me356: Reactor parameters [part 1]

    If I understand correctly the hydrogen pressure chart, the x-axis is the mole fraction of LiH within an Li-LiH system. So LiH/(Li + LiH) and not H/Li?


    source: http://tempid.altervista.org/j100612a013a.pdf



    Also, do I read this right that with a 1:1 LiH:Li ratio, the pressure wouldn't exceed 25^2 Torr = 0.83 bar until a temperature of 900C?


    Whereas with no lithium added, we would be on the right side of the chart and pressure would be litteraly off the chart.


    So it seems that the added lithium would have a moderating effect on pressure at least until 900C.


    Makes sense?



    @LENR Calender: the chart tells how much of the lithium available forms LiH in a constant hydrogen atmosphere at various pressures and temperatures. At a LiH mole fraction of 1 it's 100% LiH; in other words all the lithium is LiH. For all intents and purposes it's the same as H/Li atomic ratio.


    At 903°C and about 26^2 torr (901 mbar) the LiH fraction in Li can range between 0.46 and 0.86: LiH formation is unstable
    At the same temperature and 20^2 torr (533 mbar) the LiH fraction will be about 0.26
    .
    etc.

    • Official Post


    Holmlids experiment can't easily be compared. He is using a vanishingly small amount of fuel and his experiment was designed to be a proof of principle.


    Assuming that Holmlids hypothesis is right and all LENR phenomena are Rydberg matter reactions, one interesting question is however: Do we maybe need LiAlH4 with Deuterium as bonded Hydrogen instead of Protium?


    And could a lower pressure facilitate the formation of Rydberg deuterium on the Nickel surface?


    Interesting, interesting...

    Quote from Majorana

    Holmlids experiment can't easily be compared.


    You're right, but if Rydberg Matter is behind LENR, using a relatively low pressure and applying a good initial vacuum could be important. This is not unlike what Piantelli also does.


    Quote

    He is using a vanishingly small amount of fuel and his experiment was designed to be a proof of principle.


    In his experiments he uses cylindrical iron-oxide catalyst pellets of roughly 1 cm in length and a bit less than 0.5 cm in diameter. They are small, but not orders of magnitude smaller than the supposedly active core in Parkhomov replications.


    Quote

    Assuming that Holmlids hypothesis is right and all LENR phenomena are Rydberg matter reactions, one interesting question is however: Do we maybe need LiAlH4 with Deuterium as bonded Hydrogen instead of Protium?


    Holmlid and others also detected ultra-dense protium, so it might not be necessary.
    However, some LENR researchers reported observing ionizing radiations when using deuterium instead of hydrogen (protium) - so it could be a better choice if one wants to simply demonstrate that LENR are an existing phenomena.


    Quote

    And could a lower pressure facilitate the formation of Rydberg deuterium on the Nickel surface?


    According to Svein Ólafsson on LENR-Forum:


    Quote

    Bad vacuum H2O, O2 and ions are disturbing the Rydberg matter and therefore eventually also the ultra dense form but once formed it can survive better



    Not Rydberg Matter (perhaps - but what if he is actually observing the very same phenomenon?), but according to Piantelli in his patent:


    Quote

    Advantageously, during said step of bringing hydrogen into contact with said clusters, said hydrogen has a partial pressure set between 0,001 millibar and 10 bar, in particular set between 1 millibar and 2 bar, in order to ensure an optimal number of hits between the surface of said clusters and the hydrogen molecules: in fact, an excessive pressure increases the frequency of the hits, such that it can cause surface desorption, as well as other parasitic phenomena.

    • Official Post
    Quote from Ecco


    You're right, but if Rydberg Matter is behind LENR, using a relatively low pressure and applying a good initial vacuum could be important. This is not unlike what Piantelli also does.



    In his experiments he uses cylindrical iron-oxide catalyst pellets of roughly 1 cm in length and a bit less than 0.5 cm in diameter. They are small, but not orders of magnitude smaller than the supposedly active core in Parkhomov replications.


    I was talking about the amount of D in Holmlids experiment compared to the amount of H (Question: Is it really H? pure protium? Maybe it is not...) that is released in Rossis setup. The amount in Holmlids experiment is a very small amount compared to Rossis setup and so is the released heat Holmlid measured in his succeeding paper AIP Advances 5, 087129 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4928572.


    If we assume that 1. Rossi can be taken serious at all and 2. Rydberg formation is the real mechanism behind all LENR as Holmlid claims, then obviously Rydberg H is also formed under high pressures and under a considerable O2 atmosphere. Question is why. Maybe here the additional Lithium could play a role. Rossi has never evacuated his alumina tubes to pressures Holmlid is talking about before running the reactor.

    @Majorana: if you're referring to the total amount of hydrogen in the cell regardless of pressure, you're correct: there's a very little amount of it in Holmlid's experiments. Since everybody keeps referring to the LENR-active element as "fuel", I thought you were writing about Holmlid's iron oxide catalyst.


