----- Original Message -----
From: "OrionWorks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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The engineering challenges as described by Mr. Carrell seem entirely
realistic, and more importantly, doable from my POV. I have every
faith that we simians are up to the challenge. Shoot! We've been to
the Moon in back. It is one of the reasons I continue to suspect BLP
may very well have finally skinned the rabbit despite PZ's
strategically applied skepticism.
However, and here's the catch, the development challenges BLP is about
to embark on concern me deeply. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they
concern me gravely. BLP claims that they anticipate having a prototype
operational possibly before the end of 2010. Every instinctual fiber
within my body tells me that this timetable will very likely turn out
to be unrealistic at practically every corner they encounter. As Mr.
Carrell has eluded, no one has ever attempted to manipulate this
particular arrangement of chemistry in the fashion required - to make
the BLP process self-regenerative. I gather there has never been a
NEED to study and subsequently manipulate the chemistry in the manner
required - until now. There's going to be a lot of learning and
unavoidable mistakes made as engineers gain experience - painfully,
slowly, one step at a time. I hope the difficulty of the challenges
ahead have been made clear to BLP's key investors. I hope they have
the capacity to appreciate how difficult (and potentially expensive)
the initial challenge is likely to be. My fear is that key investors
may begin to lose heart and begin withholding essential funding.
I hope my concerns are mostly irrational and overblown.
No, Steven, your concerns are not irrational and overblown, for I have been
saying essentially the same thing for some years, that the really tough part
of the journey is ahead. In my corporate years I was in a Manufacturing
Technology Lab, bridging between a world class research laboratory and the
manufacturing plants. I have viewed close up three startups done by
competent people using mostly familiar technology whose cost ran in the
hundreds of millions back when that was real money. I have no close-up
insight on the staff of BLP as to what they have actually done. I have no
direct insight into just what is going on behind the curtain, but there is a
lot of cheerful noise. BLP intends to hire a world class A&E firm to build a
utility-class power plant. Such firms have in-depth engineering staffs used
to large one-of projects. They can hire squads of consultants. The turbines,
heat exchangers, are all catalog stuff. Large scale electrolysis units are
also probably catalog stuff. The new part is the reaction chamber and the
reconstitution process necessary to get an essentially continuous burn. I
would expect several interation of this, working up to a megawatt power
level. Then they can start selling power to the NJ PSE&G grid and
harvesting hydrino hydrides for chemical development. When that can run
stably for weeks, design can begin on the next, more efficient iteration.
BLP will then be drowning in money as the realization spreads that here is
solution to carbon footprints,. etc. and etc.
I don't think anyone will lose heart despite transitional problems.
Mike Carrell
