or better at times. Just for perspective, a COP of 6 is regarded as the minimum needed for a practical LENR power plant, according to Frank Ackland, publisher of E-Cat World, an online newsletter about LENR research.
Demonstrations of Rossi's E-Cat since 2011 did appear to produce excess heat, as well as critics' charges of fraud and chicanery. Rossi's critics point to his troubled past, including a failed scheme in Italy to turn garbage into oil and a failed project with the US Army for a thermoelectric device. Then in 2011 he cancelled an agreement with a Greek company, Defkalion Ltd, to produce his E-Cat commercially, accusing the company of trying to steal his ideas.
Undaunted by his critics, Rossi hit pay dirt in January, 2014, when he licensed his E-Cat to Industrial Heat (IH) for $100.5 million. IH was formed by Cherokee Partners, venture capitalists in North Carolina who specialize in developing environmentally sound energy sources. Through IH, Cherokee Partners reportedly agreed to pay Rossi $1.5 million up front, $10 million upon completion of a successful 24-hour "validation" test, and a whopping $89 million upon successful completion of a one-year test with continuous operation at 1 megawatt heat output. Both tests were to be overseen by an independent referee. In return, Rossi granted IH full access to his patented E-Cat technology and gave IH the right to produce and market E-Cats in the Americas and other parts of the world.
That one-year test ended this past March and the referee's report was eagerly anticipated. Did Rossi have the magic bullet? Weeks of silence ended on April 5 when Rossi filed a lawsuit against Industrial Heat, claiming that his E-Cat had achieved a COP of 6 (50 or better at times), and that IH owed him the $89 million. He also charged that IH was attempting to steal his intellectual property by filing for it's own patents on his E-Cat. For its part, IH has issued a statement that Rossi's claims in the lawsuit are "without merit," and that "Industrial Heat has worked for over three years to substantiate the results claimed by Mr. Rossi from the E-Cat technology--all without success."
Rossi, meanwhile, has announced plans to begin manufacturing his E-Cats in Sweden and the U.S. in the near future. Will that happen? Mr. Ackland speculated in an email interview that "there is a good chance that in the next year or two there will be commercial production of the E-Cat," but warned, "we have seen in this [Rossi] story that anything can happen."
LENR's White Knight?
Given the ugly duckling's past history, the E-Cat suit isn't likely to help advance the public perception of LENR. But there is another entrant in the race to bring LENR energy producing devices to market--Brillouin Energy Corporation, a California-based clean energy company formed in 2009. What Brillouin has going for it is an air of businesslike respectability. Unlike Rossi's lone-inventor approach, Brillouin Energy has assembled a team of scientists, engineers and other experts to develop and exploit commercialization of its LENR boilers. Brillouin has also formed a relationship with SRI International, a well-known nonprofit, independent research center serving government and industry.
According to Brillouin's CEO and co-founder, Robert W. George, their boilers are still in the R&D phase, but will ultimately be produced commercially in devices for home heating, commercial heating, power production, desalination, ship board power, and other large market possibilities. Brillouin's reactors feature an electromagnetic pulsing device--called Q-Pulse--to stimulate and control the LENR reaction. Their boilers, which use a specially manufactured nickel core immersed in hydrogen, reportedly are being designed to operate for years without maintenance or refueling. For example, Mr. George recently stated that a unit for home heating would need only a liter of water and would operate for ten to fifteen years. In an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten last September, Robert Goedes, Brillouin's co-founder and president, said the company was working toward having a product, possibly a water heater, ready to commercialize in 2016.
Brilluoin and SRI International staged a very public demonstration of their two working LENR devices, the WET™ Boiler and HHT™ Boiler for members of Congress, staffers, and others on Capitol Hill Nov. 2 of last year. SRI's Dr. Michael McKubre confirmed, in a report given at the event, that a COP of 4 had been achieved at a temperature of 640◦ C and that Brillouin's Q-Pulse system has the advantage of being able to reliably turn the reaction on and off. What Brillouin CEO George would not say, however, is when Brillouin's boilers will have been tweaked sufficiently to reach the goal of a COP of 6, the level needed to compete with fossil fuel power production.
