On Jan. 12, 2012, we published “Where Does the Energy Come From in LENR?” which gives a general introduction to our understanding of the reaction mechanisms.

We have recently added the following table of one set of possible reaction pathways to that article. It provides a more detailed accounting of the steps and energy gains or losses in each step.

[Update, Feb. 24, 2012: This set of reaction pathways was based on the SRI International replication of the Case deuterium gas experiment. The energy cost of 0.78 MeV is for creating the heavy electron which then reacts, depending on the experiment, with either hydrogen or deuterium to make one or two neutrons and a neutrino. If it reacts with a proton, the effective cost is 0.78 MeV per neutron. If it reacts with a deuteron, you get two neutrons for the price of one; 0.39 MeV per neutron.]

Several weeks ago, Rossi wrote that National Instruments was working with him on his 1MW E-Cat.  

Earlier today, we reported that two days after the Oct. 28, 2011, inaugural demonstration of his 1MW E-Cat plant, Rossi told his fans that he had delivered his first commercial product to his first customer.

Yesterday, we reported that Rossi never delivered his “1 megawatt E-Cat” to his unidentified customer and that it remains in his garage.

We also reported that, on Jan. 12, 2012, Rossi showed a promotional video revealing that the big blue box hadn’t moved.

We reported earlier today that Rossi explained the discrepancy to his fans as a “translation” misunderstanding.

Rossi has given two reasons why the big blue box remains in his garage. The first is faulty gaskets. The second is that he made a joint decision with National Instruments to make all the control systems for the big blue box with the 50 nuclear reactors in his garage rather than at the customer’s site.

Apparently, his customer had purchased the 1 MW E-Cat nuclear plant before it had all the control systems.

“We decided together with the customer and National Instruments to make all the control systems and all the fixings of the gaskets in our factory in Bologna, instead of the customer’s place,” Rossi wrote. “The delivery will be made within one or maximum two months, when all of the works will have been completed.”

Today, an author who is working on a book about Rossi contacted Julia Betts, the corporate communications and investor relations manager for National Instruments, to inquire about its relationship with Rossi.

According to e-mails the author received from Betts, National Instruments is not working with Rossi.

“Leonardo Corporation/Andrea Rossi is currently not a customer, partner or distributor of National Instruments,” Betts wrote.

The author sent Betts another e-mail asking about a variety of possible relationships her company might have with Rossi or his company.

“Per our previous [news release] from November,” Betts wrote, “we were only in discussions with the Leonardo Corporation regarding the use of National Instruments’ engineering tools. Currently, Leonardo Corporation/Andrea Rossi is not a customer of National Instruments.”

The author retraced his steps to learn how he had become confused. On Nov. 14, 2011, he had seen the news release from National Instruments that mentioned Rossi.

“National Instruments has contributed product solutions to some of the most advanced projects including the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and tokomak fusion device control systems,” the release stated. “Additionally, the Leonardo Corporation has intentions to incorporate National Instruments tools in its control system.”

The author had also seen a news report about National Instruments on one of the 80, mostly anonymous, E-Cat promotional Web sites. The Web site said that Sterling Allan, an E-Cat blogger who is also a business associate of Rossi’s, stated that National Instruments was working with Rossi.

“Stefano Concezzi, the director of National Instruments’ Science and Big Physics Segment, also revealed to Allan of PESN … that National Instruments is indeed working together with Leonardo Corporation in the development of the much awaited E-Cat,” the Web site reported.

Allen recently told New Energy Times that he is a sales agent for Rossi. Allen also told New Energy Times that Rossi had offered to pay for Allen’s work on Rossi’s Web site.

On June 14, 2011, Steven B. Krivit, editor of New Energy Times, met Rossi, saw his device, and began asking scientific questions.

On June 16, 2011, New Energy Times published “Preliminary Report of Interviews with E-Cat Trio Rossi, Focardi and Levi.“

On July 30, 2011, New Energy Times published “Report #3: Scientific Analysis of Rossi, Focardi and Levi Claims.” The 200-page report included scientific and engineering analyses from 20 independent experts.

On Aug. 7, 2011, New Energy Times condensed “Report #3″ into two pages: “Rossi’s Scientific Failure in Seven Steps.”

On Aug. 28, 2011, New Energy Times distilled “Seven Steps” into the following two paragraphs:

In a seven-month period, the Rossi group sought credibility for its claim of extraordinary levels of excess heat through scientific and academic validation. In seven public attempts, the group tried to demonstrate convincing experimental evidence for its claims.

In all attempts, the group failed. It has no experimental evidence on which to base its extraordinary energy claim. It never did.

