Prototype power source generates up to 1,000 times more heat than conventional fuel

[MaxFly]

This is really cool. If this holds true and can be mass produced easily, this could be a breakthrough in energy. In addition, our understanding of quantum physics and aspects of the Quantum Theory may need modification. Unfortunately, one of the aspects that would need modification will be something that is widely accepted and taught as a law in quantum physics... Oh well...

Fuel's paradise? Power source that turns physics on its head

· Scientist says device disproves quantum theory

· Opponents claim idea is result of wrong maths

Alok Jha, science correspondent

Friday November 4, 2005

The Guardian

It seems too good to be true: a new source of near-limitless power that costs virtually nothing, uses tiny amounts of water as its fuel and produces next to no waste. If that does not sound radical enough, how about this: the principle behind the source turns modern physics on its head.

Randell Mills, a Harvard University medic who also studied electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims to have built a prototype power source that generates up to 1,000 times more heat than conventional fuel. Independent scientists claim to have verified the experiments and Dr Mills says that his company, Blacklight Power, has tens of millions of dollars in investment lined up to bring the idea to market. And he claims to be just months away from unveiling his creation.

The problem is that according to the rules of quantum mechanics, the physics that governs the behaviour of atoms, the idea is theoretically impossible. "Physicists are quite conservative. It's not easy to convince them to change a theory that is accepted for 50 to 60 years. I don't think [Mills's] theory should be supported," said Jan Naudts, a theoretical physicist at the University of Antwerp.

What has much of the physics world up in arms is Dr Mills's claim that he has produced a new form of hydrogen, the simplest of all the atoms, with just a single proton circled by one electron. In his "hydrino", the electron sits a little closer to the proton than normal, and the formation of the new atoms from traditional hydrogen releases huge amounts of energy.

This is scientific heresy. According to quantum mechanics, electrons can only exist in an atom in strictly defined orbits, and the shortest distance allowed between the proton and electron in hydrogen is fixed. The two particles are simply not allowed to get any closer.

According to Dr Mills, there can be only one explanation: quantum mechanics must be wrong. "We've done a lot of testing. We've got 50 independent validation reports, we've got 65 peer-reviewed journal articles," he said. "We ran into this theoretical resistance and there are some vested interests here. People are very strong and fervent protectors of this [quantum] theory that they use."

Rick Maas, a chemist at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNC) who specialises in sustainable energy sources, was allowed unfettered access to Blacklight's laboratories this year. "We went in with a healthy amount of scepticism. While it would certainly be nice if this were true, in my position as head of a research institution, I really wouldn't want to make a mistake. The last thing I want is to be remembered as the person who derailed a lot of sustainable energy investment into something that wasn't real."

But Prof Maas and Randy Booker, a UNC physicist, left under no doubt about Dr Mill's claims. "All of us who are not quantum physicists are looking at Dr Mills's data and we find it very compelling," said Prof Maas. "Dr Booker and I have both put our professional reputations on the line as far as that goes."

Dr Mills's idea goes against almost a century of thinking. When scientists developed the theory of quantum mechanics they described a world where measuring the exact position or energy of a particle was impossible and where the laws of classical physics had no effect. The theory has been hailed as one of the 20th century's greatest achievements.

But it is an achievement Dr Mills thinks is flawed. He turned back to earlier classical physics to develop a theory which, unlike quantum mechanics, allows an electron to move much closer to the proton at the heart of a hydrogen atom and, in doing so, release the substantial amounts of energy he seeks to exploit. Dr Mills's theory, known as classical quantum mechanics and published in the journal Physics Essays in 2003, has been criticised most publicly by Andreas Rathke of the European Space Agency. In a damning critique published recently in the New Journal of Physics, he argued that Dr Mills's theory was the result of mathematical mistakes.

Dr Mills argues that there are plenty of flaws in Dr Rathke's critique. "His paper's riddled with mistakes. We've had other physicists contact him and say this is embarrassing to the journal and [Dr Rathke] won't respond," said Dr Mills.

While the theoretical tangle is unlikely to resolve itself soon, those wanting to exploit the technology are pushing ahead. "We would like to understand it from an academic standpoint and then we would like to be able to use the implications to actually produce energy products," said Prof Maas. "The companies that are lining up behind this are household names."

Dr Mills will not go into details of who is investing in his research but rumours suggest a range of US power companies. It is well known also that Nasa's institute of advanced concepts has funded research into finding a way of using Blacklight's technology to power rockets.

According to Prof Maas, the first product built with Blacklight's technology, which will be available in as little as four years, will be a household heater. As the technology is scaled up, he says, bigger furnaces will be able to boil water and turn turbines to produce electricity.

