Using photodissociation in LENR

The new high powered LENR energy systems primarily generate intense XUV light. This XUV has very high energy content. Unfortunately, these LENR systems are designed to waste this photonic energy.

The amount of energy in these photons is given by the equation E = hf, where E is the energy of the photons in Joules; h is Planck's constant, which is always 6.63 * 10^-34 Joule seconds; and f is the frequency of the light in hertz.

The energy content of light is therefor directly proportional to its frequency and therefore also wave length.

A typical infrared photon has a wave length of 1200 nm whereas the XUV has a wave length of 100 nm. Since the energy content of a photon is proportional to its wave length, the XUV photon carries 12 times more energy content than does the infrared photon.

If the XUV light is wasted, then only under 10% of the light energy is utilized in the SK reactor.

Futhermore, we can assume that a LENR based photodissociation system will be nearly 100% Faradaic efficiency for hydrogen production, consistent with studies of polymer electroyte membrane electrolyzers,

The use of the energy outputs of the SK reactor as well as the SunCell is most likely misapplied in the use of a turbine to only extract heat energy from the LENR reaction.. The XUV energy in these systems is wasted in preference to the utilization of heat which is only a small part of the output energy produced by the SK. Most of the output power produced in these systems comes in the form of XUV photons. The capture of this energy forms a foundation for an effective engineering solution to utilizing the energy produced by LENR.

http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/images/water_spectrum_2.gif

Absorption of UV close-by (~125 nm), excites the 3a1 orbital leading to dissociation into OH + H (photodissociation; higher energy absorption produces charged fragments). Such dissociation can also be achieved by consecutive absorption of two 266 nm photons.

The value of the production of atomic hydogen in photodissociation is obvious.

The value of OH as a valuable waste product as follows:

The hydroxyl radical is often referred to as the "detergent" of the troposphere because it reacts with many pollutants, decomposing them through "cracking", often acting as the first step to their removal. It also has an important role in eliminating some greenhouse gases like methane and ozone. The rate of reaction with the hydroxyl radical often determines how long many pollutants last in the atmosphere, if they do not undergo photolysis or are rained out. For instance methane, which reacts relatively slowly with hydroxyl radical, has an average lifetime of >5 years and many CFCs have lifetimes of 50 years or more. Other pollutants, such as larger hydrocarbons, can have very short average lifetimes of less than a few hours.

Hydroxyl is an anti-pollutant. It counteracts climate change and smog.

In 2014, researchers reported their discovery of a "hole" or absence of hydroxyl throughout the entire depth of the troposphere across a large region of the tropical West Pacific. They suggested that this hole is permitting large quantities of ozone-degrading chemicals to reach the stratosphere, and that this may be significantly reinforcing ozone depletion in the polar regions with potential consequences for the climate of the Earth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxyl_radical

Absorption of two higher energy photons, at 200 nm, gives rise to a hydrated electron by H2O + hν -> H2O+ + e-aq

In the XUV light that is produced by the SK, water absorbs most of its energy content.

The many ways to convert high powered photon energy into useful energy output.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodissociation

XUV can Photodissociate water into hydrogen and electricity in the presence of various biological catalysts.

H2O + 2 photons (light) → 2 e− + 2 H+ + A

That is electricity and hydrogen where A are biological catalyzed chemical products.

Since the SK produces a huge number of photons, a corresponding huge amount of electricity and hydrogen will be generated by this process.

Furthermore, water can be dissociated into its constituent elements as follows:

H2O -> 2H + O

http://www.pnas.org/content/106/28/11454

High pressure based photo-reactions combining H2O with CO to form clathrate hydrate(natural gas).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_hydrate

It might be possible to create a SK solution that can power an automobile as a retrofit of the IC engine using natural gas or hydrogen.

The use of a natural gas burning turbine might also be productive.

Feeding natural gas into the worldwide natural gas pipeline systems could be a low impact introduction of LENR energy into the world's energy usage balance sheet.

I am becoming more convinced that the new Rossi reactors(QX and SK) are using transparent hexagonal boron nitride as his tube material. This material is not transparent to ultraviolet light but is transparent (85%) to visible and infrared light.

More info on transparent hexagonal boron nitride as follows:

I suspect that the XUV light produced by the LENR reaction is downshifted by hexagonal boron nitride into the visible frequencies. This downshifting is what is generating the huge amount of white light that the SK has been reported to be producing.

Boron Nitride neither reflects or is transparent to XUV so BN must absorb that XUV photon energy. That absorbed energy must go somewhere. I beleive it is stored in excited electron orbitals of boron and nitrogen. So it must be released as the light frequencies defined by the various spectral emission Iines of these constituent materials. I think that most of that stored energy is released as white light as Rossi has reported. White light emissions coming from the SK is extreme. Heat energy is also released but I do not know the percentage in proportion to the other color emission lines, but heat can not be a dominant energy release mechanism.

