Overcoming the E-Cat Stall — A Proposal (Guest Post)

The following post was submitted by E-Cat World reader Rick Allen.

For two decades, cold fusion (LENR) researchers have worked to make their anomalous heat effects powerful, repeatable, and robust. With Rossi and Focardi’s announcement of the E-Cat in January 2011, many cold fusion enthusiasts felt that their dream had come true. Andrea Rossi’s nickel-hydrogen technology was, and is, a marvel. Producing extremely high levels of output while producing almost no radiation or nuclear waste, it’s a source of power that supersedes any other alternative energy solution: wind, hydroelectric, or photovoltaic. Also, importantly, another company, Defkalion Green Technologies, has demonstrated a Ni-H reactor that also seems to produce high levels of output. When the almost staggering results of these two companies are combined with the countless other confirmations of excess heat being produced with nickel and hydrogen reactors, it proves beyond reasonable doubt that the phenomenon is legitimate.

But there’s a problem.

Although behind the scenes, in the private labs of various companies, progress is being made, very little information about this discovery is available in the public domain. Except for a couple of one megawatt reactors that Leonardo Corporation may have leased privately to partner companies, there is not a single Ni-H reactor on the market. Even worse, the vast majority of ordinary people – who are not reading Rossi’s blog, PESN, or E-Cat World – are almost oblivious that this phenomenon exists. They have no idea that a total solution to the world’s energy crisis is already here.

Very few people are taking Ni-H technology seriously because the major players – Leonardo Corporation and maybe, arguably Defkalion – are not providing a formula that would allow the “Rossi Effect” to be easily replicated. This is to be expected. Both Rossi and Defkalion have spent millions of dollars developing their technology, and they refuse to simply give away their intellectual property. What’s so frustrating is that the situation is probably not going to change any time soon. Both of these companies are involved in continuous development of their technology for commercial purposes. It may be years before they are ready to share the “secret sauce.” Until that happens, the population of this planet as a whole will remain ignorant of this incredible discovery. Even if a working plant is put on display and a customer reports satisfactory operation, the mainstream scientific community will probably dismiss it as a fraud and the highly controlled media will refuse to report on it. It will take hundreds of replications from around the world to break through the prevailing mantra that cold fusion is impossible and pseudoscience. Also, it’s likely any public showing of such a plant by a major company is years away.

Just imagine what would happen if a formula that could produce equivalent results to the E-Cat was distributed openly. I’m talking about a formula that would include a detailed parts list, a bill of materials, construction details, and operating guidelines. In a short time, full functioning “Rossi Effect” reactors would be operating all over the world. It probably would not take long before companies in countries with less bureaucratic regulation than the USA, like China, would be using the technology commercially – at least in a few heat producing applications. Before long, thousands of teams of scientists and engineers would be developing the technology. Most importantly, the world would recognize, without a doubt, the existence, reality, and importance of the technology.

There’s no technology being developed anywhere on the planet, as far as I am aware, that holds as much immediate potential to benefit the world as the E-Cat. And I’m only talking about the heat producing aspect of the technology. Even if cold fusion only had the ability to cheaply replace the use of coal and fossil fuels in conventional power plants, it would still be the equivalent of a cosmic “golden egg” for humanity. But the technology will evolve far beyond heat production. Andrea Rossi reports that it holds the potential to produce electricity directly. Can you imagine a Ni-H battery in your phone that lasts for years? A tiny reactor – without the need for a steam turbine – to power your home for months without refueling? An electric car that could have a range of fifty thousand miles or more?

All of these wonders are possible with the “Rossi Effect.”

The question is, do we want to jump start the use of this technology now, or wait for years until more information is disclosed from the major players? I personally think that for the sake of humanity, there must be an effort started to produce a working formula for Ni-H technology, immediately. If we delay, humanity will simply remain in the dark ages that much longer.

I firmly believe this can be done. Both Rossi and Defkalion have released significant bits of information about how their technologies work. For example, the size of Rossi’s nickel powders (micro instead of nano), the tubercules that exist on their surface, the special processing mentioned by Defkalion, the radio frequency stimulation utilized, and the importance of atomic hydrogen are all important clues. If a serious, focused, and determined effort was made to utilize these clues, I think a working reactor could be developed.

But it wouldn’t be easy. Rossi spent years performing hundreds or thousands of experiments to develop his formula. I expect that such an open source project would require many experiments as well. What I envision is a lab, either in one location or distributed, that would perform test after test in standardized mini-reactors. Dozens or hundreds of them would be loaded with different catalysts, stimulated with different frequencies, and filled with nickel processed in different ways. Eventually, after a period of high throughput screening, we would learn what works and what doesn’t. When all the things that “work” and aid the reaction are combined, we would end up with a system as robust – or maybe more so – than the E-Cat.

Such an effort would require many things: a full time staff of competent, skilled workers, a decent facility for the experiments to take place, a web presence where all the results are posted, and an abundance of funding. If all of these things could come together – and everyone could get along – we could potentially come up with our own formula that could change the world.

My idea may seem similar to what the Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project is set up to do. I think the MFMP is a well-meaning organization that should be commended for their efforts to replicate and promote LENR. My point is not to belittle their work in any way, but to point out that we need a larger, more active project that is specifically focused on discovering a formula that can replicate the Rossi Effect.

Of course this could not happen without money. The way I see it, if online fund raising efforts can collect millions of dollars for unimportant things like video games and marginally useful gadgets, there must be a way to raise enough money for this project. I’ll openly admit that I’m not sure how the money should be raised or exactly how much would be needed. But somehow, due to the urgency involved in developing this technology, it must be acquired.

One drawback of this project is that, if successful, it may have an impact on the plans of the “major players” I’ve already mentioned, in addition to the smaller players. However, in a world that runs on energy, I think there will be a place for every cold fusion (LENR) company that currently exists. With a trillion dollar energy market, all these for-profit companies can make their millions or billions. What the project I’ve proposed would do is allow the Ni-H industry to get jump started for the good of humanity.

In addition, an open source formula would make sure Ni-H technology is not held back by excessive, bureaucratic regulations in first world nations. Steam technology, when it first started being utilized, was dangerous. Boilers would sometimes blow up. However, the technology was commercialized and rapidly advanced. If today’s draconian level of safety and certification regulations existed back then, it could have taken steam technology another forty years to be broadly used. In such a scenario, much of the technology we use today could have been held back. Can you imagine if were still at the technological levels of the 1970s? I for one am glad for the progress we have achieved.

So how should such an effort be organized and setup? I hope that readers of E-Cat World are willing to work together on making this happen. I firmly believe there is enough interest, intellectual capacity, and financial resources in our community and beyond to start such a project. It will certainly require the leadership of committed and qualified people of like minds to be successful, and I believe there are people who want to participate in such an effort.

I’m tired of waiting. My desire is to see the “Rossi Effect” be recognized as real by the entire world, be broadly utilized, and end the age of fossil fuels. There needs to be an open source, civilian style Manhattan project to bring this technology to light. Let’s make it happen.

Rick Allen