The NEDO Initiative - Japan's Cold Fusion Programme

Quote from Curbina

I wonder if one could apply to become a foreign participant of the NEDO program.

Australia appears to be a foreign participant with Latrobe coal gasification..

the NEDO program probably favours BIG industry..like Kawasaki Heavy Industry

https://netl.doe.gov/sites/def…190829-Kawasaki-Final.pdf

This is extraordinarily encouraging to the interested scientifically literate layman for for several reasons;

* We now have two teams of scientists getting and publishing reproducible methods of obtaining sustained excess heat

* Both are using roughly similar techniques, i.e. exploiting nano-featured combinations of Ni/Pd (or Ni/Cu) with deuterium or hydrogen

* Because of current intense interest in catalysis, there is a large and rapidly-expanding knowledge-base in the design and manufacture of nanosized metal particles, wires, bimetallics and composites - hence plenty of possibilities for optimisation.

* In the work reported above, the materials, equipment, and pressures used (other than the nanoparticles themselves) are relatively accessible and in some cases really cheap (Cu and H, instead of Pd and D2;, internal pressures of the order of half-atmospheric, rather than hard vacuum)

I'm tempted to predict that this field is about to attract much more interest from "mainstream" science.

(And I can't wait for one of these teams to throw natural caution to the winds and start turning up the input power! )

Yes, the Japanese seem to be way ahead in terms of finding some practical use for LENR - I wonder if the first LENR heating devices will be Mizuno-type R20 reactors filled with the Ni/Cu/ZrO2 composite nano particles Takahashi et al are producing. It all seems consistent with other work that ZrO2 probably functions as a dehydrogenation catalyst to form dense deuterium - the first essential step in cold fusion which is catalysed within the Ni/Cu lattice. We can all be optimistic that some inexpensive devices may be on the market soon using such cheap materials - also maybe Brillouin Energy Corp would achieve higher COP values by using zirconia instead of alumina?

Quote from Dr Richard

"... It all seems consistent with other work that ZrO2 probably functions as a dehydrogenation catalyst to form dense deuterium - ..."

Is there any evidence that this can or does happen?

Yes but not directly, the catalyst KFeO2 Holmlid uses to synthesize ultra-dense H or D is a dehydrogenation catalyst used in styrene production. Many other metal oxides including MnO2, ZrO2 and even SiO2 or mixtures of these have similar dehydrogenation activity to KFeO2 - this has not been tested directly by Holmlid but its unlikely these oxides could not function in the same way to split molecular H2 or D2 into atomic forms prior to Rydberg Matter formation then condensation to dense forms. Maybe he has tested other similar catalysts to KFeO2 but not reported such findings yet?

Dr Richard

don't forget TiO2 because oxides are interesting, can be doped

Sure thing - the ZrO2-TiO2 mixed catalyst is even more effective than ZrO2 or TiO2 alone in styrene synthesis. Also there was some story that the presence of trace Rhodium and Iridium (hydrogenation catalysts) were present in early samples of Pd obtained by F&P in their early experiments - perhaps accounting for their early successes in finding excess heat (again due to dense D or H catalysis). Or maybe this is just LENR folklore, I don't know. Certainly I think Norront Fusion, who are backing Holmlid's work, are interested in finding more efficient possible ultra dense hydrogen catalysts other than KFeO2 which has stability problems, I think.

Dr Richard

by avoiding outsiders in credibility as Rossi, it remains difficult for me to find a common way of understanding between Holmlid and Japanese powders.

From one side, by catalyst you reduce H size by factor 10exp3 from Japanese side you just have to do some H trap between Pd and Ni at outside shell.

I also forgot the magic from Storms

Well.....

Quote from Dr Richard

Sure thing - the ZrO2-TiO2 mixed catalyst is even more effective than ZrO2 or TiO2 alone in styrene synthesis. Also there was some story that the presence of trace Rhodium and Iridium (hydrogenation catalysts) were present in early samples of Pd obtained by F&P in their early experiments - perhaps accounting for their early successes in finding excess heat (again due to dense D or H catalysis). Or maybe this is just LENR folklore, I don't know. Certainly I think Norront Fusion, who are backing Holmlid's work, are interested in finding more efficient possible ultra dense hydrogen catalysts other than KFeO2 which has stability problems, I think.

Good to know - hopefully they might confirm such metal oxide UDH/D catalytic activity is not restricted to KFeO2 alone. Oxides of Pd and Ni might also be effective in this respect - might account for the variability in the R20 replications - possibly Deneum were just too clean and failed to see excess heat with no metal oxide present whereas Mizuno's reactor probably had significant amounts of oxide present either in the NiPd mesh or SS reactor body-all speculation I know - just trying to make sense of it! No dense deuterium means no excess heat possible. (The other thing was the internal heater in R20 possibly exposed any UDD to higher levels of IR than in previous tests, giving rise to higher rates of fusion reactions and the now famous near 3kW output!). Maybe after control runs additions of KFeO2 or other metal/ oxide catalysts (ZrO2/TiO2/or even some Rh or Ir) could be made to boost performance?

Dr Richard

trust me well R20 movie here was just to catch investors , they will have to pay to know the full release

DF

Cydonia - Don't you agree that the scientific basis (whatever it is) underlying cold fusion must be common to all CF experiments? I'm just extrapolating from Holmlid's work (which may or may not be 100% true) to other experiments. The problem here is no other conventional physicists accept that ultra dense forms of hydrogen can be formed by such a catalytic process - the nearest analogy is metallic hydrogen which requires 100's of GPa and low temperatures close to absolute zero to even have a snowball's chance in Hell of forming - it has been proposed to occur on Jupiter and might account for excess heat production there via LENR (catalyzed by iron silicates)? Just as the Mills' concept of the hydrino will probably never be accepted by mainstream, or proposals of heavy electrons other than muons, or Storm's hydrotons etc. So it all ends up being speculative until something comes out on the market which we LENR enthusiasts can chew on before conventional science is forced to pay attention. The Takahashi group are quoting 200 W excess heat per Kg? Well that's 10X less than the R20 but nice to see some progress being made.

Quote from AlainCo

What is strange is that the numerous solid and replicated success reported at JCF, published before, make much less noise than the failure of Google team, and the claims of il Dotore.

The noise from the Google team is because they published in Nature, and because Google is big. Rossi is only a Loud Noise here.

Rossi is only Loud Noise here.

The Rossi noise appears to serve a vital social BGM for some..

Quote from Dr Richard

Yes, the Japanese seem to be way ahead in terms of finding some practical use for LENR

No, it is miles away from being practical. Billions of dollars away. Don't get me wrong. I think the work by Takahashi et al. is great. I am encouraged by Iwamura's recent results with multiple layers. I feel better about Mizuno now that he has been independently verified. These developments may even keep cold fusion alive, although these researchers themselves are old and will not last much longer. But, however encouraging this is, it is still far from being practical, and there does not seem to be any likelihood of serious funding. It is "sparrow's tears" level funding. At this pace, it will take 100 years to make anything practical. Actually, as far as I know, there is no funding. The NEDO funding for this ended in 2017. I don't know how they are continuing -- assuming they are continuing, and not just writing up old data.