I reviewed the DGT demonstration and had a chance to give it a bit of serious thought. One observation that I focused upon was the reading of the output temperature during the hydrogen cycle. It is obvious that this reading remained stuck at 100 C during a lot of time as the power output was being ramped up. I expected this to occur.
This measurement convinced me that the copper cooling pipe was truly open to the air at the drain end and not under additional pressure. This coupled with the measured flow rate of the coolant and Mats viewing of the output as being vapor only was important. I also noted that the temperature sensor was far removed from the device and not subject to any copper pipe heat coupling. With the above considerations, I could believe that the water flowing into the device was in fact being boiled into vapor and then super heated by the extremely hot core of their device. I noted that the water input was directed to the outer ring of piping while the final output came from the contact region that closely touches the center reactor. My observations are that the final elevated temperature reading of the output at 150 C or so was valid under the demonstration conditions. This belief suggests that many thousands of watts of heat are being generated within their device and exiting as heated water vapor. How would it be possible for the temperature reading to be at that level at the test point if water at 100 C or less were traveling through the pipe? And, the large pipes reaching toward the ceiling should catch any water that was attempting to escape and hold it captive near the gauge. Can anyone come up with a way to prove that the water is not being totally vaporized under the conditions that were demonstrated? So far I come up empty. My best estimate is that the true power output is over 20 kilowatts of heat which is significant. My only concern is the speed of vapor leaving the apparatus and whether or not the steam is actually as dry as it appears. Does anyone else agree with this assessment? Dave
