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  • From: Martin Naylor <martinwnaylor@yahoo.com.au>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Fuel's paradise? Power source that turns physics on its head
  • Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:08:47 +1100 (EST)

or does the song remain the same

Saor Stetler <saor@ycbtal.net> wrote:Fuel's paradise? Power source that turns
physics on its head

· Scientist says device disproves quantum theory
· Opponents claim idea is result of wrong maths

Alok Jha, science correspondent
Friday November 4, 2005

Guardian

It seems too good to be true: a new source of near-limitless power that
costs virtually nothing, uses tiny amounts of water as its fuel and
produces next to no waste. If that does not sound radical enough, how
about this: the principle behind the source turns modern physics on its
head.

Randell Mills, a Harvard University medic who also studied electrical
engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims to have
built a prototype power source that generates up to 1,000 times more
heat than conventional fuel. Independent scientists claim to have
verified the experiments and Dr Mills says that his company, Blacklight
Power, has tens of millions of dollars in investment lined up to bring
the idea to market. And he claims to be just months away from unveiling
his creation.

The problem is that according to the rules of quantum mechanics, the
physics that governs the behaviour of atoms, the idea is theoretically
impossible. "Physicists are quite conservative. It's not easy to
convince them to change a theory that is accepted for 50 to 60 years. I
don't think [Mills's] theory should be supported," said Jan Naudts, a
theoretical physicist at the University of Antwerp.

What has much of the physics world up in arms is Dr Mills's claim that
he has produced a new form of hydrogen, the simplest of all the atoms,
with just a single proton circled by one electron. In his "hydrino", the
electron sits a little closer to the proton than normal, and the
formation of the new atoms from traditional hydrogen releases huge
amounts of energy.

This is scientific heresy. According to quantum mechanics, electrons can
only exist in an atom in strictly defined orbits, and the shortest
distance allowed between the proton and electron in hydrogen is fixed.
The two particles are simply not allowed to get any closer.

According to Dr Mills, there can be only one explanation: quantum
mechanics must be wrong. "We've done a lot of testing. We've got 50
independent validation reports, we've got 65 peer-reviewed journal
articles," he said. "We ran into this theoretical resistance and there
are some vested interests here. People are very strong and fervent
protectors of this [quantum] theory that they use."

Rick Maas, a chemist at the University of North Carolina at Asheville
(UNC) who specialises in sustainable energy sources, was allowed
unfettered access to Blacklight's laboratories this year. "We went in
with a healthy amount of scepticism. While it would certainly be nice if
this were true, in my position as head of a research institution, I
really wouldn't want to make a mistake. The last thing I want is to be
remembered as the person who derailed a lot of sustainable energy
investment into something that wasn't real."

But Prof Maas and Randy Booker, a UNC physicist, left under no doubt
about Dr Mill's claims. "All of us who are not quantum physicists are
looking at Dr Mills's data and we find it very compelling," said Prof
Maas. "Dr Booker and I have both put our professional reputations on the
line as far as that goes."

Dr Mills's idea goes against almost a century of thinking. When
scientists developed the theory of quantum mechanics they described a
world where measuring the exact position or energy of a particle was
impossible and where the laws of classical physics had no effect. The
theory has been hailed as one of the 20th century's greatest achievements.

But it is an achievement Dr Mills thinks is flawed. He turned back to
earlier classical physics to develop a theory which, unlike quantum
mechanics, allows an electron to move much closer to the proton at the
heart of a hydrogen atom and, in doing so, release the substantial
amounts of energy he seeks to exploit. Dr Mills's theory, known as
classical quantum mechanics and published in the journal Physics Essays
in 2003, has been criticised most publicly by Andreas Rathke of the
European Space Agency. In a damning critique published recently in the
New Journal of Physics, he argued that Dr Mills's theory was the result
of mathematical mistakes.

Dr Mills argues that there are plenty of flaws in Dr Rathke's critique.
"His paper's riddled with mistakes. We've had other physicists contact
him and say this is embarrassing to the journal and [Dr Rathke] won't
respond," said Dr Mills.

While the theoretical tangle is unlikely to resolve itself soon, those
wanting to exploit the technology are pushing ahead. "We would like to
understand it from an academic standpoint and then we would like to be
able to use the implications to actually produce energy products," said
Prof Maas. "The companies that are lining up behind this are household
names."

Dr Mills will not go into details of who is investing in his research
but rumours suggest a range of US power companies. It is well known also
that Nasa's institute of advanced concepts has funded research into
finding a way of using Blacklight's technology to power rockets.

According to Prof Maas, the first product built with Blacklight's
technology, which will be available in as little as four years, will be
a household heater. As the technology is scaled up, he says, bigger
furnaces will be able to boil water and turn turbines to produce
electricity.

In a recent economic forecast, Prof Maas calculated that hydrino energy
would cost around 1.2 cents (0.7p) per kilowatt hour. This compares to
an average of 5 cents per kWh for coal and 6 cents for nuclear energy.

"If it's wrong, it will be proven wrong," said Kert Davies, research
director of Greenpeace USA. "But if it's right, it is so important that
all else falls away. It has the potential to solve our dependence on
oil. Our stance is of cautious optimism."

Alternative energy

Cold fusion

More than 16 years after chemists' claims to have created a star in a
jar imploded in acrimony, the US government has said it might fund more
research. Mainstream physicists still balk at reports that a beaker of
cold water and metal electrodes can produce excess heat, but a hardy
band of scientists across the world refuse to let the dream die.

Methane hydrates

The US and Japan are leading attempts to tap this source of fossil fuel
buried beneath the seabed and Arctic permafrost. A mixture of ice and
natural gas, hydrates are believed to contain more carbon than existing
reserves of oil, coal and gas put together.

Solar chimneys

Sunlight heats trapped air, which rises through a giant chimney and
drives turbines. Leonardo da Vinci designed such a power tower and the
Australian company Enviromission plans to build one. Despite being
scaled down recently, the concrete chimney will still stand some 700
metres over the outback.

Nuclear fusion

Turns nuclear power on its head by combining atoms rather than splitting
them to release energy - copying the reaction at the heart of the sun.
After years of arguments the world has agreed to build a test reactor to
see whether it works on a commercial scale. Called Iter, it could be
switched on within a decade.

Wave generators

No longer a dead duck, the hopes of engineers are riding on bobbing
floats again. The British company Trident Energy recently unveiled a
design that uses a linear generator to convert the motion of the sea
into electricity. A wave farm just a few hundred metres across could
power 62,000 homes.
David Adam

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