On 2011-04-30 23:37, Jed Rothwell wrote:
I have been wondering about this. My guess is that Rossi means his
device uses gas-loaded cold fusion, rather than the original
Fleischmann-Pons electrolysis loading.
I agree that here Rossi probably means that.
The method of producing hydrogen outside the reactor is not "what
happens inside the reactor."
That method is also unimportant. Who cares where the hydrogen comes
from, as long as it works?
There are secondary implications from what Focardi said, however.
1) Using electrolysis would also "poison" the cell with oxygen (even if
minimally in the best case, with good separation). We know that oxygen
in free form is bad for Ni-H reaction. The less oxides form in the cell,
especially on nickel particles, the better. Also small quantities of
water might enter in the catalyst container and poison the reaction in
other ways.
2) How is an internal reactor pressure of 20-25 bars achieved by using
electrolysis in that way?
3) Isn't hydrogen supposed to be used in very small quantities anyway?
Also it isn't really "consumed", just absorbed, unless it spills
somewhere. So why use electrolysis?
It could be that these are non-issues, however I find the generation of
hydrogen from electrolysis odd in Rossi's case. My idea (assuming my
observations are correct, which maybe is not the case) is that either
Focardi got confused with the system used or he didn't tell the entire
truth on the matter.
Cheers,
S.A.