So who's going to be first in the race to commercialize LENR technology? Will it be the E-Cat, the Brillouin LENR boilers, or a surprise from one of the many other scientists researching LENR? Only time will tell, but at this point the four critical factors for successful commercialization of LENR technology appear to be a COP of 6 or better (to compete with fossil fuels), a reliable control mechanism, the ability to run continuously for long periods without refueling or maintenance, and reasonable manufacturing costs.
The good news is that the most advanced experimental LENR generators today are closing in on those goals. To be sure, manufacturing and marketing a successful LENR device will also take time, but even with that we are surprisingly close to a viable solution to the energy crisis.
To think it all started with a beaker of heavy water.
Bruce Wetterau is a novelist and nonfiction writer who has written the mystery thriller, Killer Fog--The Veil of Mist Shrouds a Deadly Conspiracy, a fictional account that deals with the discovery of a successful LENR device and a plot to gain control of it. This article is an outgrowth of his research for the book. He has published eleven reference books under his name, including World History--A Dictionary of Important People, Places, and Events From Ancient Times to the Present. He also contributed to many other books, including those in the sciences and medicine written for general readers and students.
Call it cold fusion, or call it LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reaction), either way this curious phenomenon has been the ugly duckling of nuclear physics for the past two and a half decades. Is it about to transform itself into a beautiful, clean-energy swan--like that Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale--and deliver us from the energy crisis?
The decades-old bad rap that cold fusion is junk science--or worse, an outright hoax--reaches back to 1989 and the discrediting of a highly publicized cold fusion experiment. Two scientists, Martin Fleischman and Stanley Pons, went public with their tabletop cold fusion experiment in March, 1989. They claimed a previously unknown weak nuclear reaction produced heat by fusing hydrogen atoms at room temperature. But their theory flatly contradicted what was then accepted science, that fusion could take place only under intense heat and pressure like that found on the sun. Their cold fusion setup was also unbelievably simple--basically a cathode of palladium and an anode of platinum immersed in jar of "heavy water" (deuterium, which is a component of seawater). An electric current started and maintained the reaction.
Fleischman and Pons's claim that they had discovered a virtually unlimited new source of energy produced a brief sensation, and then a fierce backlash when a number of scientists reported they couldn't duplicate the experiment. By late 1989 cold fusion, and hopes for a quick solution to the burgeoning energy crisis, were relegated to the ash heap of junk science.
Despite the bad rap, some intrepid researchers kept working on cold fusion, now also known as LENR. In the two-plus decades since 1989, they have proved it to be a real phenomenon in experiment after experiment, and also refined techniques for achieving the reaction. Skeptics continue to complain, and a lawsuit erupted this spring between an inventor and his investors over the technology, but the accumulated scientific evidence has shown LENR is on the cusp of becoming a clean, safe, energy source. Amazingly, LENR reactions don't even produce harmful radiation or radioactive wastes.
U.S. Navy researchers underscored LENR's potential in a recently released report on their extensive investigations of the phenomenon. The report--written in 2012--was not released until this past summer. The researchers concluded, "LENR has the potential to be a paradigm-shifting, ‘game-changing’ technology...The ability to harness a new nuclear energy source for either thermal or electrical conversion...would have a profound commercial and military impact...Solid evidence (i.e., excess heat generation, hot spots, mini-explosions, ionizing radiation, near- IR emission, tritium production, transmutation, and neutrons) has been obtained that indicate that lattice assisted nuclear reactions can and do occur...." And, in a long overdue vindication of Fleischman and Pons's discovery, the Navy's report noted, "It is now known that those failures [to replicate by other scientists] were due to the fact that experimental conditions necessary to achieve the effect...had not been achieved."
What now seems likely to come out the other end of the laboratory is a heat source that is cheap to build, that will be small enough to power a car or a single home (forget those costly, vulnerable electric power grids), or large enough for commercial electrical generation. It will need virtually no fuel, and won't produce any pollution. And LENR devices will produce that energy day in, day out whether or not the sun shines or the wind blows. A beautiful swan indeed.
