The first folks to put up money for the Andrea Rossi E-Cat are the territorial distributors. Whatever any of us might think, these folks have the wherewithal and fortitude to get in for the business future. What the business might turn out to be is still quite the item for discussion, but 150 years ago the smartest doctors said there were no germs.
More time will tell.
Brian Wang found an interview of a distributor in Italy that is formatted in "ten questions" that are sure to have been edited both for clarity and brevity. We also have to deal with a Google translation to learn what's been said.
Aldo Proia.
Luciano Saporito interviewed Aldo Proia, Chairman and CEO of Prometeon Ltd. a licensee company of the E-Cat in Italy.
Briefly, so as not to overrun Saporito's work we'll have a quick summary.
Related Article: Elections and Electrons
First, Proia said the E-Cats running at low temps such as 120ºC are for sale now and the guarantee is for a co-efficient of power or COP, of 6. This sort of model still needs an electric power source. The high temperature version E-Cat at a suggested temperature of 600ºC is still in development. Proia suggests there is more news to come further out in time.
On the matter of competing interests stopping the development of Cold Fusion or LENR or whatever the description becomes, Proia believes that in today's world technology is very hard to stop. What one country will impede, another will take up.
On the sales front Proia relates the facts as his firm practices them. Prometeon selects the first customers, which must meet certain requirements. Then, after this initial phase lasting at least 6 months, the company will consider a massive sales program. Obviously Proia and his firm would dearly love to speed things up, but progress is subject to the research and development pace.
For the questioning minds the idea of "seeing" a working commercial unit at 1 MW thermal depends on the customers. Prometeon will not be disclosing customer information without the prior authorization by the customer. In any case, requests will not be possible for several months after installation and then will still depend on the consent of the customer.
Industrial E-Cat Illustration.
A couple of questions focus on the local Italian economic effects. Here Proia doesn't come directly to an answer, rather points to the nature of the savings and the market limitations both in Italy and the U.S. Saporito asks about the employment impacts for which Proia considers that E-Cats may well improve locally to an E-Cat's employment conditions.
Proia addresses the early adopter risk of becoming outdated with new research and development. Here the issue is for now simple. As E-Cats are fueled for six months a refueling would contain the latest developments.
What is this Prometeon firm? It's the sole licensee for Italy and the Republic of San Marino, of the Energy Catalyzer or E-Cat. It may even be a one-man business.
Related Article: Despite Fukushima, China Embraces Nuclear Power
There is a bit of insight on the E-Cat on the Prometeon site. The nickel and hydrogen is pretreated, supplied by a special "tablet" containing a special molecule, which liberates hydrogen during heating of the reaction chamber and then reabsorbs during cooling.
An E-Cat works commercially with an alternating series of stages of heating with long periods of complete self-sufficiency: a little like a clothing iron, which turns on and off continuously, with the difference that an E-Cat produces power even when "off".
There's not much here for either the advocates or naysayers. But it's noteworthy that the outside marketing money is speaking out now. This and much of the information is parallel to the information that has stayed steady from Mr. Rossi.
With that we'll wish all of those involved, all the way to the discreet customers the best of success and a wish for a little public information that the rest of us can use to start looking to own an E-Cat ourselves.
By. Brian Westenhaus
Brian is the editor of the popular energy technology site New Energy and Fuel. The site’s mission is to inform, stimulate, amuse and abuse the… More
Comments
Can you find out what is happening with Brillouin and Defkalion? Last news about Brillouin was that they signed a deal (possible 20 mil. $) with Sunrise Securities of New York begining of September and that they got a patent in China. By now they should be in full development with their dry hot tube NHB™ testing plus wet Brillouin Boiler™ testing.
All his recent claims are simply "Rossi says".
Even some of his most ardent supporters are now demanding that he put up or shut up.
There are two extensive web pages which suggest that Rossi is perpetrating an investor and distributor scam.
It is easy to prove whether he has what he says and it would not endanger his intellectual property. He doesn't allow it, most likely because he is faking it.
There is no reason whatsoever to base investment decisions of any sort on claims made by Rossi, Defkalion or any other person or organization claiming to have commercial level LENR. None has properly demonstrated that such a thing exists.
"If you don't believe there is a real anomalous heat effect, then you are being ignorant of the data." Dr. Robert Duncan, Vice-Chancellor Research, University Missouri, Nuclear Renaissance Inst.
And its not all "Rossi says" anymore. It is also "Aldo Proia says".
For you Dafekalion is "Defkalion says", Brillouin is "Brillouin says", George Miley is "George Miley says", etc.