Rossi responded on his blog that the marketplace will be his judge.

“In any case, we will start our 1 MW plant in October, and we will see how it works,” Rossi wrote. “Of course, I assure [readers that Krivit's] considerations are invalid, but I want to say more: Our products on the market will confirm this.”

According to Rossi, his product was “on the market” in October, 2011. But on Feb. 14, 2012, Rossi clarified that “on the market” does not mean “available for delivery;” not even for a million dollars. Today, Rossi said on his blog that deliveries will surely start within 12 to 18 months.

“In Autumn, we will surely send the detailed offers to all the ‘horde’ of pre-orderers,” Rossi wrote. “The deliveries will start hopefully within the next winter, surely within 18 months.”

A week ago, Rob Duncan, vice chancellor for research and a professor of physics at the University of Missouri, announced to a general audience at the university’s Saturday Science series that he intended to purchase two of Rossi E-Cats, according to the Columbia Tribune.

Today, the author contacted Duncan by e-mail and asked him about his purchase plans.

“I took a closer look at this,” Duncan wrote, “and we have decided not to pursue an E-Cat purchase at this time, but we will be very interested to track how this progresses.”

**************************************************
Background Facts on LENRs
Steven B. Krivit’s LENR Publications and Presentations
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[Feb. 21, 2012 Correction: We wrote "Allen recently told New Energy Times that he is a sales agent for Rossi. Allen also told New Energy Times that Rossi had offered to pay for news stories on Allen’s Pure Energy News Service." We have corrected the sentence to read "Allen recently told New Energy Times that he is a sales agent for Rossi. Allen also told New Energy Times that Rossi had offered to pay for Allen's work on Rossi's Web site ." We apologize for the error.]

But today we learned from readers that Rossi had, in fact, told his fans that he had shipped the 1 MW E-Cat. According Rossi, the discrepancy is the result of a “translation error.”

Artist's visualization of 1MW plant on its way to "the customer." Image courtesy JB Salvage.

Readers should not get confused between Rossi’s 1MW E-Cat and his electric generators. Both are constructed within shipping containers, but the 1MW E-Cat comes in a big blue box, the gensets come in big grey boxes.

Rossi vegetable-oil-based EON genset

On Oct. 30, 2011, a commenter using the name “Luke Mortensen,” asked Rossi several key questions.

Mortensen’s questions:
1. Is the 1MW container gone?
2. Have you started building another 1MW in another container?
3. Any improvements you want in version 2?
4. Will the buyer of the next 1MW container be the same customer or a different customer?
5. What city will you be working (hiring) in the US?

Rossi’s answers:
1- yes
2- yes
3- yes. gaskets
4- different
5- Miami (Fl), Boston (Ma), Manchester (N.H.)

A week after Rossi’s video showed that the big blue box was still in the back of the Rossi brother’s tire shop, E-Cat fans were concerned.

Rossi explained that the plant was in the shop for two reasons. One, so they could fix the gasket problems that had been identified two and a half months earlier, (see yesterday’s article,) and two, to make the control systems for the big blue box that contained the 50 smaller boxes that each contained a nuclear reactor.

Rossi explained that a translation problem made him think that the big blue box had already been delivered to the customer.

“A misunderstanding, due to bad translation, has made [me] think the plant was already in the place of the Customer,” Rossi wrote.

The translation of “Is the 1MW container gone?” into Italian is “Il 1MW contenitore è andato?” The translation of “Si” into English is “Yes.”

A Jan. 12, 2012, promotional video on Rossi’s Web site, Ecat.com, shows the same 1MW E-Cat sitting in the same place where it was “tested” by “the customer” three and half months ago.

Screenshot from Jan. 12, 2012 Rossi E-Cat Promotional Video

The dramatic image above is from a second camera team which is filming the first camera team which is interviewing Rossi. The 1MW plant appears to be idle while two E-Cats in the foreground are producing a gentle flow of steam.

According to comments Rossi made on his blog on June 18, 2011, he had 300 working reactors in his Miami factory. He did not report any gasket problem at the time.

“We have 300 reactors in operation now in our factory,” Rossi wrote, “and we are making exponential progress day by day.

“My 300 reactors actually under stress tests are making steam without water, I mean perfectly dry steam, and they will go in operation not in my factory, but in the factory of our Customer.”

For readers who missed our “Report 3” seven months ago, perfectly dry steam is invisible.

Journalist Mats Lewan reported on Oct. 29, 2011 about the much-anticipated Oct. 28, 2011 test.