In a recent economic forecast, Prof Maas calculated that hydrino energy would cost around 1.2 cents (0.7p) per kilowatt hour. This compares to an average of 5 cents per kWh for coal and 6 cents for nuclear energy.

"If it's wrong, it will be proven wrong," said Kert Davies, research director of Greenpeace USA. "But if it's right, it is so important that all else falls away. It has the potential to solve our dependence on oil. Our stance is of cautious optimism."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,...1627424,00.html

[Schnazz]

While that would be incredibly cool, and I don't really like the concept of quantum physics (the whole "God don't play dice with the universe" idea), these kind of stories come out every so often, so I'm not holding my breath...

[Jonny 5]

Sounds cool... how do I invest? :lolsign:

I suppose if it reduces our dependence on oil, it could affect the whole world - bigstyle...

[MaxFly]

This is pretty cool too... I've heard about research on this in the past, but I wasn't aware that anyone was successful in creating white light emission from LEDs.

Accidental Invention Points to End of Light Bulbs

Bjorn Carey LiveScience Staff Writer LiveScience.com Fri Oct 21, 5:00 PM ET

The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.

An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The miniature breakthrough adds to a growing trend http://tinyurl.com/djgf2 that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention obsolete.

LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible http://tinyurl.com/djgf2 and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.

Happy accident

Michael Bowers, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, http://tinyurl.com/7o6cg which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. That's less than 1/1000th the width of a human hair.

Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bower's particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.

When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. http://tinyurl.com/bg6kc

"I was surprised when a white glow covered the table," Bowers said. "The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow."

Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix. The lumpy bulb wasn't pretty, but it produced white light similar to a regular light bulb.

The new device gives off a warm, yellowish-white light that shines twice as bright and lasts 50 times longer than the standard 60 watt light bulb.

This work is published online in the Oct. 18 edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Better than bulbs

Until the last decade, LEDs could only produce green, red, and yellow light, which limited their use. Then came blue LEDs, which have since been altered to emit white light with a light-blue hue.

LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60 watt bulb and burn for over 50,000 hours. The Department of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U.S. energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent by 2025. LEDs don't emit heat, so they're also more energy efficient. And they're much harder to break.

Other scientists have said they expect LEDs to eventually replace standard incandescent bulbs as well as fluorescent and sodium vapor lights.

If the new process can be developed into commercial production, light won't come just from newfangled bulbs. Quantum dot mixtures could be painted on just about anything and electrically excited to produce a rainbow of colors, including white.

One big question remains: When a brilliant idea pops into your mind in the future, what will appear over your head?

[MaxFly]

Here's more on the energy source...

Harvard M.D.Challenges Big Bang Theory

By Erik Baard

Special to SPACE.com

posted: 04:13 pm ET

23 May 2000

A Harvard-trained medical doctor is banking that his widely derided theory could supplant Big Bang theory, find the recipe for the cosmos' interstellar gases, and fuel cars without pollution.

Randell Mills, 42, blipped onto science debunkers' radar screens in 1991 when he claimed to unleash energy by "shrinking" the hydrogen atom's electron orbit to form what he calls a "hydrino."

Although mainstream physicists, including Nobel laureates, rankle at the mention of hydrinos, Mills has gathered $25 million dollars from investors for his startup, BlackLight Power Inc.

The company moved into its new digs last year -- a 53,000-square-foot (4,900-square-meter) space satellite manufacturing plant in New Jersey, bought from Lockheed Martin.

"Something real is generating energy there," said Dan Mears, president of Technology Insights, an energy technology consulting group in San Diego that investigated BlackLight for a year in 1996 on behalf of Oregon electric utility PacifiCorp.

"We were convinced there was excess energy being produced by what he was then calling 'hydrocatalysis,'" Mears said. So convinced that the team leader left to work for BlackLight for a year before moving on to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, he added.

PacifiCorp signed on, and was followed by the Mid-Atlantic utility Conectiv.

Now Morgan Stanley Dean Witter wants to usher BlackLight to an initial public offering.

NASA engineer jumps in

After two hydrino presentations at American Chemical Society meetings in California in recent months, interest among some scientists and engineers is growing too.

NASA space station engineer Luke Setzer privately formed a study circle on egroups.com to debate and explore the hydrino theory. The list has grown to 70 members since it started in March.

Setzer first became intrigued by an aspect of Mills' theory that stated electrons might be made to respond negatively to gravity by warping their general relativistic curvature. The possibilities for propulsion caught Setzer's eye.

