What are your differences with the Mizuno reactor ?
I hope, this is the right spot to ask some more specific technical questions on reactor design. However, I (we) are not doing an exact MIZUNO replication, but similar.
I would be pleased, if we could have an exange here, since I believe participants in this thread have similar technical challenges. Otherwise please mods advice the best thread.
gerold.s , Mizuno reactors are gas loading, even Ubaldo Mastromatteo has used his Mizuno inspired R20 analog (he claimed to have failed in replication of the Ni mesh rubbed with Pd) repurposed for experiments with his preparatiom of Ni nano powder and was succesful getting excess heat.
You can find in this same thread several tips and examples of reactor replication (sealing materials, vaccum resistant gaskets and valves, heaters, reactor degassing,etc.)
I have built a very close replica of the transparent Mizuno calorimeter, tested the heck out of it, and designed an improved version that is very similar.
I can answer many questions that you may have on design, construction materials, and what should be improved at the minimum from the base design.
I still have the expensive Acrylic box. I’m not sure what I will do with it. I recommend against using Acrylic in the construction except as a window, due to its high heat capacity and mass.
What are your differences with the Mizuno reactor ?
The main difference is that we currently use in experiments quarz glass tube reactors. We measure temperature and monitore the gamma spectrum, as we believe this gives more knowledge about the LENR process(es). With stainless steel reactors, gamma monitoring becomes even more challenging.
We can reach a pretty stable vacuum ( easily lower than 1mbar) at medium temperatures. (300°C to 400°C)
A next iteration would be to increase the potential temperature range to ca. 800°C or having a more direct IR radiation capeability on the "fuel" sample.
With external heating and our setup, this seems impossible.... therefore internal heating with a standard glowplug could do the trick. We need the heat only in a well defined rather small area, maybe 20x20mm.
I have built a very close replica of the transparent Mizuno calorimeter, tested the heck out of it, and designed an improved version that is very similar.
the focus is currently on a solution that allows direct temperature measurement of fuel sample in vacuum environment (with multiple thermocouples) and gamma monitoring thru glas wall.
One issue what I face. .how to build a feed thru(s) for up to three TC's into a KF standard flange with space limitations. I know there are vacuum fittings for TC's available, but would hard soldering be an option?
the focus is currently on a solution that allows direct temperature measurement of fuel sample in vacuum environment (with multiple thermocouples) and gamma monitoring thru glas wall.
One issue what I face. .how to build a feed thru(s) for up to three TC's into a KF standard flange with space limitations. I know there are vacuum fittings for TC's available, but would hard soldering be an option?
Very much different.
magicsound or Alan here would probably be better to ask.
Last year I priced a 2.75" Conflat flange with two type K thermocouple feed-throughs, quoted at $575 each (min. 3 pcs) from MDC. The feed-through pins and connectors have to be specific metals for this application, to avoid false junction voltages. There may also be a problem using type K TCs in hydrogen, which seems to promote the "green rot" degradation of the protective oxide layer.
I have built a very close replica of the transparent Mizuno calorimeter, tested the heck out of it, and designed an improved version that is very similar.
You did put insulation inside it, right? That is essential. One person thought Mizuno was running with just the plastic. It was a misunderstanding.
You did put insulation inside it, right? That is essential. One person thought Mizuno was running with just the plastic. It was a misunderstanding.
I replaced entirely the Acrylic box with 2” of polystyrene rigid foam board over top of 1” aluminum coated isocyanate foam board. For a 25% improvement in heat recovery, and two hours less to temperature stabilization due to not heating the Acrylic box.
The reflective bubble foil does almost nothing and is barely better than no insulation at all (as installed as demonstrated in images). The bubble foil must not touch anything in order to work properly.
One issue what I face. .how to build a feed thru(s) for up to three TC's into a KF standard flange with space limitations. I know there are vacuum fittings for TC's available, but would hard soldering be an option?
Yes.
I have some spare monel-metal-sheathed high temperature OMEGA TCs - the monel sheathed leads are around 2mm diameter and 400mm long. Standard plug fitting.
I think it would be quite possible to bore a 2mm hole in the center of an M5 bolt and silver solder the TC lead into it, then screw the threaded bolt with a cooper sealing washer into a threaded hole in the flange.
This one is ideal, melting point 600 ish, remelt temperature around 700. And easy to use.
ETA. Very happy to send you a few of those thermocouples.
I'm taking a break while waiting for the new type meshes from me356. Those will have to be sealed in inert gas for shipment, not an easy task. In other news, my Cirrus 2 mass spec. system has returned from reconditioning and calibration at MKS. I'm adding a proper capillary gas sampling valve to my spare reactor cell and will be testing that soon, but without me356 meshes.
Me356 has been quiet for 6 weeks, though he logs in still. Do you have any idea of a date yet.
The inert gas packing is not so hard btw. I have done it using a vacuum packer as made for food packagine. Get a bag bigger than you need, put in the sample flush it with your inert gas, evacuate and seal. You can do this several times re-cut the seal, flush again and seal.
Not perfect, but nobody ever complained.
The inert gas packing is not so hard btw.
As I previously discussed, the activated mesh also needs to be protected from contact with hydrocarbons (plastics). So at minimum, aluminium foil covering then sealed as you described. Or a hermetic metal container of some kind.
Or a hermetic metal container of some kind.
That could be an all-stainless steel vaccum flask with aluminium foil between closure and contents. A dollar store item here.
Thank you for patience. I had wedding and busy time last few weeks.
We have meshes prepared and ready for shipping. During next week we will ship. I think I have over 100 in stock with much better parameters from what was shipped previously.
.Very nice to hear!
THH, speaking from someone who is in the process of validating our current technology in multiple labs I personally appreciate your critical feedback as something I can learn from.
One lab where I am at right now did a calibration run, kind of half expecting to see another negative result, then ran our reactor and saw significant signal but instead of popping the champagne bottles, this particular professor decided to disassemble the whole apparatus, recalibrate all the critical sensors, run another dummy experiment and then finally rerun the active reactor without changing any wires or settings in order to minimize any possible systemic errors.
We also are putting together a collaborative effort of multiple labs with blinded reactors and doing a round robin validation where we measure reactors unknown whether they are dummy or active and then sharing these reactors so that 3 or 4 labs all make their measurements and then upload their results to the cloud where they will finally be unblinded and shared.
We are also doing our best to upgrade our calorimetry equipment to squeeze out all the uncertainty we can and using multiple sensors for each point as much as possible.
BEC has had enough oomph to raise multiple rounds of funding at high evaluations but it’s not always in the company’s best interests to publish and publicize such results. Clean Planet has also done the same. Both of these companies are ahead of us in this sense.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s not always the private company’s motivation to prove all the skeptics wrong. Their main mission is to raise funds and move the company forward.
Finally, could you please be a little more precise in your criticism of the BEC SRI report? Measurement of pulses can be famously problematic but from a practical side, if you just measure power at the plug over a long enough period you can easily get enough data to satisfy the critics. If it was me, that’s what I would be doing.