“According to the report,” Lewan wrote, “the test was approved and the plant would now be transported to the customer.”

However, the report does not say it would be transported anywhere, and it wasn’t.

“The results of the test are satisfactory to accept the delivery,” the report states.

Below the conclusion, there is a handwritten note by the person Rossi identified as the customer’s representative, Domenico Fioravanti.

“To be upgraded the system of gaskets some leaks have been noticed,” Fioravanti wrote.

Most of the report was drafted and typed in advance of the test — including the conclusion.

Conclusion of Oct. 28, 2011 1MW inauguration and test by Rossi customer

The poorly redacted lines for the affiliations were decoded by clever readers months ago.

In the place where Rossi’s company is named, it says “For Leonardo Corporation.”

In the place where the customer is named, it says, “For the Customer.”

According to Swedish journalist Mats Lewan, Rossi and his wife, Maddalena Pascucci, each own 50 percent of the company.

According to a Jan. 26, 2012, document filed with the European Patent Office, Leonardo Corporation paid €10,000 to Pascucci for the rights.

Excerpt from document filed with European Patent Office

According to the document, Leonardo Corporation’s registered office is 1331 Lincoln Road, Suite 601, Miami Beach Fla., and Pascucci resides at Via Ezio 24, 00192 Rome, Italy.

Leonardo Corp. (Apt. 505) "Current Principal Place of Business" (Photo: Google)

According to real estate records, 1331 Lincoln Road, Suite 601, Miami Beach Fla. is an apartment owned by Pascucci. Corporate registration of the couple’s company shows it located one flight below, in apartment 505.

New Energy Times has been unable to identify in which apartment the couple have their factory with the 300 E-Cat nuclear reactors.

Rossi is an Italian man who was apparently granted a permanent U.S. visa. He lives in Florida with his wife Maddalena Pascucci. Until we obtained this invoice yesterday, we had no evidence that Rossi was conducting this business, which some people think is fraudulent, in the United States.

Today, Rossi posted a message on his blog and stated that the invoice is “unvalid.” He therefore removed any doubts about the authenticity of the invoice.

He also announced some exciting news for E-Cat fans.

“Practically all the world’s territories have been already licensed,” Rossi wrote. “Soon we will organize a convention of all our licensees.”

Dick Smith, the Australian businessman who offered Rossi a million dollars for a successful E-Cat test, sent New Energy Times a copy of the cancellation of the invoice today that he received from Millin.

Report #4: Rossi’s NASA Test Fails to Launch
University of Bologna Terminates Relationship With Rossi
The Failure of Rossi’s Energy Catalyzer, Caught on Video
Rossi’s Scientific Failure in Seven Steps (English)
Report #3: New Energy Times #37, July 30, 2011 

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This article is a follow-up to these articles:
Feb. 13: “Rossi’s Australian Investment Opportunity Falls Through“
Feb. 14: “Smith Offers $1 Million Prize for Successful E-Cat Demo“

As we showed in the Feb. 14 article, Rossi responded to Smith’s offer.

“When Our E-CATS will be in the market,” Rossi wrote, “this millionaire will have the chance to buy for few hundred dollars an E-Cat and test it as he wants, so why waste money? I do not need his money.”

Yet two weeks ago, Rossi sent an invoice to hopeful investors in Australia for $131,000 for a “license” to a product that Rossi did not yet have on the market.

It seems that Smith called Rossi’s bluff. According to Rossi’s e-mail yesterday, his E-Cats, assuming they are real, are still not available for delivery. Rossi’s promises have been ongoing for a year.

On Oct. 7, 2011, Ny Teknik quoted Rossi: “Within a few months the product will be on the market, and the best test is done by the customers who will come back with the product if it doesn’t work.”

On Jan. 16, 2011, Rossi wrote on his blog: “We have already passed the phase to convince somebody. We have arrived at a product that is ready for market. Our judge is the market. In this field the phase of the competition in the field of theories, hypotheses, conjectures etc. is over. The competition is in the market. If somebody has a valid technology, he has not to convince people by chattering, he has to make a reactor that works and go and sell it, as we are doing.”

On Jan. 16, 2011, Rossi wrote to New Energy Times: “What I have presented is not a theory or a laboratory prototype waiting for the approval of anybody but the market: we are starting an industrial production of our reactors. If somebody has a technology able to compete, the competition will not be on the blogs, but on the market. In this field the time of mental masturbations is over. Now is time for facts, and facts are operating reactors of satisfied customers.”

Oddly, there is no evidence of the “customer” Rossi sold his device to in October and there is no evidence of any satisfied customer at all. There is only chattering from Rossi on his own blog and rumors and speculations on the various E-Cat blogs.