While the Navy report called for more research to fully understand the physics of LENR, the global warming crisis forces a more immediate question: Can researchers come up with a practical device to harness LENR? The first part of the answer is that, as of now, there are working devices in the experimental stages. The second part is, of course, money to fund the research. China, India, Japan, Italy, Russia, and Israel reportedly are devoting "significant resources" to LENR research. Here in the US, LENR research began attracting serious venture capital a few years ago.
The federal government has gotten interested too, albeit slowly. In 2013 the U.S. Department of Energy stuck a toe in the water, ending a longstanding ban on funding grants for LENR research. NASA reportedly is exploring LENR as a power plant for future space travel, and those U.S. Navy researchers had conducted extensive testing of LENR reactions over a period of years, culminating in their report. Waking up to LENR's vast potential, the House Armed Services Committee in May directed the Secretary of Defense to prepare a briefing for the committee on LENR and the potentially wide-ranging "disruptive effects" it could have.
Disruptive? Energy worldwide is estimated to be a $7 trillion industry and the need for more energy keeps growing, despite the pollution it produces. A new way to produce virtually limitless, clean energy, like a practical LENR device, will amount to the Holy Grail of solutions to the energy crisis. But it will also transform the way energy is produced and delivered worldwide. No small matter that--from politics to the economy to energy infrastructure, the changes will be massive. Billions--probably trillions--of dollars will change hands as the winners and losers adjust to the new reality brought on by the "game-changing" technology: an economy in which converting to money-saving, environmentally friendly LENR power plants renders dependence on fossil fuels a thing of the past.
Will the Ugly Duckling Sink or Swim?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see LENR's potential as a reliable, clean, heat source for uses like heating your house, generating electricity, or supplying heat for manufacturing processes. But when will we be able to buy an LENR home generator? Ultimately, commercializing practical devices like these will be the true test of LENR's success as an energy source.
Of the working experimental devices, the E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer) is probably best known, and until recently appeared ready to go into production. The E-Cat is the brainchild of Italian scientist and inventor Andrea Rossi, who in some quarters has the reputation of being a charlatan and con man. In others, he's believed a smart, if flamboyant inventor who has been the victim of the rampant skepticism about cold fusion, or of devious schemes to get hold of his E-Cat technology.
At its core, the recent version of Rossi's E-Cat is a small tube with a proprietary mix of nickel powder and other substances inside. Rossi uses a pulsing electrical current to stimulate the LENR reaction. The reaction inside the tube heats water flowing around it in a larger tube, creating steam, or at least giving off more heat energy than the sum of electrical energy needed to keep the LENR reaction going.
There's the rub in all LENR devices. Do they produce more energy than needed to keep the reaction going? The so called Coefficent Of Performance (COP) is the ratio of the energy produced, divided by the energy fed in. In the case of Rossi's E-Cat, the COP has been a matter of contention over the years. Most recently, he claimed a COP of at least 6, ranging to 50 or better at times. Just for perspective, a COP of 6 is regarded as the minimum needed for a practical LENR power plant, according to Frank Ackland, publisher of E-Cat World, an online newsletter about LENR research.
Demonstrations of Rossi's E-Cat since 2011 did appear to produce excess heat, as well as critics' charges of fraud and chicanery. Rossi's critics point to his troubled past, including a failed scheme in Italy to turn garbage into oil and a failed project with the US Army for a thermoelectric device. Then in 2011 he cancelled an agreement with a Greek company, Defkalion Ltd, to produce his E-Cat commercially, accusing the company of trying to steal his ideas.
Undaunted by his critics, Rossi hit pay dirt in January, 2014, when he licensed his E-Cat to Industrial Heat (IH) for $100.5 million. IH was formed by Cherokee Partners, venture capitalists in North Carolina who specialize in developing environmentally sound energy sources. Through IH, Cherokee Partners reportedly agreed to pay Rossi $1.5 million up front, $10 million upon completion of a successful 24-hour "validation" test, and a whopping $89 million upon successful completion of a one-year test with continuous operation at 1 megawatt heat output. Both tests were to be overseen by an independent referee. In return, Rossi granted IH full access to his patented E-Cat technology and gave IH the right to produce and market E-Cats in the Americas and other parts of the world.
