Cold Fusion is a new energy source that could replace oil, coal, gasoline etc.  There are many technical papers showing that the effect is real.  I am looking for help in reproducing a few of those experiments.  I'm looking for machinists, funding (or sponsors for equipment) and technical help.

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Here is a great video from the tv show "CBS 60 Minutes" on cold fusion done in April of 2009:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/60minutes/main4952167.shtml

here is another link the video:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4967330n&tag=related;photovideo

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New document released in November 2009 on Cold Fusion from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency:

U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report on cold fusion: Technology Forecast: Worldwide Research on Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Increasing and Gaining Acceptance DIA-08-0911-003, 13 November 2009

Presently I am trying to reproduce a paper published by Richard Oriani in 2008.  Oriani is a retired professor from University of Minnesota.  He has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Princeton and for many years was the director of a large anti-corrosion institute at the University of Minnesota.  He has been active in the Cold Fusion field since the beginning in 1989.

Oriani's paper:   http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/OrianiRAreproducib.pdf

There are a few people trying to reproduce Oriani's work as part of the "Curie Project".  Oriani's work was inspired by a group at SPAWAR (U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center)

SPAWAR's paper:  http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/MosierBosscharacteri.pdf

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Richard Oriani's Abstract from 2008 paper:

Past work in this laboratory has shown that nuclear particles generated during
electrolysis can be registered by CR39 plastic detectors held within the electrolyte
solution, suspended in the vapor above the solution, or placed just below the
metal cathode that serves as the bottom of the electrolyte compartment of the
electrolysis cell. However, not every electrolysis experiment produced nuclear
particles so that total reproducibility was not achieved. Therefore another
experimental technique has been developed which has shown the generation of
nuclear particles in each of twenty five consecutive electrolysis experiments using
heavy or light water solutions of lithium salts. The damage trails caused by the
nuclear particles are made visible by etching in hot concentrated caustic solution,
and the electrolysis experiments are accompanied by suitable blank, or control,
experiments. The damage trails begin either at the surface of the CR39 chip that
faces toward the electrolyte, at the opposite surface, or totally within the 0.83 mm
thickness of the plastic detectors. It is demonstrated that the nuclear damage trails
could not have been caused by ordinary radionuclides contaminating anything
involved in the experimental procedure. The described phenomena pose a
formidable challenge to nuclear theory.

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Below are photos of my setup:

Below are microscope photos of the pits in the CR-39 that are approximately  10 microns (.0004") in diameter.  CR-39 is a transparent polycarbonate (similar to Lexan) that acts as a detector of nuclear particles that travel through it.  See  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CR-39  

The photo on the left shows a pit that is somewhat oblong - as if the particle that did the damage had an incident angle that was not close to 90 degrees.   The photo on the right shows two circular pits.  The pits have a blue color and somewhat of an iridescent pattern as a result of their conical shape.  The white dot in the center of the pit is the tip of the cone shaped pit. The axis of the cone has a direction of "into the page" because the nuclear particle traveled roughly perpendicular through the surface.  The "line" damage that occurs is etched and results in a cone shape. This is because the caustic NaOH etches the damaged plastic near the CR-39 surface much longer than the damaged plastic that is, for example, 15 microns deep into the plastic.  A cone shaped pit can be 10 microns wide near the surface and has a depth that appears to be roughly 30 - 60  microns (as is seen in photos in the literature).

Initial results from this experiment are that the numbers of pits on the control chips (not exposed to electrolysis and Lithium Sulphate) are about the same as the number of pits on the experimental chips (exposed to electrolysis and Lithium Sulphate).   The number of pits per square centimeter on control chips and active (experimental) chips was about 90.  Therefore, based on this data, this replication was not successful. 

Below are photos of etch pits in the CR-39  from my experiment.

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Below is a photo that I found on the internet that shows the cone shaped cross section of the pits that were created by exposing CR-39 to alpha particles and etching with Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH).

I'm helping a friend in his attempt to replicate the Arata/Zhang experiment that involved Palladium/Zirconium nano-powders and deuterium gas.  Arata saw anomalous temperatures in the nano-powders.

Here are some links related to that experiment done by Arata.

http://www.rexresearch.com/arata/arata.htm

Here is a critique of Arata's helium and heat measurements done by Storms and Rothwell:

http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RothwellJreportonar.pdf

This experiment being done by my friend is currently ongoing.  Here are photos of that setup:

In the graph of temperature versus time shown in the above photo, it incorrectly lists the temperature in Celsius with a 10X error factor.  For example, it should read 18 through 23 degrees C on the Y axis, not .18 through .23 degrees C.   This was due to a software glitch in the graphing software that I bought but this does not affect the data that was collected.

