As the dust clears and the chatter subsides, and we take a look at the facts pertaining to Andrea Rossi’s October 6th demonstration of the energy catalyzer, data collected indicates that unless Rossi has been able to rig an extremely sophisticated trick (which no one who attended the demo has accused him of) he indeed managed to show that he has discovered a new source of nuclear power.
One of the most clear representations of the data collected at the test can be seen in the graphs and table below. The overall result shows that there was a clear overall energy gain — 33.6 MJ in, and 101.3 MJ out.
In addition to the overall energy in/energy out picture we have the remarkable fact of a three and a half hour time period in which water was constantly boiling — with the electrical input which had been used earlier in the test turned off.
One of the clearest pieces of analysis of the event that I have found comes from Jed Rothwell who posts on the vortex-l mailing list. Of this data, Rothwell comments:
Nothing happens until 13:22 when the steam begins to flow through the heat exchanger.At 15:13 output is a little higher than input, even though there is a great deal of heat unaccounted for, especially the water from the condensed steam, which they poured down the drain.At 15:50 the power is cut off. If there had been no source of anomalous heat, the power would have fallen off rapidly and monotonically, at the same rate it did after 19:55. It would have approached the zero line by 17:25. Actually, it would have approached zero before that, based on Newton’s law of cooling. In other words, it would have been stone cold after 3 hours. During that time, 1.8 tons of water went through the cooling loop. It is inconceivable that an object of this size with no power input could have remained at the same high temperature the whole time. Yet Lewan reports that the surface of the reactor was still hot, and boiling could still be heard inside it.As you see, the temperature did not fall. It went up at 16:26. The cooling water flow rate was unchanged, so only a source of heat could have caused this.You can ignore the thermocouple data, and look only at the fact that it continued to boil for more than 3 hours after the power was turned off, and the reactor surface remained hot. That alone is rock solid proof.
There had not been too much in the way of public comment from those who attended the event, but Focus magazine reports that the attendees seemed to be impressed by what they saw, and ended the day with a round of applause which Andrea Rossi said was one of the greatest moments of his life.
The video below provides a view inside the demonstration. Much of it is in Italian, but there are sections in English: At 5:11 Professor Roland Petterson of Uppsala University speaks of his reaction and the upcoming testing he will be doing in Sweden; at 11:18 Rossi speaks at the conclusion of the demonstration.
The debate will no doubt continue — not everyone is convinced at this point, but taken at face value, to me it appears clear that Andrea Rossi’s energy catalyzer is not powered by chemical processes; Andrea Rossi seems to have discovered a means of creating a new form of nuclear reaction.