That one-year test ended this past March and the referee's report was eagerly anticipated. Did Rossi have the magic bullet? Weeks of silence ended on April 5 when Rossi filed a lawsuit against Industrial Heat, claiming that his E-Cat had achieved a COP of 6 (50 or better at times), and that IH owed him the $89 million. He also charged that IH was attempting to steal his intellectual property by filing for it's own patents on his E-Cat. For its part, IH has issued a statement that Rossi's claims in the lawsuit are "without merit," and that "Industrial Heat has worked for over three years to substantiate the results claimed by Mr. Rossi from the E-Cat technology--all without success."
Rossi, meanwhile, has announced plans to begin manufacturing his E-Cats in Sweden and the U.S. in the near future. Will that happen? Mr. Ackland speculated in an email interview that "there is a good chance that in the next year or two there will be commercial production of the E-Cat," but warned, "we have seen in this [Rossi] story that anything can happen."
LENR's White Knight?
Given the ugly duckling's past history, the E-Cat suit isn't likely to help advance the public perception of LENR. But there is another entrant in the race to bring LENR energy producing devices to market--Brillouin Energy Corporation, a California-based clean energy company formed in 2009. What Brillouin has going for it is an air of businesslike respectability. Unlike Rossi's lone-inventor approach, Brillouin Energy has assembled a team of scientists, engineers and other experts to develop and exploit commercialization of its LENR boilers. Brillouin has also formed a relationship with SRI International, a well-known nonprofit, independent research center serving government and industry.
According to Brillouin's CEO and co-founder, Robert W. George, their boilers are still in the R&D phase, but will ultimately be produced commercially in devices for home heating, commercial heating, power production, desalination, ship board power, and other large market possibilities. Brillouin's reactors feature an electromagnetic pulsing device--called Q-Pulse--to stimulate and control the LENR reaction. Their boilers, which use a specially manufactured nickel core immersed in hydrogen, reportedly are being designed to operate for years without maintenance or refueling. For example, Mr. George recently stated that a unit for home heating would need only a liter of water and would operate for ten to fifteen years. In an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten last September, Robert Goedes, Brillouin's co-founder and president, said the company was working toward having a product, possibly a water heater, ready to commercialize in 2016.
Brilluoin and SRI International staged a very public demonstration of their two working LENR devices, the WET™ Boiler and HHT™ Boiler for members of Congress, staffers, and others on Capitol Hill Nov. 2 of last year. SRI's Dr. Michael McKubre confirmed, in a report given at the event, that a COP of 4 had been achieved at a temperature of 640◦ C and that Brillouin's Q-Pulse system has the advantage of being able to reliably turn the reaction on and off. What Brillouin CEO George would not say, however, is when Brillouin's boilers will have been tweaked sufficiently to reach the goal of a COP of 6, the level needed to compete with fossil fuel power production.
So who's going to be first in the race to commercialize LENR technology? Will it be the E-Cat, the Brillouin LENR boilers, or a surprise from one of the many other scientists researching LENR? Only time will tell, but at this point the four critical factors for successful commercialization of LENR technology appear to be a COP of 6 or better (to compete with fossil fuels), a reliable control mechanism, the ability to run continuously for long periods without refueling or maintenance, and reasonable manufacturing costs.
The good news is that the most advanced experimental LENR generators today are closing in on those goals. To be sure, manufacturing and marketing a successful LENR device will also take time, but even with that we are surprisingly close to a viable solution to the energy crisis.
To think it all started with a beaker of heavy water.
Bruce Wetterau is a novelist and nonfiction writer who has written the mystery thriller, Killer Fog--The Veil of Mist Shrouds a Deadly Conspiracy, a fictional account that deals with the discovery of a successful LENR device and a plot to gain control of it. This article is an outgrowth of his research for the book. He has published eleven reference books under his name, including World History--A Dictionary of Important People, Places, and Events From Ancient Times to the Present. He also contributed to many other books, including those in the sciences and medicine written for general readers and students.
