On Jan 17, 2006, at 9:01 PM, Michael Foster wrote:
I plan to do these same tests at higher voltage and with DC.
Any thoughts on this, Horace?
See <http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/Key2Free.pdf> and
<http://mtaonline.net/~hheffner/HeisenbergTraps.pdf>,
which have been updated since last posted.
Some stuff on conditioning follows.
A Method for Producing Free Energy
The secret to creating free energy electrolytically lies in creating
and sustaining an anode glow and doing so under the highest pressure
possible.
The useful anode glow for creating free energy can be created as
described in <http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/GlowExper.pdf>,
but it is desirable to do so under the highest pressure possible.
The higher the pressure the more the free energy gained and the
higher the coefficient of power (COP).
Ideally, the anode glow is comparable in color to the green color of
sonoluminescence, as seen in: <http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060109/
full/060109-5.html>
Obtaining a high signal to noise ratio for heat production, useful
for proof of principle, requires obtaining a high voltage drop
through the anode interphase in proportion to the current density of
the anode.
It takes patience and time to reach the highest cell potential that
sustains the green anode glow, and how that is obtained depends on
the electrode metal, the electrolyte and the electrolyte
concentration. It can take a long time to reach maximum operating
voltage.
A procedure useful for amateurs to create the green anode glow
follows. To avoid the need for extra resistance in series with the
cell adjust the electrolyte (titrate) conductivity by gradually
adding more of the electrolyte acid, base, or salt to distilled water
to the point a desirable current is obtained, i.e. one which is
appropriate for the power supply in use. It is useful not to execeed
0.1 mA/cm^2 for initial current density.
The process then is this:
1. Gradually increase the voltage to an acceptable current for your
supply and then hold the voltage constant.
2. Call the initial current, I_step. Monitor the current. If the
current is increasing or arc spots or electrosparks appear, reduce
the voltage (and thus current I_step) and repeat this step.
3. If current is decreasing then let I_start = I_step. Give the cell
some minutes decreasing current (optimize timing by feel and by
patience!) and then increase the cell voltage until the the new
current I_step is no more than I_start and go to step 2. When you
get to the point the anode can not be further conditioned, you are
there.
4. At this point, or even sooner, since cell conductivity is low,
more electrolyte acid, base, or salt can be added, and the process
begun over.
Using a very dilute electrolyte, e.g. 0.01 g/l NaOH, with aluminum
electrodes, the maximum anode glow producing cell potential can be
well over 500 volts. As the electrode is conditioned the current is
reduced. This is desirable for excess energy experiments not only
because the voltage is maximized, but the expected signal/power is
maximized. It is also desirable to reduce the cell resistance to the
lowest possible value that permits sustaining cell operation. This
then maximizes the percentage of potential drop across the anode
interphase, and thus provides the highest signal to noise ratio, i.e.
coefficient of power (COP). Obtaining maximum cell conductivity and
cell life may mean operating with an electrolyte different from the
one used for initial conditioning. It may be desirable to buffer the
pH with a salt, for example, and to raise conductivity.
It may be much easier to condition using a fixed current power
supply, because that for the most part automatically handles steps 2
through 3, except for monitoring for arc spots (or orange glow). I n
that case the current is set and incremented instead of the voltage.
A conditioning current density of about 0.1 mA/cm^2 of a weak
electrolyte like sodium metasilicate works well in various
situations, but it depends on many factors what current density is
best, like electrolyte makeup and concentration and electrode
material used. The conditioning method provided above compensates
for a wide variance of these variables.
The objective of conditioning is creating a coating over the anode
which prevents conduction by anions except at a high voltage drop
across the anode interphase, i.e. except at a gradient sufficient to
ionize H2O and OH. Such a potential drop is typically over 100 volts.
The key free energy lies beyond merely creating the oxide film of a
passivated anode, as described by Bockris. [J. O’M Bockris and A.K.N.
Reddy, Modern Electrochemistry, Plenum Press, p.1319 ff.] The
process of conditioning the anode must proceed to the point where an
insulating barrier is created that permits an electrostatic field
intensity sufficient to ionize an OH or H2O molecule. In other
words, the surface barrier of the oxide film must be thick enough
that electron tunneling to the anode only occurs at a voltage
gradient exceeding about 10^11 V/m.
The slow conditioning recommended above is not necessary with all
electrolytes and plate combinations, but is useful because it tends
to achieve a uniform conditioning. If thin or bare spots exist in
the anode coating, then shorts can occur through the anode coating
which include arcs in DC mode, and arcs or sparks (electrosparks) in
AC mode. Such shorts, which are to be avoided, can be created by
impurities in the electrodes, or by increasing the voltage to the
point the coating is ruptured by sparks or arcs, and the anode then
destroyed by corrosion from the resulting arcs. These shorts
diminish the current passed through the green glow areas which are
effective in creating the free energy, by means discussed in :
<http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/BlueAEH.pdf>
<http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/GlowExper.pdf>
<http://mtaonline.net/~hheffner/HeisenbergTraps.pdf>
Improperly conditioned electrodes have arc or spark spots and often
take on a red or orange hue before eventually disintegrating due to
corrosion. An example of this is explored in:
<http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/OrangeGlow.pdf>
I t is useful that gas evolution in a closed high pressure cell be
controlled. One means of doing this is to make the (each) anode
concave down, insulated on the top, and oriented so as to trap
bubbles coming from the cathode. The anode interphase in glowing
mode is effective at recombining the evolved gasses provided the
evolution rate is not too high.
Not much to it. Free energy by simply producing the right anode glow
at high pressure.
Horace Heffner