We suggest that readers who are not familiar with the Rossi story look at the following New Energy Times articles for context:

Report #4: Rossi’s NASA Test Fails to Launch
University of Bologna Terminates Relationship With Rossi
The Failure of Rossi’s Energy Catalyzer, Caught on Video
Rossi’s Scientific Failure in Seven Steps (English)
Report #3: New Energy Times #37, July 30, 2011 

Link to PDF Copy of Offer:

USD1,000,000 for Successful Repeat of E-CAT Demonstration

*****************************************************

Rossi Responds:
————————————————
“Andrea Rossi
February 14th, 2012 at 6:23 PM
Dear Archibald Fields:
This is a Clownerie. If this guy wants to test a 1 MW plant and has 1 million to spend he can buy a 1 MW plant, with a regular contract, that gives him all the necessary guarantees and to us the logic financial guarantees. Our plants Are tested by Our Customers and the Consultants they choose. I have not time at all for this clownery. Besides: when Our E-CATS will be in the market, this “millionaire” will have the chance to buy for few hundred dollars an E-Cat and test it as he wants, so why waste money? I do not need his money.
Warm Regards,
A.R.”
————————————————

Solihin Millin

Solihin Millin, from Murwillumbah, Byron Bay, Australia, asked potential investors for money to acquire the Australian rights to Rossi’s device. One of the potential investors was Dick Smith, a successful Australian businessman and philanthropist. Millin asked him for AUS$200,000.

Smith had some doubts so he asked the Australian Skeptics Society to look into the merits of Rossi’s device. They had doubts, too, and warned Smith, who decided to pass on the opportunity.

Millin, in turn, threatened to sue Smith for damages of AUS$100 million because, according to Millin, he lost the time-sensitive opportunity to acquire the Australian E-Cat rights.

Millin runs an organization in Australia called Byron New Energy Charitable Trust, also known as the Byron New Energy Group. New Energy Times spoke with Millin on Feb. 1, but he declined to comment.

“The group has a goal of love and selfless service to humanity at large,” the group’s Web site said, “of researching, developing, publishing freely in the public domain for the good of humanity at large, and manufacturing devices that use clean renewable energy sources that supply viable alternatives to those devices that use non-environmentally friendly non-renewable fuels such as nuclear and fossil fuels. These devices will also help eliminate poverty and hardship around the world and bring prosperity and happiness to our wonderful human family.”

But the Byron New Energy Group just needed some money. So on Dec. 7, 2011, Millin asked Smith for AUS$200,000 to acquire the Australasian E-Cat license.

“Cold fusion is now a commercial reality,” Millin wrote, “and will replace dirty fossil fuel, coal, oil and gas AND deadly Uranium as the World’s new Clean Green Power. This is a highly lucrative trillion-dollar market opportunity. Byron New Energy Charitable Trust is set to acquire the exclusive Australasian E-Cat Cold Fusion License from Andrea Rossi in Italy.

“Rossi’s cold fusion is a commercial reality with 14 one-megawatt plants already sold in the USA and Europe to groups such as NASA and DARPA and commercial companies. We have been negotiating with Andrea Rossi for many months, and the contracts have been agreed, and I am scheduled to fly to Bologna, Italy, to sign the agreement and pay the license fee. We need the $200K risk capital to enable this.”

On or about Dec. 8, 2011, Millin sent Smith another e-mail, along with the NASA slide presentations he obtained from the New Energy Times Web site.

“Here is independent evidence from three of NASA’s senior scientists that Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat technology is real,” Millin wrote. “In fact, to the best of my understanding, one of the first sales that has already been made of the one-megawatt E-Cat is to NASA.”

Millin was mostly incorrect. As New Energy Times reported on Feb. 10, NASA did not buy and never had any intention of buying a device from Rossi. Of the three NASA presentations that Millin sent to Smith, only that of Dennis Bushnell, the chief scientist at NASA Langley, implied that Rossi’s claim was real.

Michael A. Nelson, an engineer at NASA Marshall who investigates low-energy nuclear reactions and space applications, has been more circumspect. In his Sept. 22, 2011, presentation, Nelson publicly identified the key technical concerns about the Rossi device.

On July 14, 2011, Nelson met Rossi when he came to NASA Marshall to ask them to test and evaluate his device. Marshall accepted Rossi’s offer. The two parties began negotiating details of the test protocol. NASA asked for a test that avoided phase change of water into steam because steam would introduce unnecessary confusion to the test. A few days later, Rossi withdrew his offer.

