Advantages of Using of Furnace Based Model for Rossi-Type Reactor Replication (Pec Ypc)

The following article was submitted by Pec Ypc

2015-03-16
Use of Furnace Based Model for Rossi-Type Reactor Replication

The idea of using a furnace as a high temperature controlled environment for Rossi-type reactor replication appears to have many advantages.

Here is a comparison analysis of “classical” Rossi’s design of alumina tube heated by the external coil in the open air with furnace based replication experiments.

Disadvantages of alumina tube heated by external coil in open air:

– high input power comparable or exceeding the expected power of reaction excess heat is needed which makes it more difficult to calculate the Input/Output power ratio and lowers calculated COD

– heating coil and additional covering materials (if any) isolate the reactor tube from direct temperature and spectrometric measurements (for example, in visual (VIS) and infrared (IR) bands)

– temperatures required to start the reaction of 1100-1400 °C are close to being destructive for inexpensive K thermocouples and inexpensive heating elements (like Kanthal wire). Additional heat sources expected due to reaction can easily result in exceeding physical limits of thermocouples and wires used and result in their failure (much more expensive heating materials and expensive R, S thermocouples are needed to work in this design reliably)

– high heat dissipation in air makes it difficult to control reactor temperature and maintain the reaction when and if it starts

– this design does not have ability to achieve self-sustained reaction due to high heat dissipation and fast temperature drop, if external heating stops

Furnace based reactor design:

1. Alumina tube with ~5mm ID, 10-30 MM OD is filled with mix of Ni powder 90% and LiAlH4 powder 10%, by weight
2. Alumina tube with fuel is sealed with high temperature cement (3000 °F cement can be bought at Lowes and Home Depot)
3. No heating coils are attached to the alumina tube reactor.

4. The controller/computer controlled heating of the alumina tube with a fuel is performed by radiant thermal energy in a relatively inexpensive high temperature Muffle Furnace or Kiln
(the kiln with digital controller, with max temperatures up to 2350 °F (~1290 °C) is readily available from Paragon and Olympic Kilns for ~$500-$800, see below)

5. The kiln may have quartz window(s) which will allow not only measurement of reactor tube’s temperature with K/R/S thermocouples but also direct visual and spectral measurements of the reactor in VIS/IR bands.

Furnace/Kiln based reactor design allows:
– safely and reliably achieve required temperatures to start LENR reaction (1100 – ~1300 °C)
(there are no heating coils and or thermocouples to be destroyed at this temp, as kiln is designed for these conditions)

– reliably achieve much higher temperatures for experiments of up to 1700-1800 °C with specialized Muffle Furnaces, at a reasonable price (Furnaces with max temperature up to 1700 °C cost in the range of $5k-$7k, see below)

– maintain the temperature of reactor at set level automatically and for as long as needed (kiln heat controller will switch off if and when reactor starts producing heat on its own at the set temperature)

– easy control of reactor activation/work by monitoring on/off status of the kiln heater and kiln temperature as kilns are designed to maintain a set temperature

– ability to maintain self-sustained reactor state due to reactor stable temperature environment

For example, Olympic Kiln is designed to maintain ~1300 °C at input power of ~1.6-1.8 KW.
It means that thermal isolation of the kiln will dissipate ~1.6 KW at the internal temperature of ~1300 °C after achieving thermal equilibrium. If kiln heater switched off, even without excess reactor heat the cooling of the kiln chamber will be rather slow – tens of minutes – due to a good thermal isolation of kiln.

In this case, if reactor will be able to produce about 1-2 KW of heat energy, as reported in some replication experiments, it will be comparable with kiln’s heating power needed to maintain set high temperature. The thermal isolation of the kiln then will be roughly enough to maintain the temperature of the working reactor at about the same level (let’s say ~ 1300 °C).

– direct spectral measurements of reactor tube in VIS and IR band can be achieved through fused quartz windows (available options in kilns) and directly through small hole(s) in kiln’s wall(s).

– at ~1100 – 1300 °C it will be clearly seen even with a naked eye, if reactor is producing its own heat – by comparing the light intensity of the kiln walls and alumina tube itself or comparing light intensity of two reactor tubes with and without fuel.

