Andrea Rossi has just announced what would seem to be an important breakthrough in the development of the E-Cat. In a comment on the Journal of Nuclear Physics today, Rossi said:
We are very close to a 1 MW plant with high temperature steam and electric power generation. Another important achievement , we got today: we are able, now, to make the drive with gas instead of electric power. This is extremely important, because now we are able to make thermal energy with thermal energy, and with the thermal energy produced we can make electric power. All this with 1 MW plants.
This would be an important breakthrough for a couple of reasons, in my estimation. First, heat from natural gas is going to be a lot more economical than heat from electricity in many parts of the world — and especially in places where reliable sources of electricity are not available. One could imagine in some parts of the world a tank of natural gas, or propane could be installed close to an E-Cat plant to provide the heat drive necessary to control the reaction.
The second reason, it seems to me, is that if the E-Cat itself is producing so much thermal energy, it may be possible to find ways to reuse some of the thermal output to provide the heat necessary for the drive. Now the E-cat may not work that way, so that’s just a guess on my part. Or it could be that you might be able to have a small separate E-Cat supplying the thermal power for a larger one.
Rossi also mentions here that they are ‘very close’ to high temperature steam production. An E-Cat producing electricity is going to be much more versatile than one producing heat only. Of course the usual ‘Rossi says’ caveats apply here — that should go without saying.
It’s certainly been an eventful week so far on the LENR front!
And by the way, what is this?