Seven Days of Hell for the E-Cat QuarkX (Hank Mills)

The following post has been submitted by Hank Mills

Andrea Rossi is about to initiate a seven day long test of the E-Cat Quark X, the allegedly most advanced version of his Energy Catalyzer technology. He has said that the purpose of the test is to demonstrate the performance, dependability, and safety of the QuarkX to a potential customer and partner. Three of the small reactors will be operated for a week — each producing one hundred total watts of power. With a claimed operating temperature on the outer surface of 1470 C, periods of self sustained operation for a half hour at a time or longer, and high COP even when external power is provided, the trio of nuclear reactors may yield a level of performance that dwarfs all other LENR technologies, including earlier versions of the E-Cat. Even the survival of the reactors for a week in such nightmarish conditions will be a significant accomplishment — the QuarkX will be hotter than hell! Furthermore, if the alleged direct production of electricity from the reactors are verified, the results may extend Leonardo Corporation’s lead over all competitors in the LENR (Cold Fusion) field.

From many of Andrea Rossi’s posts on the Journal of Nuclear Physics, a rough description of the QuarkX can be gathered. The technology is small and has been described both as cigarette sized to pencil sized. To withstand the ultra high temperatures involved that could severely damage other materials over time, custom alloys were produced for both the reactor shell and electrical resistors. Although not specified on the JONP, such an allow may also allow the device to withstand the corrosive properties of lithium vapor for an extended period of time. On at least one occasion, Tungsten was mentioned as being utilized. This means it is probably a component in the reactor shell and resistors.

A few bits of information about the performance characteristics of the E-Cat X are also known: the elevated operating temperature allows for higher COP when external power is provided, the unit can operate for periods of time in self sustain mode with no input power, the outer reactor shell can exceed the melting temperature of nickel because of “eddy currents” that are generated, and somehow electricity is being produced directly in addition to light and heat.  Moreover, Andrea Rossi has declared that the electricity is not produced via the conversion of heat, and that he thinks once the technology is further developed fifty percent of the output may be in the form of electricity.

Although there are apparent differences between the QuarkX and previous incarnations of the E-Cat, the same core technology is alleged to be utilized. The inner workings of this nuclear reactor are claimed to abide by his patent, “Fluid Heater.” When asked about the ingredients of the fuel mix, he claims they are the same — which would mean some ratio of nickel, lithium aluminum hydride, and elemental lithium all in the form of powder. Extremely high temperatures have already been produced with this fuel mixture by Andrea Rossi in previous tests, which led to “runaway” events that were sometimes witnessed by third parties. In one test, a reactor surged from a thousand degrees to two thousand degrees in Celsius in ten seconds, resulting in the steel of the reactor vaporizing and the ceramic melting. As one witness described, the ceramic flowed like hot wax. The technological improvements utilized in the E-Cat X seem to allow for higher performance but in a stable manner.

Evidence from Rossi’s own tests/demos and third party replications tend to strongly reveal that the Ni-LiAlH4-Li technology works — producing high temperatures, high COP, and periods of self sustained operation that can last from minutes to several hours. All of this seems to show a power density that can exceed 1000 watts per gram of fuel — a power density no other publicly disclosed LENR technology can match during non-destructive operation. But when it comes to the QuarkX specifically, we have zero evidence of Andrea Rossi’s claims. As of yet, no test data or reports have been shared, and there have been no public demonstrations. The week long test is also going to be completely private: no live feed, no live blogging, no pictures, and no report being released immediately afterwards.

When a report is eventually released — if the test parameters and protocols were rigorous — we may be provided with confirmation that the QuarkX is indeed the revolutionary technology Andrea Rossi has proclaimed it may represent. But until such documentation and hard data is provided, the week long test is largely meaningless to the LENR community. What we need is documented hard evidence we can share with the world that incontrovertibly shows to reasonable individuals — even honest skeptics — that the Ni-LiAlH4-Li formula produces copious quantities of anomalous heat. The report that might one day be published from this week long test could provide such evidence. But we shouldn’t wait for it to be published. Simply put, we’re on the verge of not needing reports from Andrea Rossi to confirm the awesome potential of the E-Cat technology.

The current delay of the ERV (Expert Responsible for Validation) report of the year long test of the one megawatt plant is an example of why we should not depend on Andrea Rossi or Industrial Heat (Cherokee) to provide the evidence we need to validate LENR. After a year of waiting, a lawsuit has halted the dissemination of information from that test. Now, all we have to look forward to is a potentially long, dragged out lawsuit that might go on for years if a settlement is not reached. When or if the ERV report will be published is unknown. We should learn from this and assume that the report from the upcoming week long test of the Quark may not be revealed soon, if ever. Due to the positive results of replicators such as Songsheng Jiang, A Parkhomov, N. Stepanov, and others, it seems like building working Rossi Effect reactors ourselves is very doable. With our own working reactors, we can design whatever tests we want, utilizing whatever measurement techniques we desire, and incorporating whatever forms of calorimetry (phase change, flow, induction, etc) we think are optimal.

The only obstacle we have now is figuring out the critical parameters that allow for a small minority of replication attempts to be successful. Me356, a replicator who frequently posts on the LENR Forum’s website, has shared many clues that could be useful. Some of them were very common sense, and others were already suggested by individuals such as Bob Greenyer of the Martin Fleischman Memorial Project. If these principles are utilized, I think the success rate could go up dramatically. Once a “guaranteed to work” formula is spread on the internet, hundreds or thousands of replications will be posted to YouTube in a short period of time. With so many people demonstrating repeated hour long periods of self sustain (glowing white hot reactors that should have dropped hundreds of degrees in seconds) there will be no denying the reality of Rossi Effect.

While replicators work towards figuring out how to duplicate the Rossi Effect consistently, a statement from Andrea Rossi that the seven day test was successful would be morale boosting. We can only hope that his customer and possible partner might be one of the big names that have been discussed on internet forums. Andrea Rossi has already stated that the customer that utilized the heat from the one megawatt plant for a manufacturing process had multiple manufacturing plants in Europe. After the test was complete, he stated that the customer had ordered three additional one megawatt plants. If the customer witnessing the test of the QuarkX is the same as the one who used the heat from the one megawatt plant, then they could have the resources to bring the QuarkX into mass production.

A mass production of the QuarkX utilizing modern technology, including robotics, would be of a massive benefit to the world. Just imagine billions of pencil sized reactors that could be utilized for any application that required heat or electricity. Every house could have a small window unit producing several kilowatts of power leading to the elimination of the grid; electric cars could use Quark’s instead of batteries for infinite range; space craft utilizing alternative propulsion technologies such as the EM Drive could explore the solar system without solar panels.

The coming months should be exciting. If we stay focused on replication of the Rossi Effect instead of the court battle between Industrial Heat and Leonardo Corporation, anything is possible.