In the current discussion of a post-peak-oil world, the usual alternatives have been worked over thoroughly, and found unsatisfactory. An important factor is perceptions of the future. While expansion and a better future are seen as possible, people will dream, hope, invest and work to make it real. If that perception turns to gloom and doom and no light at the end of the tunnel, the collapse of international commerce and investment markets may be swift.
A workable road map to a better future will help. This drives the workers and supporters of LENR technology, but it seems a bit beyond reach at the moment. There is a likely alternative in Black Light Power. For those here who have not studied it I will give a sketch of its features and status, with links to specific data. After a decade of R&D, with publication of theory and experiments, privately funded Black Light Power has entered a phase of negotiation with a number of potential product development partners who are doing serious due diligence studies of the BLP technology, including replication of critical effects in their own laboratories. Many 'new energy' comapnies have made this claim. All I can say is that I have credible sources and my own analysis of what has been presented in publications and on the BLP website. Papers on key aspect of BLP technology have been published in the Journal of Applied Physics and other senior technical journals in the US and abroad. Mills has been very active in refining his theory and developing visualizations of the orbitsphere elctron model to aid third party consultants retained by managements of prospective partners. He has recently lectured to audiences in Holland. The BLP process uses certain catalytic ions to induce atomic hydrogen atoms to collapse to a lower state, called hydrinos. A cascade of collpases [but not a runaway chain reaction] to many lower states is possible, with yields of still higher energy at each stage. At even the first stage, the energy yield per atom is greater than that necessary to isolate a hydrogen atom from a water molecule. This opens the door to ordinary water as a fuel, which has been demonstrated, as O++ is one of the catalyts. The energy from the reactions is primarily as deep UV radiation, hence the name Black Light Power. Further details and tutorials are available a the website, www.blacklightpower.com. The BLP process has been demonstrated in aqueous and gaseous modes, the latter producing an energetic plasma. It is strongly OU by calorimetric tests, neglecting energy losses of support and conversion equipment; closed-loop systems have not yet been demonstrated.. A spectroscopic signature is strong broadening of the hydrogen alpha line, indicating hydrogen temperatures of X00,000 K. At http://www.blacklightpower.com.pdf.technical/Techtheoryintro030705Web3.pdf are 107 slides of a recent presentation, "The Hydrino: Lower-level States of the Hydrogen Atom Which Have Remarkable Consequences" - Invited Evening Lecture at the 17th Symposium of Plasma Physics and Radiation Technology, sponsored by the Netherlands' Physical Society Section Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics and Research School Center for Plasma Physics and Radiation Technology, Lunteren, Netherlands, March 1-2, 2005. I will refer to certain slides inthe discussion which follows. To set the stage, go to p97, which shows a car beside a big box, which is a freestanding BLP hydrogen generator, using water as a source of energy to operate the generator, and of hydrogen to fuel cars. Such modules can be added to filling stations everywhere to service cars utilizing hydrogen for fuel. These cars may have IC engines adapted for hydrogen, or fuel cells, or in the future BLP-Stirling engines. The modules use local water and do not reqluire hydrogen shipped from remote sources like wind or solar farms, or from pipelines. Following pages show details of the system, and cost estimates. These estimates are based on BLP applications publicly disclosed. Surplus electrical energy can be supplied to the local grid. Below are my conjectures on how the performance might be improved. On p100 is a picture of a 3 kW Stirling engine from Stirling Technology Corp., suggesting that such engines can utilize the heat from BLP reactors in stationary or mobile applications. Stirning engines have reasonable Carnot efficiencies, but the power/weight and power/volume ratios will depend on the input temperature. Thus a 20 kW Stirling for a hybrid car may be bulkier than an IC engine burning hydrogen. However, BLP has demonstrated that the BLP reactions can get over 100 times the energy from a given quantity of hydrogen than is obtained by burning the same amount of hydrogen. This alone is a powerful enabling factor for the 'hydrogen economy', for that multplier affects every aspect of generation, storage, transportation, etc. These elements provide a smooth transition from a gasoline based transportation system to a hydrogen-fueled transportation system. The BLP hydrogen generators can supplement sources developed by other investors, such as wind and solar PV. BLP power systems make far mor effective use of hydrogen than any competitve system. Widespread knowledge of this path may ease panic over impending peaking of oil supplies. With this introduction, I will proceed with more details. Page 101 shows a block diagram of the sytem in the box. In the center at the left is the BLP reactor. Research models of this reactor are shown on pp 98-99, with further details at http://www.blacklightpower.com/cell.shml. On pp 24-25 of the presentation is another view of this reactor. Page 24 shows the essential elements: 1) a central heater using tungsten wire, 2) a cylindrical titanium mesh sleeve dipped in a solution of potassium nitrate or potassium carbonate, 3) provision for circulatin hydrogen gas through the cell at about 0.1 Torr. With the heater at about 1100-1500 C, H2 gas is dissociated to H, and the potassium salt is dissociated yielding K+ [with nitrates] or K+++ [with