"I mean, come on," he said. "There's got to be a better way to get off of the Earth than rockets. The rocket lifting the shuttle is much bigger then the shuttle itself."

"Human colonization of space is going to require radical breakthroughs in access to space. Mills' technologies show some promise to deliver that," Setzer said. "Furthermore, Mills offers rational explanations for anomalous observations."

Mills cautions, however, that even if his theory is right, he doesn't know how much lift the phenomenon would provide. Its applications might remain microscopic, in signal processing, for example.

Wild ideas in science are a bit like mutations in genes: most are useless, some are harmful, and infinitesimally few are advantageous.

With such stacked odds, debunking is usually an easy job, so Mills' tenacity befuddles his harshest critics.

"I guess I am surprised it's lasted this long," said Robert Park, a spokesman for the American Physical Society and professor at the University of Maryland. Park targets Mills, among others, in his new Oxford University Press book release, Voodoo Science, the Road from Foolishness to Fraud.

Whatever road Mills is on, he's convinced the rest of us will be along for the ride.

"Hydrino chemistry may be essential to mankind's understanding of the universe and future technological growth," he said. "My commitment to this endeavor is as enduring and timeless as the matter upon which it is based."

Dark hydrino matter?

Still, Mills has his supporters along with detractors. John Farrell, a chemist who was department chair at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania when Mills was a student, said he finds Mills' deterministic model of the atom more useful than the probabilistic paradigm of current quantum theory.

Farrell became convinced of its rectitude when soft X-rays and extreme-ultraviolet, or "black-light," emissions Mills' theory predicted for transitions to lower hydrino states "perfectly matched" five spectral lines detected in the dark areas between stars, known as interstellar media. That data was gathered by University of California at Berkeley astrophysicists Simon Labov and Stuart Boyer a decade ago from a probe carried by a "sounding rocket" to the edge of the atmosphere.

"The probability of that happening was just enormously small unless Randy was right," Farrell said. The transitions also correspond to unexplained spectral lines produced by the sun's corona, he said.

Similar spectral lines from BlackLight cells were confirmed by Johannes Conrads, the recently retired director of the Institute for Low Temperature Plasma Physics, a national laboratory in Germany. Additionally, hydrogen plasmas created by the BlackLight process require "astonishingly" little energy to initiate and decay far more slowly than they normally should when input power is cut, Conrads said.

Conrads said he hasn't embraced the hydrino theory, but "the more you have from this pattern, the higher the probability you've found something. It's not trivial and I have not seen things like this before."

Banging on the Big Bang

Hydrinos also play a central role in Mills' alternative theory to the Big Bang, which he dismisses as "an academic fiction."

He instead characterizes the universe as endlessly oscillating between matter and energy over thousand-billion-year cycles, with finite set points. At only 13 billion or so years into the current cycle, "We're just at the beginning. The universe doesn't get much smaller than this," he said.

The conversion of matter into energy is the engine of space-time expansion, he posits.

Albert Einstein and others have shown that a mass creates a dimple in space-time. As that mass burns itself out, throwing off energy, that dimple formed by gravity is smoothed, causing the universe to expand, Mills explained.

"Matter, energy and space-time are conserved. They're interchangeable," Mills said.

Hydrino chemical reactions are one way matter is converted into energy, and may account for up to half of the sun's energy production, according to the Mills theory. But atom for atom, nuclear processes are far more potent than hydrino transitions, he said.

Mills' theory correctly predicted in the early 1990s the 1998 observation that universal expansion is accelerating.

'South of the South Pole'

Hydrogen, with one electron and one proton, is the simplest atom and the most studied. Quantum theory describes the electron orbit of hydrogen in isolation as being in the "ground," or most stable, state with a binding energy with the proton of 13.6 electron volts and a potential energy of 27.2 EV.

That orbit can't be lowered, only inflated to unstable higher radii when energy is added. Trying to take hydrogen's electron below the ground state is like "trying to go south of the South Pole," Park quipped.

Steven Weinberg, a 1979 Nobel laureate in physics at the University of Texas at Austin, seconded Park's certainty.

The idea of the ground state "is a fabulously well-tested mathematical theorem. I would bet my life on it."

The electron's position should be seen as a "cloud" of probabilities extending from the nucleus itself out indefinitely that collapses into it's most probable orbit when observed, Weinberg said. While "of course a theory can be wrong," and "we don't turn a blind eye to anomalies...you don't throw away 75 years because of an anomaly you don't understand. As far as we know, quantum theory is rigorously valid. I have no idea what would replace it."

