Hi Frank, I had not seen your Russian reference about the Potapov device. (which needs a bit of editing, probably due to poor translation) This brings ti mind one curious detail in the Griggs/Potapov results - as well as some Casimir force, magnetic motor, Maxwell's demon, and even a few LENR experiments - is that the upper range of thermal gain (output over input) seems to be limited to something like 1.25 or so.
Which is to say that there is some real gain (overunity) - but not much. Does you beta atmosphere theory address this point? Jones Frank Grimer wrote: https://remontideas.ru/en/warm-floor/vechnyi-dvigatel-potapova-generator-svobodnoi-energii-s-samozapitkoi.html A bit of history.