carbonates]. Either of these are catalysts with the hydrogen *atoms* in a resonant-transfer [rt] reaction which causes the hydrogen atom to trasnfer a specific amount of energy to the catalyst atoms, destabilizing the hydrogen atom, which shrinks to a lower energy state, yielding substantial energy in the form of ultraviolet light and kinetic energy, and forming hydrinos. With the nitrate catalysts H(1/2) is produced; with the carbonates, H(1/4) predominates, with higher energy yield. Below the image on p25 is a reference to a paper by Conrads et al., published in a European refereed journal. Conrads verified the essentials of this reacton in a different setup. He used halogen lamps as heaters, wrapped with wire as a hydrogen dissociator. He observed the rt plasma and the Balmer line broadening [evidence of high temperature hydrogen]. He removed the titanium sleeve, which assists in the dissociation of the potassium carbonate, and the plasma did not develop. He removed the wire around the lamps, which dissociated the hydrogen molecules to atomic hydrogen, and the plasma did not develop. Only when the essential elements were in place did he observe the rt plasma described by Mills. This is a substantial confirmation of Mills' report, as it was done in another lab, with vartiations of the setup, which worked only when done as Mills described. The research cell had a wall temperature of 700 C and an energy density of 0.1 W/cc, as stated on p97. This is not as impressive as that seen in a reaction of hydrogen and helium, ionized in a microwave cell, where the energy density reached 30 W/cc, comparable with IC engines. On p87 is a view of this cell, an Evenson microwave cavity enclosing a quartz tube carrying the gas mixtures, which is seen glowing with microwave excitation. The assembly is sumberged in a fish tank filled with water with a mechanical stirrer and a precision recording thermometer. On p88 is a plot of temperature/time and a brief description of the protocol. Krypton is not a BLP catalyst gas, but He+, Ar+, Ne+ and O++ are catalysts. At the bottom of the figure is a reference to a paper by Phillips et al. published in the Journal of Applied Physics. It containes a detailed energy analysis of the system and the results of tests with different catalysts. Page 103 shows a block diagram of the electrolysis module of the hydrogen generator. At www.blacklightpower.com.pdf.Technical/electrolysis042804.pdf is a discussion of an electrolytic cell, similar to Mills' earliest experiments. The equipment is upgraded, with a control cell for measureing calorimetry. A special feature is that K2CO3 cell's cathode is an evacuated thin wall nickel tube which allows hydrinos to diffuse through and be collected for analysis. Details of that analysis are in the paper. What is important here is that the electrolytic cell is not only a hydrogen generator for the thermal reactor [producing hydrinos as a byproduct] and for automobile fuel, it is itself a source of hydrinos for sale as a valuable chemical product. Hydrinos, the end product of these reactions, can and will form hydrides in the electron-rich environment of the reactors. Hydrino hydrides have vast potential application in chemistry, where they may greatly enhance product qualities. Batteries utilizing hydrinos may exhibit unusually high cell voltages and unprecedented energy storage densities, which may make electric-only cars feasible. Thus all application systems will include provision for retaining hydrinos for sale as valuable chemicals. Toxicity of hydrinos is unknown at present. I now conjecture application improvements. All the device configurations posted by BLP use standard laboratory instruments and glassware, as they should, for economy and reliability. They do not represent optimum configurations. The thermal reactor as shown has a rather low power density and ill-adapted for coupling to other systems. The essential features are titanium surfaces to dissociate the potassium carbonate and tungsten surfaces to dissociate molecular hydrogen, plus hydrogen, plus potassium carbonate. Pressure is around 1 Torr. One can think of parallel plates, one titanium and one tungsten, or a mesh of titanium and tungsten wire between two plates. Hydrogen flows between the plates, carrying away hydrinos as they form. Once brought up to operating temperature in a small region, the reaction will spread to the whole volume and the whole cell will reach into the 1000 C range if insulated. The exterior flat plates can be ribbed for effective heat transfer to boil water for a turbine, and to elevate the steam to superheated levels to operate a turbine as indicated on p101. Good Carnot efficiency can be obtained. There is no intrinsic shape for such a reactor; it can also be cylindrical, wrapped aroung the hot end of a Stirling engine. Eventually, there may be mass produced capsules containing hydrogen, catalyst, titanium, and a heater. A flashlight battery may drive it as a packaged heater. With microwave ionization, water vapor itself can be both fuel and catalyst, since O++ is a BLP catalyst. In the thermal cell, there is intense UV radiation which may also dissociate H20 and ionize O to O++, bringing another catalyst into the system. Condensate from the turbine is distilled water, suitable for the electrolytic cell. Thermal extraction systems within Carnot limits dump waste heat. Emerging thermal-electric conversion technology at www.powerchips.gi should be able to efficiently utilize the waste heat, significantly increasing the system efficiency.Power Chips have low output voltage, but high current capcility, which is appropriate for the electrolytic cell in the hydrogen generator, or in an automotive package. Jed has persistenly and correctly cited the power of the market and entrepreneurship to improve applications technology. My conjecture here is only a brief sketch of a wide range of possbilities when BLP crosses the commercial threshold and people realise that it is "real". I expect that to happen this year. Mike Carrell
