Quoting Dr. Peter Gluck, now one of the grandfathers of LENR, concerning a very important parameter that may be missed by replicators (in Longview's opinion, at least):
"I have learned from professor Francesco Piantelli the essential importance of deep degassing- before putting nickel in contact with hydrogen, the surface of the metal must be absolutely free of any molecules of gas. This is so well described in EP2368252 "
[end quote, from a link at Peter's Blogspot Ego Out, that link citing Yiannis Hadjichristos is here: http://egooutpeters.blogspot.r…lenr-will-never-work.html.]
I am impressed by the early and definitive acceptance of the notion of catalysis as a key parameter in determining successful LENR / CANR / CF by Peter Gluck and others. To me, this is really a key central feature, and here Peter and others are offering a very good reason for the unpredictable behavior of CF experiments. I am sure there are other variables. One only has to look at the history of semiconductors and the long path to ultimately understand that ultrapurification of germanium and silicon (ultimately by zone refining) was a necessary step toward consistent operation of semiconductor electronics and ultimately to the transistor in 1948.
In chemical process engineering, catalyst poisoning is an undisputed fact. It can make a good catalyst non-functional. Essentially the addition of a single molecule of poison (Peter suggests nitrogen, the major constituent of air) in each of the active sites can kill a catalyst forever more. Analogously in biology, "receptors" and "active sites" show us that Inhibitory binding to such sites is very often much stronger than "active" binding.
Such "poisoning" may be an important point for replicators to attend to. With the caveat that greatly enhancing the efficiency of LENR by such attention might easily result in a destructive level of energy production. Small is beautiful in this case. A small blowup is always "nicer" than a big one.