Andrea Rossi has commented quite a bit on the lengthy periods of self-sustain mode he has apparently been able to achieve with both the 1 MW plant and the Hot Cat he has been testing. He recently said that he has come up with ideas, based on data from the Hot Cat testing, to revolutionize the Hot Cat (again) for even longer periods of self sustain. He said they shut down the Hot Cat to make modifications for that purpose, but he has not reported on whether the planned “revolution” has been realized.
He has also commented that a 100 per cent self-sustaining is impossible for safety reasons. This prompted the following question on the Journal of Nuclear Physics from Steven Karels:
Dear Andrea Rossi,
You posted “100% ssm is impossible for safety reasons.” While this is absolutely true, do you agree that with some sort of energy storage, e.g., a battery, the overall system could theoretically become self sustaining, i.e., require no external power other than startup? Or are there other reasons against it?
July 22nd, 2015 at 8:34 AM
Steven N. Karels:
Yes, is possible, but it is not worth.
Warm Regards,
A.R.
I do like the idea of a completely off-grid E-Cat producing large amounts of power, but I think what Rossi means here is that to include an energy storage device to power the E-Cat is probably unnecessarily complex if there is a grid-provide source of electricity available.
If there are very high levels of self-sustain going on, the input costs for the electricity being used to drive the E-Cat are probably minimal compared to the amount of energy the E-Cat is producing.