The Mills model treats the electron as a definable object that can be manipulated. The electron, in his conception, travels as a two-dimensional disk of charge and wraps around a nucleus like a fluctuating soap bubble. He calls the bubble an "orbitsphere."

Radio astronomy test

Senior astrophysicist Barry Turner of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory respects Mills' laboratory work, but still has strong reservations about the underlying theory because of "intuitive leaps" in his formulas. "His math is unsatisfactory to support the theory," Turner said.

"There's enough there that intrigues me though," he says. Mills' research methods impress Turner. "If there's any correctness to the theory, it makes a lot of sense to do what he's done in the lab. That logical step was not found wanting." Next, the theory could be cleaned up and filled in with data, he believes.

The world's largest single-dish, advanced radio telescope is under construction in Greenback, West Virginia. Turner proposes to train it on "ionized nebulae or other suitable regions" to search background radiation for evidence of Mills' claim that a diffuse hydrino gas is "dark matter" -- a term that physicists use to describe what is perhaps the deepest mystery of our time.

Observed matter, like stars and planets, don't have enough mass to account for the gravity apparent in the cohesive movement of galaxies. In fact, it seems we can't account for more than 90 percent of the universe.

Current theories bridging the Big Bang and quantum mechanics go so far afield as to speculate that matter trapped in other dimensions or other universes is affecting gravity in our realm. Mills maintains that there are only three dimensions (plus time) and no universes interacting with our own.

"Why is it that claiming dark matter is normal matter trapped in other dimensions is okay, but saying that it's normal matter trapped in a lower energy state is considered nuts?" Mills asked.

Mills also points out that hydrogen makes up more than 95 percent of the visible universe, so it might be logical to look to hydrogen in some form to deduce the composition of the invisible universe.

Hyperfine splitting

Turner's methods of verification will be very conventional, he explains. The electrons and protons that make hydrogen in both the ground and theorized hydrino states are magnetic and fall into a natural alignment. But on occasion a photon flying through space will knock that arrangement askew. When those magnets "click back into place," energy is released. In hydrogen, that energy travels at a 8.3-inch (21-centimeter) wavelength. It's a benchmark for radio astronomers.

If hydrinos exist, those magnets would be closer together and so interact more strongly, producing higher energy, tighter frequencies.

Turner said he will search, as a skeptic, for "analogous hyperfine splitting" at the 0.1-inch (3-millimeter) and "relatively unexplored" 0.4-inch (1-centimeter) wavelengths predicted for some hydrinos by the Mills theory.

Turner says he knows his proposal will draw some fire. "There are some people who will say, 'Dr. Turner must have lost his marbles,'" he said. "I owe it to science. I think nature would be fascinating if he's right."

In the end, it's only experimentation, not arguments, that will decide if Mills can journey "south of the South Pole." Maybe the analogy will prove inadequate. One might recall the words of Amerigo Vespucci, written after he'd sailed south of the sub-equatorial Torrid Zone, below which prevailing wisdom dictated no life could exist.

"Rationally, let it be said in a whisper, experience is certainly worth more than theory."

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/bl...wer_000522.html

MALVERN, Pa. (Apr 1, 1997 11:02 a.m. EST) - If Dr. Randell Mills is

right, the way the world produces and uses energy is about to be

radically transformed, along with science's understanding of the

physics involved.

If he is wrong, he will join a long line of failed seekers for the

holy grail of cheap, safe and non-polluting energy.

Mills has developed, and begun to demonstrate in laboratory tests,

what he says is a very efficient and non-polluting means of producing

energy from hydrogen. He says a fuel cell the size of a desk could in

theory supply the electricity now produced by an eight-floor-high

coal-fired boiler, and a 200-horsepower car engine the size of a

suitcase could power a vehicle four times around the world on a single

tank of water.

The technology, and Mills's private company, BlackLight Power Inc.,

have begun to attract investment from the electricity industry and the

support of some energy experts. A leading organization of physicists,

however, calls his idea groundless, while even some who support the

technology say its practical application remains at least a few years

away.

"Whoever has this technology can potentially dominate the energy

industry," said Mills, a Harvard-trained medical doctor with

additional education in engineering and chemistry.

The technology is based on a theory of quantum physics that challenges

principles that have governed the science for decades. Mills says the

theory has been supported by experiments and observation. It holds

that hydrogen can exist at a lower energy state than its common

"ground" state, and the heat energy released in the transition to the

lower state can be captured.

FROM QUARKS TO THE COSMOS

Mills told Reuters the theory explains phenomena ranging in scale from

"(sub-atomic) quarks to the cosmos." In using it to make power, the

cost of hydrogen, easily obtainable from water, would be minimal

compared with fossil fuels, and there is more than enough water to

last until "the end of the earth," he said.