– alumina tube can also be substituted by quartz tube to allow direct spectral measurements of the fuel inside (although the are some complications with quartz glass at those temps)

– this design will allow simple repeatable experiments with different fuel mixes and temperature conditions with quick turnaround time, as reactor tube is simple to make and easy to replace, and setup is easy for doing parallel simultaneous tests in the same an/or multiple furnace chambers

– it will also allow to easily control reactor temperature, should it go up on its own – by simply opening additional holes (automatically or manually) in the kiln or use forced ventilation through special holes – to increase heat dissipation

– with some metal tubes with circulating water inserted through the kiln chamber, it will allow the measured release of heat energy outside the reactor and kiln (if and when it comes to this stage)

– special PID temperature controllers easily availble on a market allow PC control of the Furnace/Kiln through RS232/RS485/USB interface

– more expensive Muffle Furnaces allow to use vacuum or controlled pressure gas inside the chamber which may be beneficial for further experiments and research (it jumps to range of ~$20K and more for Vacuum Furnaces though)

– high level of experiment safety is achieved naturally with furnace/kiln design due to thick (2.5-3″) furnace mortar walls of the chamber surrounding reactor tube from all sides (except for small Quartz windows and specialty holes, if needed). In addition Furnace/kiln is normally covered by stainless steel and/or steel frame over the chamber.
This high level of mechanical and structural protection is especially important in case of potential micro explosions due to very high gas pressure inside reactor tube at high temperatures.

Additional Notes to Furnace/Kiln Design:
Tube Muffles more easily allow vacuum/gas pressure controlled chamber environment but are less convenient for visual and spectral analysis of reactor tube due to lack of windows with direct view of the reactor (compared to non tube muffles of different shape).

Fused Quartz (aka Silica Quartz) tubes and rods are much more convenient materials to operate with – for making sealed reactor tubes. After injecting fuel into glass tube, glass rods with matching OD can be inserted from both sides and sealed by flame from propane/butane torch

Sources for Materials for Furnace/Kiln based experiments:

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Kiln:

Highest temperature for Kiln is characterized by a number called “Con”. For these experiments suitable
Kilns are “Con 10” which have the highest Kiln temperature available of 2350 °F (~1290 °C).

Examples of Kilns (~$500 -$800):

Paragon Caldera
http://www.paragonweb.com/Design_A_Kiln.cfm?step=6&KilnID=1577
http://kruegerpottery.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=0&q=paragon+caldera

Olympic Kiln:

Olympic HB84E Kiln
http://www.greatkilns.com/kiln-varieties/electric-kilns/hb84e.html
http://kruegerpottery.com/kilns-1/olympic-glass-electric-gas-kilns/olympic-hb84e-kiln.html

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Muffle Furnace:

http://www.acrossinternational.com/1700C-40-Segment-Muffle-Furnace-w-PC-Interface-CF1700.htm
http://www.acrossinternational.com/Tube-Furnaces_c10.htm

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PID Temperature controllers with PC interface:

http://www.omega.com/pptst/CN7200_Series.html
http://goo.gl/1t52fy

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Alumina Ceramics manufacturing and machining companies:

Absolute-Tek Ceramics, Accuratus, AdValue Tech, Associated Ceramics, Coors Tech, Kadco Ceramics, Sentra Tech

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High temperature Furnace cement:

http://goo.gl/HXgjlq
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hercules-1-2-gal-Furnace-Stove-Cement-35515/202078154

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Fused Quartz Tubing and Rods:

http://technicalglass.com/product_pages/fused_quartz_tubing/fused_quartz_tubing.html
http://technicalglass.com/product_pages/fused_quartz_rod/fused_qtz_rod.html

Products of this company at Amazon:

http://goo.gl/5S94Mk
http://goo.gl/iM07l5

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Gas Torches for flameworking with Quartz glass:

http://goo.gl/EycBTY
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Dremel-2200-VersaFlame-Multi-Purpose-Tool-Kit-2200-01/205472713