Lattice Energy Converter
F.E. Gordon · H.J. Whitehouse
Abstract and summary · read the original at the source
In one page
This is the paper that opened the series. Frank Gordon and Harper Whitehouse describe a device with almost nothing in it: one electrode of palladium or iron loaded with hydrogen or deuterium, a second electrode of ordinary copper or brass, and gas in the gap, sealed inside standard pipe fittings. Once the loaded electrode has been made active by plating it out of solution, the cell produces a voltage and a current by itself — nothing plugged in, no radioactive source inside — and keeps producing them for long periods. The authors measure it two ways: with an external supply driving current through the gas, and with the supply removed and only a voltmeter and a resistance box attached. Output climbs steeply with temperature; on one cell the open-circuit voltage rose from about ten microvolts at 28 degrees Celsius to more than 525 millivolts at 185. Working backwards through the century-old theory of conduction in gases, they calculate that several curies of ordinary ionizing radiation would be needed to explain what the meter reads.
Why it matters hereChapter 12 argues that a hydrogen-loaded metal lattice does nuclear-scale work at ordinary temperatures, and this is the founding measurement of the simplest claim on that list — an output you can read with a hand meter, from a cell containing no radioactive material. Chapter 6 needs devices that turn a field directly into electricity rather than into heat first, and the LEC is exactly that shape of device.
What it claims
01Multiple implementations of the Lattice Energy Converter self-initiate and self-sustain the production of a voltage and a current into a load over extended periods, with no external supply and no radioactive material in the cell; the authors credit independent replications by two individuals, Jean-Paul Biberian and Andrew Erickson.Abstract; Section 3.2, opening; Acknowledgments
On the bench now02LEC output rises sharply with temperature: on the cell of Figure 7 the open-circuit voltage measured across an effective 936 kilohm load increased from roughly 10 microvolts at 28 degrees Celsius to more than 525 millivolts at 185 degrees Celsius, an increase of over 50,000 to 1.Section 3.2, the paragraph on Figure 7; Figures 7 and 9
On the bench now03The flux of ionizing radiation needed to account for the measured voltage and current is calculated as the equivalent of several curies, and the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of a LEC are comparable to a commercial P100 NanoTritium nuclear battery that carries 225 millicuries of radioactive material — which the LEC does not have.Abstract, final sentences; Section 3.2, the paragraph following Figure 10
On the bench now04Analysed with the classical theory of conduction of electricity through gases, the spontaneous current is essentially constant and is primarily a diffusion current rather than a field-driven drift current, and for a palladium-hydrogen cell at 185 degrees Celsius the average ion density works out at more than ten to the tenth ion-pairs per cubic centimetre.Section 4.2, equation 7; Section 6, conclusions (a) and (c)
Published and peer-reviewed05The ordinary explanations are tested and set aside: the spontaneous field is too low and the gas pressure too high for corona discharge, thermal ionization would need temperatures above about 2000 kelvin, humidity ions are excluded by running deuterium at about minus 55 degrees Celsius, and a bare working electrode carrying about 6 microcuries of alpha and gamma activity produced no measurable conduction.Section 5, observations (e) to (h)
On the bench now06The origin and nature of the radiation that ionizes the gas is still unknown; the authors offer two candidate mechanisms — thermally driven lattice vibration enhanced by nonlinear wave-wave mixing where hydrogen sits in surface vacancies, and thermally driven interaction between hydrogen atoms sharing one vacancy, particularly with different nuclear spin orientations.Section 5, opening sentence and the closing list of possible physical mechanisms
What to watch
Read it · abstract
Abstract
Multiple implementations of a Lattice Energy Converter (LEC) have demonstrated the ability to self-initiate and self-sustain the production of a voltage and current over extended periods of time. A LEC converts the internal energy within the lattice of some materials, such as palladium, or of gases occluded within the lattice, such as hydrogen or deuterium, into ionizing radiation and electrical energy. Experiments include tests where the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the LEC were measured when an external voltage/current was applied, as well as other I-V tests where the spontaneous LEC voltage was measured as a function of temperature and resistance. LEC voltage and current has been shown to increase with increased temperature. The electrical power produced by a LEC is similar to that produced by a nuclear battery however, a LEC does not require radioactive materials. While the energy levels produced to date are several orders of magnitude below those required for most power sources, the calculated flux of ionizing radiation necessary to produce the experimentally measured voltage and current would require the equivalent of several curies of radiation. These results have been independently replicated by two individuals. A video of the Lattice Energy Converter presentation, from the 2021 LENR workshop in honor of Dr. Srinivasan, is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4dzTWY_aWM. This paper expands on the YouTube video presentation with additional analysis that supports the observed experimental results.
Keywords: direct energy conversion; ionizing radiation electricity generation
F. E. Gordon and H. J. Whitehouse, Inovl Inc., San Diego, California. Research article, Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science 35 (2022) 30–48.
(Abstract only. The complete article, with the experimental figures and the full gas-conduction analysis, is free to read at the journal — see the rights note above for why the full text is not reproduced here. This is the first paper of the series. The companion paper on an iron host material is on this site at /library/stm-c679259eb2, the 2024 paper on the five scale-up focus areas at /library/stm-0577272226, and the 2025 progress report at /library/stm-70be5425fa.)
The way in
https://doi.org/10.70923/001c.72583The article is printed with ’© 2022 ISCMNS. All rights reserved. ISSN 2227-3123’ on its first page and carries 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 (2022) Lattice Energy Converter. doi:10.70923/001c.72583
Where it sits in the curriculum