Michel,
> BTW your challenge/riddle beats me, can the thing be made OU after all?
If you mean in a circular way - "are there specific demonstrable
physical violations of the LoT, aside from LENR; and is any example
amenable to being harnessed in a device which incorporates a heat pump?"
If that is the question - and aside from LENR effects, and the hydrino,
and high-efficiency electrolysis, already mentioned - any or all of
which can be used in conjunction with a heat pump situation, there are
at least two more of these anomalous "cross-category" effects. One is
"IPE" and the other is the "entropic explosion", or the heatless bomb.
By "cross-category" effect, I am referring to the lesser-known effects
which are not "merely" thermodynamic, and which may involve "new
physics" - either nuclear (as in induced photon emission = IPE) or
supra-chemical reactions. Supra-chemical reactions are reactions in
which atoms interact in ways which are not nuclear but involve "more
than" valence electrons - for instance: the k-shell electrons, the
Mossbauer effect and the Auger cascade - or in the case of the hydrino,
a prolonged condition below ground state in which angular momentum, or
some other form of energy may be withdrawn - which level of energy puts
the reaction above (supra) the well-know chemical reactions, which do
obey the LoT.
Well, to cut to the chase, some time ago I mentioned the situation of
"entropic explosion". Since you probably missed a golden opportunity for
further enlightenment at that time, as it was one of those posts where
the subject line turned up missing, I will enclose an amended version below.
I appreciate the fact that you do not enjoy long postings - and my
apologies in advance for that. I would try to shorten it more, or
translate it into French if I had the time, but for now, this will have
to do.
Jones
Subject: Entropic Explosion (heatless bomb)
First a definition: "Specific impulse" - A term used in
rocketry or munitions, commonly abbreviated (Isp) which rates the
efficiency of a propulsion system by the "impulse" (i.e. the
change in momentum) per unit of propellant. The numerical
dimension of specific impulse is either impulse per unit mass, or
impulse per unit time; differing by a factor of g, the
gravitational acceleration at the surface of the Earth.
For example, the Specific impulse of hydrogen peroxide as a
monopropellant is about 160-175 (sec), which is most amazing since when
burned as a bipropellant with gasoline, this figure only goes up to
about 225, not even double. And this is only slightly less than hydrogen
burned with liguid oxygen - yet - the net heat energy of the gasoline is
13 times greater per volume than the heat energy of the peroxide. Huge
anomaly. COP =5 ??? read on....
The anomaly, if you need it to be spelled out, is that the heat
energy of the propellant can be only moderately related to its
specific impulse. "Common sense" scientific teaching indicates
otherwise. There are only a couple of chemicals where this
particular anomaly (of heat energy not correlating to thrust)
occurs and they involve phase change.
A particular terrorist explosive, the name of which need not be
mentioned for present purposes, is quietly in the science news
lately for a number of security-related reasons. But for
alternative energy R&D, the big news of interest is related to a
surprising but little-known physical anomaly of the chemical,
which is even absent from many (all) older University level textbooks.
That explosive is peroxide based, but very different from conventional
explosives in that it does NOT release heat during the explosion.
Did the full implications of that feature hit you yet?
If not, let me repeat: this chemical explosive does not release
heat during the violent explosion! At least not very much. But it will
definitely kill you and creates the normal amount of explosive damage.
Irony-of ironies ! Would not it be some kind of poetic justice in
the present socio-political climate if the fear-product of Islamic
terrorism led directly to a major alternative-energy advance - which
significantly lowered the demand for Middle-Eastern oil? Not as
farfetched as one might imagine.
The process of energy conversion in explosives, just like combustion,
normally obeys thermodynamic laws and especially Boyle's Law. The
phase-change conversion of solid or liquid to gas (as in the
steam engine) normally is a product of large energy input and
temperature rise, based on combustion; and normally this results
in around a 1500-1 to 2000-1 volume change; or correspondingly - a
pressure differential of up to 3000 psi max.
This volume and pressure swing can be easily converted into energy using
an ICE or turbine engine, as is done in power plants all over the world.
This true with or without the heat normally associated with explosions
and Boyle's Law.
In the spirit of 'swords to plowshares' - the implication of the
aforementioned phase-change, of the bomb-anomaly variety is, of
course, that when an engine is based on a similar chemical
reaction - then the Carnot limitations and other normal measures of
energy/heat content will not apply in the same way as with real
heat engines. In other words, our normal assumptions about the
relationship of heat energy to kinetic energy are flawed in this
limited instance of peroxide-based chemicals.
This phenomenon - which does utilize phase-change advantageously, does
not suffer the huge losses of compression in an engine, but the
thermodynamic energy balance is more complicated. This phenomenon is
scientifically known as 'Entropic Explosion'. It is reminiscent of the
rapid reaction that produces gas in the safety air-bags of cars during
accidents, where one does not want to substitute a lesser burn-injury
for a major impact injury.
The Entropic Explosion (EE) phenomenon may serve to explain how
HOOH can be used as a monopropellant rocket fuel when its apparent
energy content is low - much lower than the specific impulse of
exhaust would indicate.
Compared to burning hydrogen in oxygen, the specific impulse of
HOOH monopropellant shows about a five to one net advantage in
anti-entropy, when graphed against heat energy content of the two base
fuel systems. IOW, Specific impulse converts directly into torque, and
the fact that peroxide has 13 times less heat energy but only two to
three times less isp, means it is five times more efficient (COP is
arguably ~five) and "might" lead to a complicated hybrid device,
incorporating the heat pump, which appears to be overunity.
If a fuel has a COP of five, and a heat pump has a COP of five, then
even a low efficiency engine and add-on system might suffice to both
make the fuel (on-the-fly) and achieve the same kind of self-running
which can be mis-labeled as "perpetual motion".
But to bring readers here up to date on what is probably a new
concept to many (i.e. never before mentioned on this forum, as far
as I can tell): An "Entropic Explosion" is defined simply as an
explosion in which the reactants undergo a very large change in volume
and resultant pressure - but without releasing a correspondingly large
amount of heat. You will sometimes see the label "isothermal" expansion
applied to this, but that does not convey the same vigorous connotation.
