| Thursday,
June 5, 2008 Does anyone know
anything about this:
Science based low cost energy?
Jerry,
BlackLight Power is a company seemingly run by
competent scientists. They claim to have discovered a process for producing
power that has none of the disadvantages of current techniques. For an
overview go to:-
http://www.blacklightpower.com/applications.shtml#BlackLightPowerPlants
John Edwards
I never heard of this. It sounds interesting: too interesting not to have
caused a blaze of publicity and enormous interest from the scientific
community. There was a spatter of publicity for a while, then nothing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2005/nov/04/energy.science was one
such reaction to the announcement. Note the date. Here is an excerpt:
<snip>What has much of the physics world up
in arms is Dr Mills's claim that he has produced a new form of hydrogen,
the simplest of all the atoms, with just a single proton circled by one
electron. In his "hydrino", the electron sits a little closer to the
proton than normal, and the formation of the new atoms from traditional
hydrogen releases huge amounts of energy.
This is scientific heresy. According to
quantum mechanics, electrons can only exist in an atom in strictly
defined orbits, and the shortest distance allowed between the proton and
electron in hydrogen is fixed. The two particles are simply not allowed
to get any closer.
According to Dr Mills, there can be only
one explanation: quantum mechanics must be wrong. "We've done a lot of
testing. We've got 50 independent validation reports, we've got 65
peer-reviewed journal articles," he said. "We ran into this theoretical
resistance and there are some vested interests here. People are very
strong and fervent protectors of this [quantum] theory that they use."
Rick Maas, a chemist at the University of
North Carolina at Asheville (UNC) who specialises in sustainable energy
sources, was allowed unfettered access to Blacklight's laboratories this
year. "We went in with a healthy amount of scepticism. While it would
certainly be nice if this were true, in my position as head of a
research institution, I really wouldn't want to make a mistake. The last
thing I want is to be remembered as the person who derailed a lot of
sustainable energy investment into something that wasn't real."
But Prof Maas and Randy Booker, a UNC
physicist, left under no doubt about Dr Mill's claims. "All of us who
are not quantum physicists are looking at Dr Mills's data and we find it
very compelling," said Prof Maas. "Dr Booker and I have both put our
professional reputations on the line as far as that goes."<snip>
All of which sounds encouraging, and we certainly know that radical
theories get short shrift with today's grant-supported science
establishment: but once again, the report is so enthusiastic that it is hard
to believe it has not dominated the energy debates since. Note that the date
of Professor Rick Maas of UNC is dated September 2005.
A Google search on Rick Maas UNC yields:
UNC Asheville Saddened by Death of Rick
Maas, Environmental Studies Professor and National Water Quality Expert
Dr. Rick Maas Dr. Rick Maas (center) with
UNC Asheville alumnae Wendy Middleton (left) and Dr. Steve Patch (right)
Richard P. Maas, a UNC Asheville
environmental studies professor and one of the nation’s leading water
quality researchers, died Dec. 12, 2005, following a brief illness. He
was 54.
Maas, who joined UNC Asheville in 1987, was
a founder and co-director of UNC Asheville’s Environmental Quality
Institute (EQI), which has served government agencies, non-profit
organizations and the private sector as a center for education, research
and technical assistance on environmental issues for the past 18 years.
As one of the nation’s largest repositories of lead contamination data,
EQI has ongoing projects concerning the water quality of Western North
Carolina streams and lakes, arsenic exposure from pressure-treated
lumber and mercury exposure from fish consumption.<snip>
and nothing else. Since Maas is the primary science qualified enthusiast
for Blacklight this seems odd at best.
Snopes gives no hits on Blacklight or on hydrinos at all.
Supposedly Blacklight was building a demonstration unit. Since we have
seen nothing about that in the last two years since the announcement, one
does wonder what happened.
I would rejoice if someone got rich with this form of cold fusion (I
know, that's not quite what is described here, but there are similarities).
There are no hydrogen wells, but the "hydrino reaction" described here
supposedly releases more energy than would be required to disassociate
hydrogen from, say, sea water. If you could just get your money (well,
energy) back from extracting hydrogen from sea water, you'd get rich: the
resulting concentrated stuff in the residual bitterns is enormously
valuable, containing gold, uranium, magnesium, and all kinds of good stuff.
(See my stories about that: "Power to the People" was one of them. They were
well researched and used nuclear energy to pump and evaporate sea water. The
stories will be in Exile -- and Glory!, a collection which will come out
from Baen
http://www.amazon.com/Exile-Glory-Jerry-Pournelle/dp/1416555633/jerrypournellcha
)
My conclusion is that the Blacklight process isn't workable. I sure wish
it were, but nothing I can find causes me to believe that.
================
I suppose I should react to Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton's announcement
(or reports of her coming announcement this Saturday) but given that this is
the Clintons I will wait until the announcement is made. The Clintons are,
after all, very much enamored of the theory that the horse might learn to
sing...
==============
An odd coincidence: I got messages of support from the widows of Van Vogt
and Bob Forward, both today. I'm pleased to hear from them.
==============
A good day. I got about 800 words of Mamelukes done, working upstairs in
the monk's cell. I need to get into the habit of doing that.
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