Dave,
What a beautiful and well labelled and organized test. I personally was hoping to see some plasma to see if it shows anything on the counters. I would think that after this test, it should be considered.
I am still admiring how well it was done, the labels express how attentive your teams work is. And good luck.
QuoteThe stainless steel fuel cartridge is more corroded looking than when we used LiAlH4 and more difficult to remove from inside of the Alumina tube
Now you can imagine, how the surface of nickel sample will look like. It's very difficult to maintain reactor full of corrosive reagents tight at high temperatures. This is just because the oxygen intered the pipe, whereas the aluminium oxide from LiAlH4 was missing - the basic vapors of lithium oxides and hydroxides (boiling point 924 °C) are very corrosive. They probably attacked the inner surface of mullite pipe and forced it to crack with formation of compounds of different thermal expansion coefficient. Maybe the thermal stimulation of LENR works, but it's difficult to achieve it without special equipment (dry box, inert atmosphere). It's time for corona stimulation experiments finally.
I've attached 2 more pages of pictures from the autopsy of the GlowStick. On the 2nd page, one can visualize how some of the fuel mix seeped out of the setscrew's vent. On the oppose side of the fuel capsule, most of the fuel remained and the Nickel then sintered into a hard cylinder.
At the suggestion of MFMP, I also did a flame burn-off test. Here's a link to a Youtube video. Alan G. suggested the flame color mimics Lithium.
The fuel from test #36, with LiH, was a lot more sintered than test #35 with LiAlH4.
Re: Alan Smith contribution ["Attached is what MAY be the document you described- if not, no problem."]
One of our other Phonon-Energy team members also liked Alan Smith's cleaning process and suggested we first do a test with only Hydrogen-conditioned Nickel. We could later add LiAlH4 or LiH for a follow-on test. It'll take awhile to build the cleaning system and a new GlowStick, so I expect it'll be a few months before we can report the results. Don't worry though ... we will show the data for MFMP's open science GlowStick duplicate. I've been blessed with not having to worry about personal finances, so I'm not trying to get rich with this technology ... only to prove its feasibility and help mankind. If we can obtain a repeatable LENR result, I'll be sure to pass it on to my old work buddies at NASA for validation.
Hi Dave.
This is the set-up for US cleaning of Ni powder in a hexane slurry. I am working on this now. I the photograph, right to left you can see the ultrasound generator, ultrasound output horn with vacuum-flask for the nickel slurry on top. The coil of white tubing wrapped around the sample flask is connected to a circulation pump that will pump ice water from the beaker to keep everything cool.
Next - the beaker is the ice reservoir, then the vacuum pump.
'Up in the air' on the right is a burette - a glass reservoir tube with a tap at the bottom for topping up the hexane if required. And on the left, the big hypodermic thing is actually a gas dispensing syringe for hydrogen. At the moment I am chasing leaks out of the system - always a pain if you want a good vacuum.
I don't want to doubt your honest obsession with ultrasound cleaning of nickel dust in hexane - but to expect, that it would have some impact for its behavior at high temperatures (where it undergoes massive recrystallization and rebuild of surface) is rather naive. This is like to carefully polish the silverware before it's using for stirring of nitric acid.
The ultrasound irradiation of the nickel improves the catalytic activity by hundreds or thousands of times. Basically, after irradiation with ultrasound, the nickel will much more rapidly disassociate molecular hydrogen into atomic hydrogen -- which is the #1 rate limiting step in hydrogen absorption into the particle. I realize that reduction by hydrogen will also remove oxides. However, the chemical reduction process doesn't start at a significant rate until a couple hundred degrees celsius and even then not all of the nickel oxide is reduced until much higher temperatures. By removing the oxides first, you maximize the ability of the nickel to absorb hydrogen from the start. Also, the ultrasonic waves themselves or the crashing together of the particles could produce defects deeper in the nickel particles that could be filled with hydrogen. In addition, I'm thinking that the cleaning process will allow for more efficient removal of trapped gases during the vacuum phase of processing.
QuoteThe ultrasound irradiation of the nickel improves the catalytic activity by hundreds or thousands of times.
Maybe for low-temperature chemical hydrogenation reactions (although I can nowhere read with it - do you have some more info about it, or you're just inventing stuffs here?) until the temperature is low, so that crystal grains don't recrystallize.
Quotethe ultrasonic waves themselves or the crashing together of the particles could produce defects deeper in the nickel particles that could be filled with hydrogen
Rossi used Raney nickel catalyst (this catalyst is pyrophoric and multiple fire accidents were reported in his Bologna lab) and I think, you would destroy this catalyst with sonification instead, as it's already oversaturated with hydrogen.
QuoteBasically, after irradiation with ultrasound, the nickel will much more rapidly disassociate molecular hydrogen into atomic hydrogen
Again, do you have some info (link) about it - or you're just connecting well known facts with extrapolations? Similarly to frequent AxillAxill claims, I just need to have separated experimentally sourced facts from (no matter how well minded) assumptions of various LENR self-taught armchair experts here in an effort to separate the informational noise from useful signal. This doesn't restrain the bringing up new thoughts and ideas at all - but they should be labeled so from their very beginning (by phrases "IMO, according to my theory, etc.")
