Total Calorimetry (“From the Wall”) in a Brillouin Reactor
Francis Tanzella · Robert Godes · Jin Liu · Robert George
Abstract and summary · read the original at the source
In one page
Francis Tanzella of the Energy Research Center, with Robert Godes, Jin Liu and Robert George of Brillouin Energy, report the next generation of calorimetry on Brillouin’s hydrogen reactor. The reactive part is a ceramic tube coated with copper, ceramic and nickel, in hydrogen gas, driven by voltage pulses whose rise time is fast enough to crowd the current onto the nickel-ceramic interface. What is new is the accounting. Three mass-flow calorimeters now sit in series on a single water line — one around the pulse generator board, one around the impedance-matching termination, one around the reactor itself — so every watt drawn from the supply is either collected as heat or located in a named loss. Calibration with a non-reactive Nichrome coating returns essentially all of the electrical input as heat. In one run the reactor alone gives back about what it takes, and the three calorimeters together give back more than 110 percent of the input; the authors’ term for that is over-unity, measured from the wall. Over 2000 runs on more than 300 tubes stand behind the selection.
Why it matters hereChapter 12 argues that a metal lattice loaded with hydrogen is a place where nuclear reactions become reachable at ordinary temperatures, and the whole argument turns on whether the heat books close — which is why this paper is about the calorimeter rather than the physics. It reaches chapter 1 because total accounting from the wall is the strongest form of the evidence, and chapter 6 because a device that returns more heat than the supply delivers is the shape any vacuum or lattice energy programme has to demonstrate.
What it claims
01The catalyst is a ceramic substrate about 6.4 millimetres in diameter carrying porous coatings 50 to 250 micrometres thick that alternate between a hydrogen-absorbing metal and an insulating ceramic — in the runs reported here, copper, ceramic and nickel. Pulses are sent between the outer layer and the inner copper layer, and because their rise time is very fast the current travels primarily on the surface of the outer metal coating in contact with the ceramic, the skin effect, returning through the bulk. Pulse widths run from about 30 to 10,000 nanoseconds at a voltage duty cycle near 100 percent, while the power duty cycle stays much smaller.Sections 2.1 and 2.2
On the bench now02The measurement architecture is three mass flow calorimeters operating in series on one constant-flow water line: the water passes first through the calorimeter around the pulse generator, then the one around the impedance-matching termination, then the one around the reactor, so the mass flow rate is identical in all three. Inlet and outlet temperatures and the flow rate are measured for each. Flow is read by an ultrasonic volumetric meter and cross-checked against an electronic balance, to which a diverter valve sends the stream for about 120 seconds once an hour.Section 1, final paragraph, and Section 2.2
On the bench now03Calibration is done against non-reactive coatings rather than against a model. Using DC stimulation of a single-layer Nichrome-coated tube in hydrogen, 98 percent of the electrical input shows up as heat in the reactor and the other 2 percent as thermal loss in the connector board standing in for the pulse generator; three-layer copper, ceramic and Nichrome tubes are used to determine the efficiency of the pulse generator board and of the impedance-matching termination board separately.Section 2.3 and Section 4, Conclusions
On the bench now04In a typical run at a constant pulse amplitude of 160 volts, power is ramped in one-hour steps from about 250 to 330 watts by stepping the repetition rate from 250 to 287 kilohertz. The sum of the three calorimeters collects 100 percent of the DC input: about 86 percent in the reactor jacket, about 10 percent lost in the pulse generator board and about 4 percent in the termination board. This is the accounting run against which the others are read.Section 3, Results and Discussion, Figure 3
On the bench now05In a second run on the same catalyst and reactor, with the repetition rate held at 279 kilohertz while the voltage is stepped from 90 to 215 volts, the output from the reactor is nearly equal to the input power and the total output power is over 110 percent of the input once the parasitic losses in the two boards are included. No obvious trend with pulse amplitude appeared in that run. Because the efficiency of DC power supplies is very high, the authors consider these ratios equivalent to ratios taken against wall power.Section 3, Figure 4; Section 4, first paragraph
On the bench now06The selection is drawn from over 2000 runs on more than 300 different catalyst tubes across six reactors, operated in hydrogen from 200 to 600 degrees Celsius, and the authors state that many tubes tested showed much lower ratios of output to input because of materials issues. The named next measurements are the temperature of the outer nickel layer, estimated from its temperature coefficient of resistance and to be extended to all future reactors; a new prototype in which the outer vacuum jacket is part of the reactor, removing the external Dewar cylinder; and replacement of the hourly balance check with real-time mass flow measurement throughout each run.Section 3, Figure 5; Section 4, Conclusions, final two paragraphs
What to watch
Read it · abstract
Abstract
Brillouin Energy (BEC) has continued performing calorimetry measurements on the metal (e.g. Ni)/ceramic/Cu coated ceramic tube (catalyst) in a H2 atmosphere with nanosecond pulses applied across the coatings. The Energy Research Center (ERC) has been examining and verifying BEC’s calorimetry for over 5 years. Over 2000 runs were performed on over 300 different catalyst tubes using different stimulation parameters. A new reactor system has been designed and implemented using only mass flow calorimetry. This has led to more reliable and understandable thermal outputs, making it easier to determine when over-unity results are seen. Some over-unity results are described in this paper. The temperature of the outer nickel layer has been estimated using the temperature coefficient of resistance method. Future plans for even better calorimeters are described.
The way in
https://doi.org/10.70923/001c.133965Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science 39 (2025) 84–90, a research article carrying the notice ‘© 2025 ICCF. All rights reserved. ISSN 2227-3123’ on its first page and no Creative Commons statement on the article or the journal record — checked on 2026-09-08. So this sheet carries the summary, the claims and the authors’ own abstract and sends the reader to the source; the claims are read against the published article. Francis Tanzella writes for the Energy Research Center LLC of San Carlos, California; Robert Godes, Jin Liu and Robert George for Brillouin Energy Corporation of Berkeley. The authors acknowledge Michael McKubre for the calorimeter design and the Anthropocene Institute for support. This is the sequel to the same team’s Mass and Heat Flow Calorimetry in Brillouin’s Reactor, Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science 33 (2020) 33–45, which is in this library and which the authors cite as reference 2; read the two together, because the 2020 sheet carries the earlier matched-power null condition and this one carries the whole-system accounting that replaced it.
How to cite it
Francis Tanzella, Robert Godes, Jin Liu, Robert George (2025) Total Calorimetry (“From the Wall”) in a Brillouin Reactor. doi:10.70923/001c.133965
Where it sits in the curriculum
Lattice confinement fusionThe evidence ladderEnergy from the vacuum