    As for Rossi, of course we cannot know for sure whether he actually used pure H or also mixed in some D with it, perhaps using LiAlD4 as a hydrogen source. The Lugano report did state this however:


    Quote

    [...] It is plausible that the fuel is mixed with the standard Lithium Aluminum Hydride, LiAlH4 . Further evidence of that is obtained from the ICP-AES analysis which shows that the mass ratio between Li and Al is compatible with a LiAlH4 molecule. This compound can be used to produce free hydrogen by heating. We remark in particular that hydrogen but no deuterium was seen by SIMS. The other methods are insensitive to both hydrogen and deuterium.


    The general assumption is that in LENR experiments successfully working with protium, deuterium could bring out gamma radiation and possibly even neutrons. That's what Celani and others are reporting though, it's never been really confirmed. I often advocated for trying that out.




    EDIT in answer to your edit:


    Quote from Majorana

    If we assume that 1. Rossi can be taken serious at all and 2. Rydberg formation is the real mechanism behind all LENR as Holmlid claims, then obviously Rydberg H is also formed under high pressures and under a considerable O2 atmosphere. Question is why. Maybe here the additional Lithium could play a role. Rossi has never evacuated his alumina tubes to pressures Holmlid is talking about before running the reactor.


    A possible hypothesis I came up with recently is that lithium could be merely acting as a hydrogen getter, and that the inner ceramic tube (was it actually alumina like the outer cement? Nobody investigated...) could have been treated for being both unreactive to lithium and porous to hydrogen. Appropriate temperature/power control would then allow to release gases from it in desired amounts.


    This hypothesis implies that the reaction environment isn't within the inner cavity, but could instead be on the heating wire (perhaps its oxide layers) or at the interface between the heating wire and the ceramic tube permeable to hydrogen. It's a wild hypothesis which nobody can confirm right now. It would also make finding an explanation for the isotopic changes reported difficult.

    Yes, we have tried it and achieved interesting behavior that we want to control.


    Unfortunately I am very busy at these days.
    On the other hand I have something important and exciting to say. But to be absolutely sure, I have to verify the results first.
    The direction we are going is really good.

    @Optist Yes we have tried it. Several interesting things I've noticed:
    1. It absorbs all of the Hydrogen creating a strong vacuum at around 500C (I'm remembering these temps off the top of my head, I may be off quite a bit).
    2. This Hydrogen is absorbed when creating LiH.
    3. The molten Li is extremely hard on Alumina reactor vessels creating cracks.
    4. When the temperature is raised above ~650C the LiH starts to decompose releasing Hydrogen.
    5. The increase in Hydrogen pressure now breaks your weakened reactor vessel and your test is over.
    6. Bulk Li has extremely strong surface tension forces causing it to crawl up the wall of the reactor.
    7. The Ni fuel all migrates to the center of the reactor and does not mix with the Li.


    A yttria-stabilized zirconia tube is chemically inert and may tolerate lithium better. Yes, it is somewhat more expensive, but you must pay a little bit more for superior performance.


    I am still very busy, but I have tested brand new induction heater and it works quite well, but for higher power it needs water cooling. I have also made circuit for regulation so the temperature can be controlled quite well.


    Another experiment that I am doing is to find exact reason and behavior of the pressure inside the reactor.
    Because I am convinced that there are at least two separate processes I am playing only with Lithium + LiAlH4. This allows me to exclude Nickel as possible reason for pressure changes so I can focus just on these compounds.


    Result: I was able to change the pressure on demand +/- 5 bars only with the temperature - this is the key process to boost excess heat - it is not initiator of it, but only accelerator. This process is happening around 700°C.


    First process that I am talking about is Excess heat from Ni + H reactions. From this process you can get probably COP of around 1.2.
    Second process is LiH composition and decomposition. With ratio between Hydrogen and Lithium you can control the rate (how fast you can change the pressure, respectively how fast LiH can be composed/decomposed).
    2 Li + H2 → 2 LiH
    The higher rate mean higher COP.
    If I understand it correctly, when you combine these two processes you will get excess heat of virtually unlimited COP. COP of 6 should be still very safe.
    This process can be possibly replaced by pumping the hydrogen from a tank, but it can be dangerous and more prone to mechanical failures.


    Because of Lithium, we are interfacing a big problem that it reacts with many materials, especially Alumina!! Thus the second process will fail mostly even before it can happen. This leads mostly to a breach and hydrogen escape + contamination of the fuel.


    What I highly recommend is to not use Alumina tubes or to use a proper fuel container. I have observed that Lithium will react in irreversible way and as soon as it happens the experiment can end.


    The conclusion is very important for all replicators - until you are unable to control the pressure, you can't get noticeable excess heat. If you can control it well, you can get very stable reaction.
    As I said earlier, it should periodically breathe. Constant pressure changes are also demanding for used materials, so there are many, many reasons, why the replication is so hard.

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