Ed, you make a good case that something improves the thermal bond of the powder to the inner walls.. perhaps the function of the secret sauce.. I don't recall the volume of the powder used but am under the impression it fills most of the reactor tube and therefore must also have good thermal bond through it's own bulk to reach the reactor walls. I think the MAHG was a weak easily compromised cousin to this device with only a thin sputtered layer on the inner wall of the tube while Rossi has designed a way to stack NAE out into a bulk form away from the reactor wall. I gathered from the thread that very little powder spilled out when they cut it open after destruction... so would assume the bonding held the powder inside as a foam or gelatinous solid? Can we assume the secret sauce must bind the powder into some form of solid. I am leaning toward an open foam like malted milk balls but a recent thread also suggested a gelatinous colloid. Fran
From: Edmund Storms [mailto:stor...@ix.netcom.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 11:43 AM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Cc: Edmund Storms Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: [Vo]:Speculation about hotCat Bob, this is a good analysis of a possible design. You are right, the powder must make good thermal contact with the wall for the nuclear reaction to be controlled by temperature. Just how Rossi makes this happen is unknown. Nevertheless, most of the active nickel must be attached to the inner wall of the stainless tube. In addition, at the temperatures used, the Ni powder would sinter and not be easily to remove. As for modifying the stainless using chemical etch, I doubt this would be effective. This texture would have to be active initially and remain unchanged at high temperature. Such textures are not stable and would not survive the high temperature. Rossi has done something to the Ni powder that is very stable and not affected by high temperature. This fact alone greatly reduces the possibilities to anyone familiar with the materials science of this material. Rossi is gradually letting the cat out of the bag, whether he wants to or not. Ed Storms On May 29, 2013, at 8:29 AM, Bob Higgins wrote: I would like to submit my speculation about the latest Rossi hotCat for discussion on Vortex-l. * We are told that the central reactor core is a 310 stainless steel cylinder ( 3cm by 33cm). There is no port for introduction of H2. The ends are cold welded closed. * When the test device was sawed open, only a miniscule amount of powder came out. This cannot be the active powder - it would have melted as loose powder rather than conveying the heat out of the cylinder. * It is highly desirable to have high thermal conductivity between the NAEs and the outer metal cylinder. You wouldn't get this with loose powder on the inside. * 310 stainless is ~25% chromium, ~21% Ni, and the balance mostly iron Consider what Celani has done - taken a Ni-Cu alloy wire and etched out the Cu to realize the surface nanotexturing, thus creating NAEs on the wire outer surface. Suppose we took the 310 stainless cylinder and used a chromium etch on the inner surface. Chrome etches typically contain nitric acid which will also attack the iron, but not the nickel. The result could be a nanotextured Ni inner surface of the 310 SS cylinder with perhaps a micro-scale Ni "fur" in high thermal contact with the cylinder. There may be further chemical texturing of the inner surface or nanopowder added as part of a thermo-chemical modification of the surface to create the NAEs in high number on the inner textured Ni surface. Then, cold weld one end of the cylinder closed. Calculate the amount of metal hydride needed to release the desired pressure of H2 into the cylinder when it is heated and put this powder inside the cylinder. Cold weld seal the second end closed. Viola! You have a hotCat reactor core. Rossi has also described his "cat and mouse" where the "mouse" was added to enhance the performance of the hotCat. An easy speculation for this would be that he could take some of his previous Rossi micro-Ni + catalyst powder and add that as well to the hotCat as a means to help the reaction begin from a lower temperature. I believe the cylindrical outer heaters are just resistor coils embedded in a high thermal conductivity ceramic. Comments?
