I had written yesterday about the independent review of the E-Cat fusion device. Today, Extreme Tech looks at the report:
Cold fusion reactor verified by third-party researchers, seems to have 1 million times the energy density of gasoline
Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat — the device that purports to use cold fusion to generate massive amounts of cheap, green energy – has been verified by third-party researchers, according to a new 54-page report. The researchers observed a small E-Cat over 32 days, where it produced net energy of 1.5 megawatt-hours, or “far more than can be obtained from any known chemical sources in the small reactor volume.” The researchers were also allowed to analyze the fuel before and after the 32-day run, noting that the isotopes in the spent fuel could only have been obtained by “nuclear reactions” — a conclusion that boggles the researchers: “… It is of course very hard to comprehend how these fusion processes can take place in the fuel compound at low energies.”
Lots more at the site.
Also, it looks like the Swedes are very interested (ie: putting up some hard cash to funs it) - from E-Cat News:
Elforsk CEO: Swedish Energy Institute to Build LENR Research Initiative
Elforsk is a cooperative research and development institute that is made up of utilities and other energy companies in operating in Sweden. Today on Elforsk’s web site and in the Swedish science and technology magazine Nyteknik, Elforsk’s CEO Magnus Oloffsson has written an article responding to the E-Cat testing report published yesterday by the independent European research team,
Here are some of the key points Oloffson makes:
Clear isotope changes in the analyzed fuel indicates instead that in the case of nuclear reactions at low temperatures. It suggests that we may be facing a new way to extract nuclear energy.Probably without ionizing radiation and radioactive waste. The discovery could eventually become very important for the world’s energy supply . . .
If it is possible to safely achieve and control the now indicated nuclear reactions waiting probably eventually a fundamental transformation of our energy system. It can open for decentralized energy supply. Electricity and heat can then be produced with relatively simple components. Climate Efficient energy would be very cheap. . .
Elforsk takes now the initiative to build a comprehensive Swedish research initiative. More knowledge is needed to understand and explain. Let us engage more researchers in searching coat phenomenon and then explain how it works.
This is a rapid response from a serious and influential energy organization to yesterday’s report. Elforsk is now taking LENR very seriously, and it looks like Sweden could be the first country to really get behind an effort to understand and develop this new form of energy. We don’t know what the future plans of Industrial Heat are to make available the E-Cat for further research and development, but in yesterday’s report, the testing team mentioned that they want to continue their work to understand exactly what is going on inside the E-Cat.
This is a very interesting development from Elforsk. They obviously are taking the report very seriously and are set to put significant resources behind this new LENR research initiative. It will be interesting to see if this sets a precedent that other organizations will follow.
Very cool!