Scaling up the Lattice Energy Converter
F. E. Gordon · H. J. Whitehouse
Abstract and summary · read the original at the source
In one page
The Lattice Energy Converter is about as simple as a power source gets: two electrodes in a sealed gas, one of them a palladium or iron surface loaded with hydrogen. Frank Gordon and Harper Whitehouse report that such a cell starts itself and keeps itself going — it ionises the gas around it and delivers a voltage and a current into a load, with no radioactive material inside and nothing plugged in. A voltmeter and a resistance box are all you need to see it. Five independent groups have reproduced it. The honest problem is size: a working cell puts out a few millionths of a watt per square centimetre, and this paper is about the gap between that and something useful. The authors name five levers — cleaner metallurgy, better gas chemistry, cell geometry, running warmer, and simply more electrode area — put a target on each, and argue the six to nine orders of magnitude needed are reachable by multiplying them together.
Why it matters hereChapter 12 holds that a loaded metal lattice does real nuclear-scale work at ordinary temperatures, and the LEC is the most stripped-down claim on that list: no input power, no radioactive source, an output you can read with a hand meter. Chapter 6 needs devices that turn a field into electricity directly rather than through heat, and this is one.
What it claims
01Multiple Lattice Energy Converter devices and configurations self-initiate and self-sustain the production of a voltage and current through an external load impedance without the use of naturally radioactive materials, a result the authors have published and which independent researchers have replicated in five separate reports.Abstract; Section 1, second paragraph, citing references 5 to 9
On the bench now02Present experimental power densities are typically a few microwatts per square centimetre of working electrode, so the output must be scaled up by six orders of magnitude to reach a few watts and by nine to reach a few kilowatts.Abstract, final third; Section 2, opening
On the bench now03Following Darrow’s 1932 derivation, the terms for ion recombination and diffusion make the gas conduction non-ohmic: there can be a short-circuit current through the gas at zero electrode voltage, and an open-circuit voltage between the electrodes at zero current — which the authors identify as a major characteristic of self-initiating, self-sustaining LEC performance.Section 1, the Darrow paragraph, citing reference 17; Appendix
Published and peer-reviewed04Comparing normal running against a run with an applied sweeping field, the authors estimate that without a strong electric field the cell harvests about one thousandth of the ions it produces, the rest recombining — which they read as one to two orders of magnitude of available headroom.Section 2.3
On the bench now05Output rises steeply with temperature: roughly two to three orders of magnitude between about 22 and 80 degrees Celsius, and about four orders of magnitude at 100 degrees, measured on the data set plotted in Figure 3.Section 2.4 and Figure 3 caption
On the bench now06The scale-up path is five interconnected focus areas with a target for each — metallurgy, gas dynamics, cell configuration, temperature and electrode area — and four experiments that would settle it: identify the source and type of ionizing radiation from the working electrode, identify the counter electrode’s role, identify the gases and mixtures that optimise ion production, and solve the fourth-order nonlinear gas-ion physics inside the cell.Section 2, the numbered list; Sections 2.1 to 2.5; the four numbered requirements closing Section 2
What to watch
Read it · abstract
Abstract
Multiple Lattice Energy Conversion (LEC) devices and configurations have experimentally demonstrated the ability to self-initiate and self-sustain the production of a voltage and current through an external load impedance without the use of naturally radioactive materials. These results have been reported by the authors [1], [2], [3], [4] and replicated by independent researchers [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]. A video, [10] shows that a voltmeter and a resistance substitution box are all that is required to observe and measure LEC output which for this test produced several hundred nanowatts of power per square centimeter of working electrode surface area. Given the extraordinary nature of the LEC results, the importance of independent replications by multiple credible and respected scientists cannot be overstated. While the ability to self-initiate and self-sustain the production of a voltage and current through a load is a significant innovation, present experimental power densities are typically in the range of a few microwatts per square centimeter, output must be scaled up by 6 orders of magnitude to produce a few watts, and by 9 orders of magnitude to produce a few kilowatts. Based on a review of the literature and an analysis of experimental results, five focus areas have been identified to scale up the LEC. This paper examines each focus area and identifies possible actions to increase LEC power output.
Keywords: direct energy conversion; contact potential difference
F. E. Gordon and H. J. Whitehouse, Inovl Inc., San Diego, California. Research article, Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science 38 (2024) 225–234.
(Abstract only. The complete article, including the appendix reproducing Darrow’s 1932 derivation of the gas-conduction equations, is free to read at the journal — see the rights note above for why the full text is not reproduced here.)
The way in
https://doi.org/10.70923/001c.124959The article carries ’© 2023 ICCF. All rights reserved’ and no Creative Commons statement, so this page carries the summary, the claims and the authors’ own abstract, and sends the reader to the source. The full text is free to read at the journal.
How to cite it
F. E. Gordon, H. J. Whitehouse (2024) Scaling up the Lattice Energy Converter. doi:10.70923/001c.124959
Where it sits in the curriculum