Capital costs also could be signifcantly lower than conventional power

technology, Mills said, although others familiar with the technology

said that remains to be seen.

The by-product of the non-nuclear process is a hydrogen atom with a

lower form of energy -- called a "hydrino" -- that floats off into

space, he said. The other key ingredient in the process is potassium,

which serves as a catalyst and can be constantly reused. The process

takes place in a vacuum and instantly stops if the vacuum is breached,

making it inherently safe, Mills said.

Some experts, including a former top Reagan Administration nuclear

energy official, say Mills is on the right track. The electricity

industry has begun to get involved, investing money in the company and

negotiating licensing deals.

"I'm convinced that there is something of enormous impact here and

it's only a question of time until we can garner the capital and

infrastructure to take it into commercialization," said Shelby Brewer,

assistant energy secretary under Reagan and former head of ABB

Combustion Engineering, one of the world's largest makers of

electrical generation equipment.

REVOLUTION PREDICTED

"If we can engineer this into the marketplace ... it will

revolutionize energy production both for electricity and mobile

applications," said Brewer, who now heads an energy consulting firm.

He said he overcame his skepticism, born of thousands of unfounded

new-power ideas he has seen, to work as an outside financial and

strategic adviser to Mills.

Others, including the country's leading organization of academic

physicists, dismiss Mills and his hydrino theory out of hand. "It has

no credibility whatever ... as far as I'm concerned Mills is not a

scientist," said Robert Park, director of the Washington office of the

American Physical Society.

"There is virtually nothing that science does not know about the

hydrogen atom," Park said. "The ground state is defined as the

(energy) state below which you cannot go. ... The thought there is

some state below the ground state is kind of humorous."

But a Penn State University test done for BlackLight of a small fuel

cell designed by Mills recorded heat production 100 times greater than

that produced by "burning" hydrogen, another technology being studied

as an energy source.

The result was promising and consistent with his theory, the

unpublished findings said. "The evidence presented in this report

clearly suggests that an extraordinary phenomenon takes place ... this

phenomenon appears to generate a tremendous amount of 'excess' heat."

But the report urged a cautious approach be taken and said additional

experimental work was required.

Similar results have been obtained in other laboratories, including in

a test run by Peter Jansson, an engineer and manager of market

development for Atlantic Energy Inc. Jansson, who conducted the test

independently of his company, said Atlantic Energy was "strongly

considering" what he called a "strategic investment" in BlackLight

Power.

Last year, Oregon-based utility holding firm PacifiCorp invested $1

million in a stake in BlackLight Power, according to documents filed

with Pennsylvania regulators. Mills has obtained a patent on his

technology in Australia and said he expects to receive U.S. and

European patents this year. In the process he has had to explain to

patent examiners why his technology is not the same as "cold fusion,"

a low-temperature nuclear technology that also promised vast, cheap

power, but which failed to stand up.

His early work was watched by the cold-fusion camp and some research

findings supporting his hydrino theory were published in a

peer-reviewed journal of the American Nuclear Society, which has been

an outlet for cold-fusion related research.

TURNING IDEAS INTO BUSINESS

Now is a timely moment to try to commercialize a new energy

technology, experts say. The electrical industry worldwide is moving

from tight regulation to a highly competitive market in which the

producer of the cheapest power wins.

"We are definitely willing to put some time and money into it (the

technology)," said Tom Cassel, president of Reading Energy Co., a

Philadelphia firm that commercializes advanced power-plant technology.

"Is it at this point a fail-safe deal? It's still early to tell," he

said. "The laboratory work is compelling (but) it's yet to be

demonstrated on a large, self-sustained basis."

Mills said plans are underway to build with another firm a test plant

to produce about one megawatt of energy, equivalent to the amount

needed to light a small shopping center.

Cassel said he is negotiating a deal with BlackLight for Reading to

retrofit older plants, shuttered because of expensive anti-pollution

requirements or other economic factors, with the BlackLight hydrogen

cells.

He said he was at first skeptical of the technology and was warned by

a senior Ivy League scientist who started reading Mills' theory that

"these type of people are dangerous." But he said he and others who

have studied the entire theory and seen the test results are convinced

of its potential.

"This is very real," he said. "It's a development which, if it keeps

going in the way that a number of very qualified people think it's

going to go ... it will be on the magnitude of the Edisons, the

Einsteins, that type of scientific revolution."

http://www.keelynet.com/energy/hydmills.htm

Edited November 14, 2005 by MaxFly