I am grateful to Mats Lewan for making available to me this pdf of the patent filed by Andrea Rossi in 1978 for a waste-to-fuel process that we mentioned here yesterday. The title of the patent (translated from Italian by Google) is “Procedure for the recovery of industrial and urban waste. Apparatus and relative productivity obtained”. Rossi has claimed that the process being used in the Waste-to-Biofuels and Chemicals Facility in Edmonton, Canada — built and operated by Enerkem Alberta Biofuels — is based on his work.
I don’t know of any way to verify how closely the Enerkem plant resembles the process described in this patent — the overall concept is of course similar, but I am sure that there have been technological and engineering developments over the years that will have resulted in changes taking place.
This doesn’t have much relevance to the E-Cat, but this is an interesting item in connection with Andrea Rossi who has had a lifetime of involvement in various energy production inventions.
The patent is all in Italian — if any Italian speakers read it and would care to comment, I know it would be appreciated!
