An update to the p+B11 => 2He4 explanation of the Papp engine: US Patent # 4,023,065 ~ May., 1977; Koloc 376/146 is cited by Papp in US Patent # 4,428,193. Koloc's patent is targets plasmoid formation in a compression chamber for the purposes of p+B11 => 3He4 +energy.
The apparent source of the claim that Papp was getting boron ash (amofphous boron powder is the "brown powder") resulting from the fusion of helium with itself was John Rohner in an interview with Larry Seyer<http://larryseyer.com/index.php/radio-shows/tmdd/tmdd-podcast/939-john-p-rohner-ceo-of-intelligentry> and John Rohner is claiming that he is now able to burn the boron to produce helium. Following through on this, I found a plausible nucleosynthesis route: He3+He4 => Be7 + 0.00170147u energy 3.0160293+4.002602-7.01692983 = 0.00170147 Be7 has a half-life of 53 days*. Quite long enough for another He4 fusion: Be7+He4 => C11 + 0.00809823u energy 7.01692983+4.002602-11.0114336 = 0.00809823 (*Caveat: Be7 decays only by electron capture and that an enhanced presence of electrons will speed up its decay into Li7 which would allow p+Li7 => 2He4 + energy.) Moreover C11 has a half-life of 20 minutes and beta-decays to B11 by positron emission, so after a long run it is plausible there would be noticable amorphous (brown) boron powder. At this point we have only to add protium (H1) to return to He4 ash via: p+B11 => 3He4 Doing the economics of He3, it is plausible that, given the price of He3 during Papp's original work, Papp's secret ingredient in his fuel was pure He3, rather than p+B11 -- that the boron powder observed really was a fusion product (ash) as claimed by Papp via John Rohner. (The natural occurrence of He3 in Helium gas isn't even close to the energy density required to run the demonstrations.) However, He3 has recently auctioned for $2000/liter. Given that price for He3, the economics of He3 don't look good even including completion of burn-up via p+B11 => 3He4 as reported by John Rohner: He3+2*He4+p => 3*He4 + 0.0212523u where p stands for 'protium' or H1 3.0160293+2*4.002602+1.007825-3*4.002602 = 0.0212523 In other words, if you take 12grams of a gas that is 3gm of He3, 8gm of He4 and 1gm of p, and burn it through the entire cycle of Be7=>C11=>B11=>He you'll get: 0.0212523g*c^2?kWh (0.0212523 * gramm) * (speed_of_light^2) ? kilo*Wh = 530571.01 kWh To get that much energy we had to purchase 3gm of He3 at $2000/liter: 3g/530571.01 kWh;.17g/l;2000dollar/l?dollar/kWh ([{3 * gramm} / {530571.01 * (kilo*Wh)}] * [{0.17 * gramm} / liter]^-1) * ([2000 * dollar] / liter) ? dollar / (kilo*Wh) = 0.066521007 dollar/kWh Although a fuel price of 7 cents per kWh output isn't outlandishly high for electricity, it certainly isn't nearly as cheap as what you can achieve by simply adding p and B11 directly to the chamber. Moreover, I haven't done the coulomb barrier calculations on the B11 nucleosynthesis -- so even though it may be quite feasible within some stellar cores, it isn't clear it could be achieved in a Papp engine plasmoid. Assuming: 1. The Papp engine is actually an p+B11=>3He4 reactor diluted by noble gasses to make the energy density manageable within an internal combusion engine. 2. The mechanism of the p+B11=>3He4 reaction is a compound plasma structure described by US Patent # 4,023,065 ~ May., 1977; Koloc 376/146 cited by Papp in US Patent # 4,428,193. 3. There is substantially no waste heat. We are led to the most likely hypotheses that: 1. The energetic alphas (3He4) are being converted to electrical energy through electrohydrodynamics. 2. The compound plasma structure's intense magnetic field is the means by which these energetic alphas are columnated for EHD generation. 3. There is an efficient way to reverse the construction of the compound plasma structure, such that its highly columnated energetic alphas produce charging current for the paired cylinder leaving unionized He4 at relatively low temperature as a result of the return stroke of the cylinder. It should be noted here that under these hypotheses the energy output of the Papp engine is relatively constant as the dilution ratio cannot be changed and that, therefore, when it is not under mechanical load is has to dump large amounts of electrical energy somehow. A failure to dump this electrical energy could result in what we saw in the Feynman fiasco as the plasmoid generation current increased with each cycle. It should also be noted that it is not necessarily the case that the released energy contributes substantially the mechanical force against the piston of the reacting plasma structure during that power stroke -- that its contribution is to the energy available for the formation of the plasma structure in the opposing cylinder's next cycle, hence that cylinder's potential for mechanical force against its piston. On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 10:51 PM, James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > Pyrex is borosilicate glass. Any system using pyrex would involve boron > as a potential low level contaminant. > > Papp claimed that the boron powder that appeared in his cylinder was a > reaction *product*. However, no one was ever able to get his engine to > work in the absence of his careful preparation of the "fuel". > > The fission reaction p+B11 => 3He4 + energy is well known as an aneutronic > reaction which produces Helium ash. > > I don't pretend to understand the mechanism by which the proton could > overcome the coloumb barrier in either of these systems, but it would > explain a lot if they were p+B11 => 3He4 + energy systems. > > Did Rossi figured this out and start using the well known catalyst Nickel > Boride as his secret "catalyst"? > > Did Papp throw everyone yet another curve-ball by secretly including boron > and hydrogen in his "noble gas fuel"? > > I only ask these questions. >