Summary

This experimental  work ended in early 2008 before testing was completed though I could restart it if funding became available.  This experiment involved high voltage electrolysis (330 Volts chopped DC) using a small thin tungsten wire cathode in a Potassium Hydroxide / Water solution (KOH).  The anode was 5 feet of platinum wire and 5 feet of gold wire wound up in a coil.  Calibration was done with resistors.  "Power Out" measurements were based on thermocouples on the exterior of the vessel along with calibration curves. "Power In" measurements are based on completely discharging a lithium ion battery and knowing (beforehand) the energy stored in the battery.  The input power was typically in the 100 watt range.

Vessel

The vessel consists of a 15 inch tall, 4.5 inch Diameter PVC pipe wrapped with multiple turns of .040 inch diameter aluminum wire.  It was filled with distilled water and Potassium Hhydroxide. The purpose of the Aluminum wire wrapped around the exterior of the PVC pipe is so that the device has a uniform temperature around the circumfrence and the emissivity is constant over the entire surface. This improves the accuracy of the thermocouple measurements since the thermocouples are underneath the aluminum wire  (between the aluminum wire and the PVC outer diameter). This surface covered with Aluminum wire emits heat to the room through conduction, convection and radiation. The plastic tub that it sits in is never filled with water.  The control cell is the short white PVC pipe in the foreground and never has power applied to it.  It is used to establish an average room temperature.

Calibration

The equation for conservation of energy for the entire vessel is:

Energy Stored = Energy Generated + Energy In - Energy Out  (Equation 1)

also

Energy Stored = Mass * (Specific Heat Capacity) * (Change in Temperature)  (Equation 2)

where:

Mass = mass of the vessel, KOH electrolyte and aluminum wire (all measured as one value).

Specific Heat Capacity = specific heat capacity of the vessel, aluminum wire and the potassium hydroxide electrolyte and is measured as one value through data correlations.

Change in Temperature = average temperature as measured by the 12 thermocouples on the exterior of the vessel.

Determining Energy Out (and similarly Power Out):

A graph of exterior wall temperature  versus "Power In" (and similarly the "Power out" because it is at steady state) was determined using a resistive heater inside the vessel.  Power levels used were 0 watts, 21 watts and 44 watts.  The resulting graph is:

Determining Specific Heat Capacity:

Setting Equation 1 equal to Equation 2 and knowing that Energy Generated equals 0 results in the following:

 Mass  x  (Specific Heat Capacity)  x  (Change in Temperature) = Energy In - Energy Out (Equation 3)

Using a resistive heater inside the vessel and and inputting a square wave shaped heat pulse (i.e. a constant power in for 2 hours) allows the specific heat capacity to be determined through graphing the power input and Equation 3 (with collected data) on the same graph and using an iterative trial and error approach.  The specific heat capacity in Equation 3  is iteratively chosen until a graph of the power output shows a square wave shape that mimics the square wave shape of the power input.  When the curves  match (as shown in the left photo below), the correct value has been chosen for the  specific heat capacity of the system that includes the vessel, Aluminum wire and electrolyte.  Though it should be noted that this value of specific heat capacity is not exactly equal to the weighted mass average of the specific heat capacities of each of the components (electrolyte, plastic and Aluminum) but it takes it takes into account that there is a variation in temperatures of the entire system.  Also, the specific heat capacity changes with  temperature and should be measured at multiple temperatures (or in other words, multiple power levels, each having the square heat pulse shape) for increased accuracy.  The software would then use these values of specific heat capacity during an experiment and select the proper one depending on the exterior wall temperature.  The end result is computer software that calculates instantaneous power output of the whole system based on temperature measurements of the exterior wall of the vessel.

Referring to photo above on the right, a calibration heat pulse of 145 watts for 2.0 hours from a resistor was introduced into the vessel - as shown in the red line labeled "Pin(meas)".  The computer program accurately calculated (in real time) the heat pulse as shown in the dark purple line labeled "Pin(Wall Temp based) smth".   A camera was used to photograph the computer screen and accounts for the distorted picture. 

 Power Output During High Voltage Electrolysis

Power output while the system was producing a plasma inside the vessel was determined based on the thermocouples on the exterior of the vessel and temperature, specific heat capacity of the system and power calibration curves created using resistive heating.  Below is graph of the power out while the plasma was operating for 3.9 hours at an average of 65 watts.   The plasma was powered on for 2 seconds  and off for 5 seconds resulting in the average power of 65 watts.