As a general guideline, from now I will not ask for sources anymore - but I'll downvote automatically all comments, which wouldn't bother to distinguish it.
Zephir, you are a naughty boy! We already put up a document - twice- with quite a few references to US and H2 in. Here (just for you) it is again. The links are at the end of the paper.
Thanks Alan - but did you ever observe the COP over 1 during your experiments?
If not, then your protocol should be considered as a reliable route for COP = 1
But I'm interested about COP > 1 and experimentally supported facts.
Maybe I look naughty - but I also know about common sources of problems in community of replicators.
Even 101 well minded steps and recommendations of MFMP cannot replace one missing secret ingredient, which really works... 
COP>1 ???We are working on it. Rossi and co are quite a few years ahead of LFH and MFMP.
zephir,
Quote: “The ultrasound irradiation of the nickel improves the catalytic activity by hundreds or thousands of times. ”Maybe for low-temperature chemical hydrogenation reactions (although I can nowhere read with it - do you have some more info about…
1) For you to say you cannot find the papers on the catalytic enhancing effects of ultrasonic irradiation on metal particles is difficult to believe. Links/documents have already been posted here and you can find much, much more by performing a google search with the terms: suslick and ultrasound and nickel and powder. The papers are clear that by removing the outer oxide layer and atomically roughening the surface at the same time, you can increase the catalytic activity through the roof. Of course, just like any other nickel powder, above a certain temperature the particles will sinter together and lose much of their catalytic ability. But below that temperature the catalytic potential will remain very high.
2) Ultrasonically irradiated nickel, according to Suslick and others, is not pyrophoric despite it having a catalytic potential approaching that of Raney nickel. That is one of its advantages. The difference with Raney nickel when it comes to storage of hydrogen is, I think, that the tiny hydrogen clusters that would form in non-Raney sonicated nickel powder would be much smaller in size. I think most of them would likely be on the order of a few nanometers. What some researchers describe as "Super Abundant Vacancies" only consist initially of a maximum of six hydrogen atoms. Raney nickel wasn't the ticket. But I think that making ordinary nickel more catalytic and efficient at absorbing hydrogen would be a good thing.
3) If nickel is covered by nickel oxide it cannot disassociate molecular hydrogen into atomic hydrogen, at least not initially. Eventually, if the hydrogen temperature/pressure/flow is maintained, some degree of the oxide layer will be removed via chemical reduction. At that point, molecular hydrogen will find optimal sites on the nickel, disassociate into individual hydrogen atoms, and make their way through the lattice. All of this is very basic and in the literature.
zipher,
QuoteThanks Alan - but did you ever observe the COP over 1 during your experiments?
If not, then your protocol should be considered as a reliable route for COP = 1
But I'm interested about COP > 1 and experimentally supported facts.
Maybe I look naughty - but I also know about common sources of problems in community of replicators.
Even 101 well minded steps and recommendations of MFMP cannot replace one missing secret ingredient, which really works...
No
where has Alan or I stated that ultrasound or any of the other fuel
processing procedures/techniques is a reliable route for excess heat.
What I've said all along is that after combing through the LENR
literature, the public comments made by replicators, the confidential
conversations I've had with replicators, and other sources of
information they likely provide a good starting point that will increase
the likelihood of producing excess heat. I feel that if a replicator
utilized them as a starting guideline and continued to make changes to
his fuel processing over several tests, he'd have a good chance at
producing excess heat. But nothing is guaranteed, and I've never
indicated anything is guaranteed.
The reality is that it is
indeed possible to achieve good COP from just nickel and hydrogen.
Rossi's earliest systems that used spillover catalysts to help maximize
hydrogen absorption into the nickel produced COPs in the hundreds on
some occasions. Now, we just have to find the proper techniques and
methodology FOR EACH SPECIFICALLY BRAND/TYPE OF NICKEL to achieve
similar levels of hydrogenation. Of course we don't want to end up with a
hunk of solid nickel hydride. We want nickel containing very small
"spaces" (described by many different terms in the LENR literature) that
are filled with exotic hydrogen species -- for example hydrogen
"clusters" or "ultra-dense hydrogen." Once we achieve this, massive and
high powered excess heat will become the rule rather than the exception.
On another note, I believe I understand one reason why Rossi
may sometimes re-use his fuel. Each cycle of processing (both during
pre-hydrogenation and in the active reactor when the LiAlH4 breaks down
to release hydrogen) more reaction sites are created -- and some of them
are probably maintained intact by the end of the cycle. So over time,
the fuel could accumulate a very high level of internal "bubbles" or
"cavities" or "voids" where LENR takes place.
Update from David Daggett
Very good and very encouraging. Seeing is this is basically a press release, maybe we should add PE to the next poll.
However- the website tells a different story...
"We only had one positive test result, so are shutting down the company.We wish the best for all the rest of the LENR researchers. We feel the technology is real and it'll some day power the world with no pollution."