All this emission/absorption/ transparency stuff can be adjusted by adding dopents to the BN or whatever ceramic that Rossi is using. This is a big job to R&D an optimum solution for a tiny company like Rossi's.

The answer to the problems that the SunCell is having is using hexagonal boron nitride to convert all that XUV that the SunCell reaction is producing into light that COTS solar cells can convert into electrical power.

If these XUV generating systems want to harvest energy in the form of hydrogen produced from water photodissociation by XUV, they could use a ceramic that I have found that is transparent to XUV.

https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0447390A4/en

Transparent polycrystalline body with high ultraviolet transmittance, process for making, and applications thereof

This material lets 85% of the XUV through.

This material is resistant to abrasion or erosion, does not substantially deteriorate after exposure to ultraviolet light, and has high strength. The sintered body is useful in a variety of applications, including as a dome and window for missiles and launch tubes.

The sintered body of this ceramic is resistant to degradation under high temperature conditions and, in particular, has a high melting point, preferably above 2000°C.

High temperature heat tolerance in a plasma heat containment material is not important is a water based hydrogen photodissociation system, Such a system could use a double walled pipe filed with water in a plasma containment tube configuration. The water would serve as a circulating coolant and the hydrogen could be separated from the OH using a polymer electrolyte membrane that are commonly used in hydrogen fuel cells.

IMO, this water cooled double walled hydrogen photodissociation system configuration is optimum for a system like the SunCell.

Another material that is totally transparent to XUV is transparent aluminum.

https://phys.org/news/2009-07-…rent-aluminium-state.html

Transparent aluminium is 'new state of matter'

"In this week’s Nature Physics an international team, led by Oxford University scientists, report that a short pulse from the FLASH laser ‘knocked out’ a core electron from every aluminium atom in a sample without disrupting the metal’s crystalline structure. This turned the aluminium nearly invisible to extreme ultraviolet radiation."

Thanks for pointing out my mistake without recrimination.

Unlike the generation of electric power from heat, the production of hydogen from LENR generated photons is 100% efficient. Using a hydrogen fuel cell is the way to convert that hydrogen into electrical power at that maximum 100% efficiency. That high efficiency is maintained if mechanical energy is produced from that electricity by using an electric motor.

The integration of LENR power into the existing energy infrastructure can be supported by the production of natural gas. This can fit into the existing energy balance sheet seamlessly even if introducing some inefficiencies into the energy flow-sheet is the price for this seamless integration.

Adding hydrogen into the existing natural gas infrastructure might also be possible without affecting much of what currently exists.

Quote from Wyttenbach

As you said correctly adding! Max 12% to natural gas, not solving any energy problem. But fuel cell cars is an other story. May be excess solar/ wind energy is the more reliable source for it, than a fictional XUV source that nobody has seen yet.

Andrea Rossi
May 30, 2018 at 5:08 PM

Rick57:

We measured the peaks in the area between 100 and 200 nm, but the spectrum had lower values also through the whole visible spectrum. When you look at the spectrum of a plasma you do not see a peak perpendicular to a flat line with y=0, but a sawteeth like graph. Another reason of the white light, that is the result of all the visible lambda combined, can be the ecceleration of the electrons of the atoms around the plasma. We were, obviously, not looking where the spectrometer eye was ( too dangerous for the sight ).

Warm Regards,

A.R.

And don't discount the SunCell. If R. Mills gets his act together, hydrogen will flow in short order. One of his followers should clue him in on photodissociation of water. I am wondering why such a world class chemist did not think of this solution for himself. The heat generating SunCell is a huge mistake. If Mills went with a photodissociation of water design, all his problems would be over. Using the photodissociation of water is all know technology...no heat problems...no solar cell issues...no materials issues...Hydrogen fuel cell tech is mature and commercialized, he will have been home free. I now state boldly that whoever first adopts photodissociation of water energy tech in the race to dominate future world energy production will be first to market and sell the low cost systems solution.

SunCell spectrum

JedRothwell makes a valid point but let me play the devils advocate.

In general X-rays have wavelength between 10 nm and 0.01 nm. The SunCell produces 10nm light at a reported intensity of 10 megawatts. Can the SunCell irradiate the aluminum walls of the SunCell with enough photonic power and rapidly enough to keep the those aluminum walls in a state of perpetual transparency at least to XUV.

To be straightforward, the answer is no because the spectrum that Mills provides is very misleading. His actual SunCell spectrum is without very much XUV. That spectrum is mostly visible light.