Bob, this is a good analysis of a possible design. You are right, the
powder must make good thermal contact with the wall for the nuclear
reaction to be controlled by temperature. Just how Rossi makes this
happen is unknown. Nevertheless, most of the active nickel must be
attached to the inner wall of the stainless tube. In addition, at the
temperatures used, the Ni powder would sinter and not be easily to
remove.
As for modifying the stainless using chemical etch, I doubt this would
be effective. This texture would have to be active initially and
remain unchanged at high temperature. Such textures are not stable and
would not survive the high temperature. Rossi has done something to
the Ni powder that is very stable and not affected by high
temperature. This fact alone greatly reduces the possibilities to
anyone familiar with the materials science of this material. Rossi is
gradually letting the cat out of the bag, whether he wants to or not.
Ed Storms
On May 29, 2013, at 8:29 AM, Bob Higgins wrote:
I would like to submit my speculation about the latest Rossi hotCat
for discussion on Vortex-l.
We are told that the central reactor core is a 310 stainless steel
cylinder ( 3cm by 33cm). There is no port for introduction of H2.
The ends are cold welded closed.
When the test device was sawed open, only a miniscule amount of
powder came out. This cannot be the active powder - it would have
melted as loose powder rather than conveying the heat out of the
cylinder.
It is highly desirable to have high thermal conductivity between the
NAEs and the outer metal cylinder. You wouldn't get this with loose
powder on the inside.
310 stainless is ~25% chromium, ~21% Ni, and the balance mostly iron
Consider what Celani has done - taken a Ni-Cu alloy wire and etched
out the Cu to realize the surface nanotexturing, thus creating NAEs
on the wire outer surface. Suppose we took the 310 stainless
cylinder and used a chromium etch on the inner surface. Chrome
etches typically contain nitric acid which will also attack the
iron, but not the nickel. The result could be a nanotextured Ni
inner surface of the 310 SS cylinder with perhaps a micro-scale Ni
"fur" in high thermal contact with the cylinder. There may be
further chemical texturing of the inner surface or nanopowder added
as part of a thermo-chemical modification of the surface to create
the NAEs in high number on the inner textured Ni surface.
Then, cold weld one end of the cylinder closed. Calculate the
amount of metal hydride needed to release the desired pressure of H2
into the cylinder when it is heated and put this powder inside the
cylinder. Cold weld seal the second end closed. Viola! You have a
hotCat reactor core.
Rossi has also described his "cat and mouse" where the "mouse" was
added to enhance the performance of the hotCat. An easy speculation
for this would be that he could take some of his previous Rossi
micro-Ni + catalyst powder and add that as well to the hotCat as a
means to help the reaction begin from a lower temperature.
I believe the cylindrical outer heaters are just resistor coils
embedded in a high thermal conductivity ceramic.
Comments?
