I just read through Piantelli's recent EU patent: http://www.google.com/patents/EP2368252B1?cl=en
It was an interesting read. The publication date on the patent is January 16, 2013, and it was given priority on November 24, 2008. I don't know whether you'd refer to it as Piantelli's 2008 EU patent or his 2013 EU patent. This patent is important for several reasons. First, Piantelli was one of the first researchers to start looking primarily at the NiH system, in contrast to the PdD system, which has received a lot of attention, as well as other systems, such as TiD, WD, etc. Piantelli collaborated with Sergio Focardi, and later on Focardi was to work with Andrea Rossi in support of the development of Rossi's devices. So there's a direct family line from Piantelli leading to the E-Cat. Sometimes one hears the accusation that Rossi was able through his association with Focardi to steal Piantelli's trade secrets, something I have no opinion on. Another reason the patent is important is that it is one of the few LENR patents to be granted. Most of the US patent applications of which I am aware, for example, have been held up or rejected. The patent outlines a device and covers a range of possible parameters, and it puts forward a theory for how the device works. In Piantelli's apparatus, there is an active core that consists of a metal tube filled with hydrogen and a transition metal substrate (preferably nickel). There are various ways of preparing the substrate, including sputtering, evaporation and condensation, etc.; various ways of introducing hydrogen; various ways of kicking off the reaction; and various ways of bringing a reaction to a controlled stop. In other words, the patent appears to be broad and, to my mind, could conceivably cover many gas-phase LENR systems, NiH or otherwise. I wonder whether Arata's experiments would count as prior art. An interesting detail of the patent is that several isotopes of nickel are mentioned as being advantageous -- 58Ni, 60Ni, 61Ni, 62Ni and 64Ni. These are all stable or observationally stable isotopes of nickel (which makes sense, since these are readily available in nature). Judging from discussions here and articles that David French has written, there is one detail about this patent that stands out as a flaw -- Piantelli goes into a theory of how he believes the reaction to work, one that strikes me as being hopeful rather than promising. Piantelli's patent says that you need clusters of substrate atoms of below a certain number of atoms, and that with clusters of that size there will be an interaction that takes place between valence electrons and hydrogen atoms adsorbed onto the clusters. The hydrogen atoms will become H- ions, at which point they will replace orbiting electrons around the substrate atoms. Because the H- ions are much more massive than electrons, they will approach much closer to the nucleus than the electrons that have been replaced. At this point coulomb repulsion will kick in, ejecting from the atom a bare proton from what was originally the H- ion, which will then go on to react with other substrate atoms, causing transmutations and other effects. There is a detail in the middle of the description that was unclear -- the patent seems to be saying that there is an energy release through mass defect *before* the proton is ejected, as though the electrons in the H- ion are somehow being consumed. I'm not sure what Piantelli has in mind, here. The legal events at the bottom of application show that it has been challenged on at least two occasions, first by Leonardo Corp. and then by E.F.A. S.R.L. (presumably Energia da Fonti Alternative S.r.l.). We already know about Leonardo Corp., which is one of Rossi's companies, and I believe Mats Lewan describes Energia da Fonti Alternative as being associated with Rossi as well. Eric