I will concentrate more on what "Aldo Proia" says right now, since he is closer to the reality of market than others.
Proia says he has the product and in 2013 we will know more on sales. Let's live it to that.
Our transmutated material was redundantly analyzed by several groups, including U. ME, Evans Analytical Group (Shiva Technologies), Media Sciences Corp and Dr. Edmund Storms. All the data from all the analysis groups matched each other and I have signed reports.
We have tried very hard to set up a proper hot cell test with three groups, but these attempts have all been foiled. If anyone thinks its easy to set up "independent" verification, they are wrong. The reach of special interests is long. They promote their puppets while trying to hold NanoSpire back.
Serge and I reached up to 6 million people in our last satellite broadcast, and we have had half a million hits to our website since coming out with our discoveries, but have only received a handful of inquires, mostly from people I already know are associated with competitors and internet trolls that also work for them. We also have seen comments that we have been sent numerous e-mails from some people, but haven't responded. That's because we cant see them, we aren't trying to ignore anybody.
The world would have its conclusive fusion demonstration from NanoSpire some time ago if we weren't so up against the powers that be.
You are even less credible than Rossi and Defkalion and that's pretty non-credible.
Want to give a public demo? Just do it. What great and mysterious powers are stopping you anyway?
I am told that you can create a plasma with a battery and a couple of electrodes and the air you breathe on any scale that you wish and give it a little Z-Pinch and get you some power. 2% of the atmosphere is composed of Noble Gases, and they readily move to a plasma state. Consider a Plasma Cutting torch. It is just as simple as we have been told it would be when we understood the workings of matter when it is condensed. There are some blacksmiths that are going to close up shop.
Paul D. Maher
www.coldfusionnow.org
The physics of thermonuclear fusion and element formation are far beyond the capabilities of Mr. LeClair's system and his comprehension. He provides a textbook example of grandiose delusional disorder as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). He really should be seeking professional psychiatric help, not investors.
His ideas are simply preposterous, and common sense alone would suffice to disprove them. His reluctance to submit his claims to the peer review process is one obvious example. I actually have a copy of one of his presentations and his "fusion results," and I decided to help him out by sending them to the Chairman of the Physics Department at the University of Maine, a professor of materials science at Penn State, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Missouri (affiliated with the Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance), and the Chairman of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Department at the University of California. Suffice it to say that they all found Mr. LeClair's ideas to be both ridiculous and hilarious; complete and utter nonsense.
There is no ionizing radiation or radioactivity associated with Mr. LeClair's ludicrous and nonexistent "LeClair Effect." He is basically using a 0.5-hp pump to direct plain water at an aluminum plate. If you are familiar with bass fishing tournaments, you may know that bass boats typically use 250-hp motors (500 times more powerful than Mr. LeClair's pump). Each motor is equipped with a "cavitation plate." So you can imagine that, if Mr. LeClair were correct, the entire lake would explode when over 100 bass boats take off at full power during a tournament, and of course all the participants who did not die in the blast would die of radiation exposure.
I have reviewed Mr. LeClair's "results" and his products are small fragments of commonly available materials like brass and carbon steel. These are probably detritus from the internals of his system that were produced by cavitation erosion, a well-understood process. Even assuming that "elements" formed from plain water, it would truly be a miracle for them to spontaneously organize themselves into commercially available alloys, don't you think? Also, if these elements were recently formed by thermonuclear fusion/fission/transmutation, they would be highly radioactive for a very long time. His ridiculous claims of "radiation sickness" are indicative of his mental disorder (I always wondered what it would be like to be a human dosimeter). His "we will never give up the fight" attitude is not science, but rather the same kind of rabid fanaticism that enabled Jim Jones to get all those people to drink that Kool-Aid.
I have a Ph.D. in nuclear and chemical engineering and over 35 years of experience in commercial and Naval nuclear power. I worked on ADM Rickover's staff at Naval Reactors in the radiation protection branch from 1975 to 1980. I have taken over 50 courses in chemical and nuclear engineering, radiation protection, materials science, fluid mechanics, and nuclear chemistry/physics. So who are you going to believe, LeClair or five engineering/science Ph.D.s?
If you still have any doubts whatsoever, I would be pleased to arrange for Mr. LeClair to give his presentation to the physics department faculty at the University of Maine. If even one faculty member supports his ideas, I will personally pay him one million dollars. If as I suspect they all conclude that he is nuts, then he has to submit to a psychiatric evaluation at his own expense.
Best regards,
Fred Zoepfl, Ph.D.