Historical research guide · 0401 · 2017
Controlled Electron Capture: Enhanced Stimulation and Calorimetry Methods
Francis Tanzella · Robert Godes · Rogelio Herrera · Cedric Eveleigh
In one minute
Brillouin Energy’s reactor cores are stimulated with sharp electrical pulses, and the question that decides everything is whether more heat comes out than the pulses put in. Francis Tanzella, Robert Godes, Rogelio Herrera and Cedric Eveleigh report a version of their Controlled Electron Capture method with faster pulse rise and fall times, hydrogen-isotope gas instead of liquid electrolyte, temperatures up to 650 degrees Celsius, and calorimetry built to be argued with. Their cell is held at a fixed temperature by a feedback heater. Add pulse power along the reactor core and the heater backs off, and the size of that back-off, calibrated against known DC power at each temperature, is the measurement. At 250 to 300 degrees the heat gained per watt of stimulation ran from 1.0 to over 2.0 depending on pulse width, and the authors say they have seen it tens of times. At 600 degrees it was always 1.0. They are explicit that this counts the stimulation pulse only, not the heater or the pulse generator.
Connection
Chapter 12 is the case that a metal lattice loaded with hydrogen is a place where nuclear-scale energy can be released at bench scale, and this is the calorimetry end of that argument — the part that has to be right before any mechanism debate matters. It belongs to chapter 1 as well, because the authors do the thing the evidence ladder rewards: they name the error sources, publish the calibration, and state exactly which power terms their gain figure does and does not include.
From the source
The Controlled Electron Capture method has been extended to use faster rise and fall time pulses, hydrogen-isotope gas based systems at temperatures up to 650 degrees Celsius, and more precise and accurate calorimetry than the group had reported earlier.Abstract, opening sentence
The isoperibolic cell is operated as an isothermal compensation calorimeter: the cell is held at constant temperature by a heater-power feedback system, constant-power pulses or DC power steps are added along the reactor core, and the resulting reduction in heater power, calibrated against DC power at each temperature, gives the increase in output power during a given stimulation pulse — with the potential sources of error in the system and the methods used to minimise them set out alongside.Abstract, calorimetry method
Stimulating the cell with different pulse widths at constant amplitude and constant pulse power, held constant by varying the pulse repetition rate, gave a ratio of output power increase to input pulse power of 1.0 to over 2.0 at 250 to 300 degrees Celsius depending on pulse width, and the authors report that these results have been seen tens of times.Abstract, results
At 600 degrees Celsius the ratio was always 1.0 at every pulse width attempted, so the effect the authors report has a temperature window rather than rising with temperature.Abstract, results
The amount of excess power depended on the composition of the gas and on the metal alloy coatings of the core, whose outer layer was always pure nickel and whose multilayer metal-dielectric-metal composition was chosen to allow reasonable hydrogen solubility and mobility at 300 degrees Celsius.Abstract, materials
The authors state the accounting limit of their own figure plainly: the results ignore the heater power needed to maintain temperature and the losses in the pulse generator, which can be several times greater than either the stimulation power or the power gain — so this is gain measured across the stimulation pulse, not a whole-system energy balance.Abstract, closing sentence
The way in
https://doi.org/10.70923/001c.72454How to cite it
Francis Tanzella, Robert Godes, Rogelio Herrera, Cedric Eveleigh (2017) Controlled Electron Capture: Enhanced Stimulation and Calorimetry Methods doi:10.70923/001c.72454