Power Input

Input power is 330 V square wave (chopped DC) at 40 kHz (variable up to 100 khz), 1.5 amp and 240 watts.  The power is turned on for approximately 5 seconds and then off for approximately 5 seconds on a continuous basis resulting in an average power of 120 watts.   Input energy measurements are to be based on the energy stored in a Lithium Ion battery and feeding either all or some portion of that stored energy into the calorimeter.  The plasma electrolysis created by the high voltage square wave creates a large amount of high frequency ringing in the current waveform which would be difficult to measure using a high end digital acquisition system.  As a result, the energy input is based on calibrations of the power source - the  energy stored in a Lithium ion battery.  This eliminates errors in trying to measure high frequency current and voltage since there are lots of ringing waveforms.   

Power Supply

The power supply uses an H-Bridge to turn 24 V DC from the Lithium Ion battery into a 48 V alternating current square wave.   A transformer boosts the 48 V up to 330 Volts and high voltage Schottky diodes rectify it creating a 115 Volt DC waveform after it is passed through a capacitor.  The 330 Volt square wave is added to the 115 Volt DC wave resulting in a 330 Volt square wave (chopped DC) which is fed to the anode.  The power source is a 24 Volt Lithium Ion battery that is calibrated so that the energy stored in it is known.  The frequency can range between 3000 and 100,000 Hz and is computer controlled.

Electrodes

Anode (on right in the photo) has approximately 5 feet of Gold wire and 5 feet Platinum wire (both .010 inch diameter) wound in a ring shape of about 1.8 inch diameter. Cathode (on the left) is .040 inch diameter tungsten covered with a ceramic tube (.100 inch OD) so that only 0.10 inch of the tip is exposed. The white cylinder supports are solid Teflon, 2 inch diameter and roughly 1.7" long.

The 2 inch diameter, 9 inch long PVC pipe shown in the photo is used to contain the anode and cathode.  It is placed inside the 4 inch diameter, 15 inch long PVC vessel containing the water and Potassium Hydroxide.   Gases generated are captured at the top of this 2" diameter vessel and ignited every minute or so using a grounding electrode (not shown)  that generates a spark.  This grounding electrode that generates the ignition spark is operated manually by pulling on a lever.

Results

Testing not completed and on hold due to lack of funding and time issues.

Photos:

Video of Capacitor Discharge  (click here)

Summary

In this experiment we discharged the energy stored in large capacitors through a small strip of pure Titanium metal and looked for transmutations in the resulting ash from the explosion.  We were trying to replicate work done by a scientist from Russia named Urutskoev.  Urutskoev found transmutations and isotope shifts in the Titanium metal debris recovered from the capacitive discharge explosion. 

http://www.ensmp.fr/aflb/AFLB-297/aflb297m330.pdf

http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0101/0101089.pdf

 It would have been too expensive for us to look for isotope shifts in the Titanium from the debris and therefore we did not do that.  We did look for new elements such as Copper, Iron, Silicon, Calcium and Aluminum in the debris (ash) but none were found.

Equipment

Five capacitors were connected in parallel.  Each capacitor had the following capacity:  800 uF,  5000 V,  160 lbs, 10,000 J energy.

Connecting the five capacitors in parallel resulted in the following:   40,000 uF, 5000 V, 50,000 J  energy

A high current / high voltage switch was used to connect the capacitors to the load.  The switch consisted of  spring loaded arm with brass balls as the contacts. 

Set Up

The five capacitors in parallel were charged up to 3000 Volts and discharged through a strip of 99.999% pure Titanium foil.  The dimensions of the titanium foil was 0.010" thick, 0.25" wide and 4"   long.  The foil was surrounded by approximately 500 cc water and glycerine mixture.  The capacitive discharge explosion was contained in a large plastic barrel (35 gallon) and the resulting debris consisted of a titanium powder and water slurry.  This slurry was dried and sent to a water quality testing laboratory for analysis.

Results

The debris (ash) from the capacitive discharge was sent to a water quality testing laboratory for analysis and tested for the following elements:  Copper, Iron, Silicon, Calcium and Aluminum.  No anomalous amounts of these elements were found.

In this experiment we tried to reproduce the 1994 claims made by a scientist from Japan named Tadahiko Mizuno.  Mizuno claimed that a specially prepared ceramic material ( a proton conductor) made from an oxide of  Strontium, Cerium, Niobium and Yttrium produced anomalous heat when exposed to Deuterium gas but no anomalous heat when exposed to Hydrogen gas.

In this experiment, the ceramic material (an oxide of  Strontium, Cerium, Niobium and Yttrium) having a size of 0.7" diameter and 0.12" thick was coated on each face with Platinum and heated to 350 C.  A voltage of between 2 and 30 volts was put across the two Platinum coated faces under vacuum.  Next, either Hydrogen or Dueterium gas was introduced at less than 0.1 atmospheric pressure. 

Results

We were unable to reproduce the experimental results claimed by Tadahiko Mizuno.

Links

http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/MizunoTanalysisof.pdf