-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] ...if true then putting Rossi devices in series to achieve superheated steam isn't going to work.
Robin, That is sadly the case, and the conversion to electricity is therefore doomed to be at low efficiency. "How low?" is the question. I hope that it can achieve overall 15% net efficiency, thermal to electric after all losses - but that is unsure, since the Carnot spread is low. Best bet: http://www.infinityturbine.com/ORC/ORC_Waste_Heat_Turbine.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAm0eXYmvGU This looks promising for conversion of low grade heat to electricity in a Rossi type reactor, and output heat in the range of 400C. There is really no other good option without a breakthrough in thermoelectrics. I would love to see real data from bona fide applications using OCR. Good data from real customers has not turned up yet from Infinity - only more and more sales hype. Jones BTW there was a recent report (yet to be verified) that Rossi had admitted that the initial design goal is for average COP ~8, P-in (elec) to P-out (therm) or far less than the original of 20 or more. Still that is triple the best that Randell Mills has ever shown (His demo in Maryland is today, and hopefully something new will come out of it). This situation is problematic, since if Rossi cannot convert to electricity at over 12% in actual practice, then it will NOT be self-powered, and thus the concept could be relegated to space heating applications where it probably will not compare well to geothermal or even stored solar-thermal for space heating. OTOH if 20% net conversion rate to electricity is possible, even the COP of 8 makes it look better. Can the Infinity ORC turbine do that? Again, no real data. Moreover, with a full megawatt thermal plant - 100-125 units and the presumed high cost- this means that at best there will be 200 kW of electricity available, even at 20% and out of that - perhaps 130 will need to be recycled, probably more, with inevitable losses to provide the input. Thus, in the end, this large megawatt of heat will net only 70 kW of electricity and the expected overhead may kill it, in comparison with say a Bloom box running on natural gas. The wholesale value of 70 kW sold on the open market will not cover the minimum wage of a single employee, much less the expected overhead of 125 reactors. Better scenarios can be easily imagined, but the harsh reality is that even a COP of 8 is not earth-shaking in economic terms, when the output heat is in the low range of temperature. However, this is only a start, and if this kind of gain is possible even for only a few weeks, then it will galvanize the DoE to finally get involved with LENR in a big way. Even if Mills' COP of 2.3 can be proved beyond doubt, that is all that is needed, of course. By "big" with DoE - we should be talking about a shift of hot fusion funding in the $billion yearly range.
