Device Update

New Energy Research Laboratory Device and Process Testing Update
Published in IE Volume 8, Issue #44, July/August 2002
by Ken Rauen
Sonofusion
Sonofusion testing has gone essentially no farther since the last update. The testing at 140 volt peak operation through an isolation transformer with the 0.1 inch water gap reactor showed no excess heat under any conditions. We have acquired the custom made 5:1 step up transformer mentioned in the last issue, but we have not given it priority to place it into testing.

Since the last issue was published, NERL tested a proprietary electronic device for nearly a month, from an inventor not associated with NERL; this consumed a significant part of our time. Due to the nondisclosure agreement with the inventor, the details of the testing cannot be divulged yet. However, we were very pleased to observe a clear output excess power of 0.44 watts as measured to an accuracy of 60.02 watts in our Thermonetics Seebeck calorimeter.

The Lab's funding has become more precarious, so shrewd decisions have placed other projects ahead of sonofusion in an effort to produce good results soon to attract funding. Gene Mallove and I have decided to temporarily halt sonofusion testing. We still believe sonofusion is real; we just do not have the time to identify the parameters of sonofusion fast enough to bring financial stability to NERL.

Catalytic Fusion
Les Case brought a custom-made reactor vessel to NERL for testing. Actually, it was too big to be delivered by truck to his hilltop home during icy weather, so it ended up here. I did some testing with Les' instruction. The details of the reactor and catalyst are proprietary, but I can mention the general activities performed with his system. A larger vessel, roughly 4 feet long and 15 inches in diameter, made of stainless steel in a double-layer, evacuated wall design like a dewar flask, was charged with powdered catalyst, evacuated, back-filled with hydrogen, and heated to about 200°C. This is no doubt the largest "cold fusion" cell ever built!

By monitoring the power into the electric heater, several equilibrium temperature points were collected in the desired temperature range. The vessel was evacuated and back-filled with deuterium, and the same temperature range was monitored for power consumption required. A plot of the results showed no significant difference in power versus temperature between the two gases, indicating catalytic fusion was not significantly occurring. Les has some ideas about why this run did not produce excess heat while the catalyst was active in his small-scale testing. He considers this "know how" to be unsuitable for publication yet. This is not scientific research only; it is also research for scaling up to commercial application. The large vessel is intended for self-sustainment. Actually, we did not even anticipate the need to perform the calorimetric study that we did. It is a well-known relationship that the ratio of volume to surface area of a solid geometric shape increases as its dimensions increase. What this means is that, for a given set of reaction kinetics, at some set of dimensions, the internal reaction can provide enough heat to keep itself hot, and thus produce self-sustainment. The caveat concerning a given set of kinetics is the tricky part. Chemical engineers are very familiar with the difficulties of scaling up a bench-top reaction to a commercial production facility, and we are in the same mode of engineering right now. We are awaiting further instruction from Les, following his return to small-scale testing, before any more testing (if any) will be done.

Proprietary projects are now the central focus of my efforts. These will be shared with the readership at the appropriate time.