On Thursday, March 03, 2011 9:21 PM Jones Beene wrote > In so doing, only one cell in the entire array need to be elaborately controlled by electrical input - and the remaining 99 (if there are 100) are cascaded off the hot water (superheated) output of the first cell, in stages. Superheated water under pressure will allow temperature far in excess of the usual boiling point (100°C) up to the critical temperature (374°C).<
Jones, I disagree, I think the electrical control slaves the repetition rate and duty factor from slipping into runaway or starvation. In addition to the thermal "pulse" there is also the magnetic pulse associated with this change in current through the heater which radiates out into the Ni powder much faster than the thermal pulse. The "system" requires a pulse that briefly exceeds this temperature threshold and a cooling system that draws it back down under during the PWM dead time. I think this particular recipe is normally a runaway reaction once initiated but by using a very small duty factor and a monster cooling rate it becomes exploitable. Modifications to the cooling system without something to initiate the reaction is impossible - trying to balance the once initiated reaction with the cooling rate would be almost impossible because you still need a PWM scheme relative to the threshold to repeatedly take you into and out of reaction. Regards Fran Subject: EXTERNAL: RE: [Vo]:Anticipating skeptical objections to a 1 MW demonstration He cannot safely "unplug" it, we are told. However, one thing everyone seems to be overlooking in why Rossi is choosing to construct a machine which has a large number of modular units - is that it lends itself to the energy "cascade," with extremely high iterative gain. A cascade will allow his COP to soar from 30:1 to 2500:1 with complete control, and consequently there will be no doubt about the magnitude of gain. Rossi seems to be reluctant to allow (unplugged) self-power, due to the risk of a runaway - otherwise a smaller system could be used. This analysis assumes that the major consideration which is needed for the reaction to proceed is to maintain a narrow range of temperatures over a threshold, but below a failsafe. In so doing, only one cell in the entire array need to be elaborately controlled by electrical input - and the remaining 99 (if there are 100) are cascaded off the hot water (superheated) output of the first cell, in stages. Superheated water under pressure will allow temperature far in excess of the usual boiling point (100°C) up to the critical temperature (374°C). So long as the threshold for the reaction is around ~350°C, which has been reported - then this kind of staged cascade can work beautifully, because the "return" of the hot water coming back into the system from the heat exchanger (which serves as the load) can be easily be mixed into the superheated water via a thermo-coupled proportioning valve (solenoid controlled valve) arrangement. This is common is industrial processes. Control is possible to one degree C. In effect no additional electrical input is required past the first cell. Elegant. Think about it this way. You have one key cell in the cascade - and it is constructed with the same kind of elaborate PLC control as in the Bologna demo, and superheated water from it then feeds two adjoining cells; and those two feed the next four; then eight, 16, 32 and then the final 37 in last series. All 99 have proportioning valves to control the input heat in a narrow range. None of the 99 subsequent cells in the cascade need to have any lossy electrical input at all - except for the valve-control arrangement so that temperature is a function of incoming hot water, mixed with the colder return flow water. This is actually a lot simpler to do than it sounds. All of the dependent stages essentially are heated by the preceding stage. But the first cell is the only one that gets electrical power (~400 watts), and the heat range for the others is controlled by the superheated water from the previous stage, by admixing hot water from a return line. Most of the output heat comes from only the last stage in the cascade, but since there is little input the COP is essentially 1,000,000/400 = 2,500. If it works out this way for a few hours, hopefully for a few days, it will surely convince any skeptic. 2,500:1 is essentially infinite gain which is tempered by the need to control against a runaway. Jones -----Original Message----- From: Dennis Unless he can "unplug it"... Most any system will tend to be messy at that level for any system that runs for extended times (days??) to rule out chemistry. I think he would do better by just making something in the 1 to 10 KW (thermal) range that ran for a week unplugged. If his claims are real, he should have enough gain for that even at only 5% conversion rates.