In Millin’s December e-mail, he explained his intentions further to Smith.

“All we need is $200K initial risk capital from yourself to secure the Australasian exclusive license,” Millin said. “Dear Andrea Rossi is waiting for Byron New Energy to obtain the funding. We have built up a very good relationship with dear Andrea, and I believe he likes BNE’s honesty and humanitarian values, as well as our commercially oriented market strategy.

“There is plenty of money for everyone. This is an opportunity not only to make large amounts of money but also to be part of the introduction of new clean green technology for our beautiful planet and our peoples and to alleviate poverty. Love and peace, Solihin Millin.”

On Dec. 12, 2011, Smith sent an e-mail to Tim Mendham, the executive officer and editor for the Australian Skeptics society.

“I recently received the following email from Solihin Millin,” Smith wrote. “He wants a mere $200,000 from me for the Byron New Energy Charitable Trust to invest in cold fusion. Normally, of course, I would just write out my cheque for $200,000 and send it off. However, I thought there was just the slightest chance that it’s a con or someone is being deluded. Do you know anything about them?”

Mendham contacted Ian Bryce, an aerospace engineer and member of the society who has extensive experience in testing unusual physics-engineering devices. Mendham asked Bryce to look into the matter.

During the next 30 days, Bryce studied the available information and found serious problems, according to an e-mail he sent to New Energy Times.

“By Jan. 8, I set down my tentative observations and conclusions about Rossi’s E-Cat. I reported to Smith that many scientists and observers had given varying degrees of support to Rossi’s E-Cat because the measurements showed large power gains,” Bryce wrote. “I could not explain this. However, there were too many bad signs for it to be real.”

Millin had been impressed by the confidence placed in Rossi’s device by two Swedish professors: Sven Kullander, professor emeritus at Uppsala University, and Hanno Essén, associate professor of theoretical physics and a lecturer at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology and the former chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Association.

Kullander and Essén endorsed Rossi’s extraordinary excess-heat claim in a news story on Feb. 23, 2011, before they had inspected or seen Rossi’s device.

On March 29, 2011, after they told the public it must embrace the Rossi claim, they went to Bologna, Italy, expenses paid by Rossi, to see a demonstration of Rossi’s device and inspect it. They wrote up their report on April 3, 2011.

“Any chemical process for producing 25 kWh from any fuel in a 50 cm^3 container can be ruled out,” the professors wrote. “The only alternative explanation is that there is some kind of a nuclear process that gives rise to the measured energy production.”

Unfortunately, the professors didn’t think about how Rossi could be flushing water down the hole in the wall rather than turning it into steam. The professors never thought to ask the obvious disturbing question, “Hey, where’s the huge steam output?”

“Since there was no other path for the water than straight through the device in a single hose-pipe-hose track, we concluded that all the water must become steam,” Essén wrote. “The steam was checked by observation and appeared to be consistent with the water flow (order-of-magnitude-wise).”

As New Energy Times reported six months ago, when liquid water turns into vaporized water (steam), it expands volumetrically 1,600 times. And when the professors saw tiny puffs of steam instead, they didn’t think about the fact that it should have been coming out at 1,600 times the volume of the water going in.

New Energy Times spoke with Essén on July 15, 2011 and asked him whether, when he pulled the hose out of the wall and saw the steam, he thought about the expansion rate.

“No, I must admit, I was thinking that I must check that the water is not draining out,” Essén said. “I had this vague feeling that the water inlet flow wasn’t that fast, that the steam could be consistent with it, especially after some condensation in the hose. But we should have looked more into that, obviously, but there was not enough time.”

When Rossi told them he hired an expert to measure the steam, the professors never imagined that Rossi’s expert had used a device that was not designed to measure steam. But, anyway, that’s not Millin’s fault.

On Dec. 22, 2011, Millin sent the Kullander and Essén report to Smith, but Smith wasn’t convinced.

On Jan. 13, 2012, Millin held an investors’ meeting and began asking people for money for Rossi E-Cats. Smith asked Bryce to go to the meeting and give a presentation. According to Bryce, about 70 people attended.

Here are slides #4 and #6 from Millin’s presentation:

According to Millin, Rossi had arranged to attend the meeting over Skype, but Rossi failed to appear. As we went to press, Rossi had not denied any association with Millin. Here is a copy of Millin’s slide presentation.

Millin's Invitation to the E-Cat Investors' Meeting

“On this historic day, Friday, [Jan.] 13, 2012, the availability of Cold Fusion is announced to Australasia,” Millin said. “The Advent of Clean Green Renewable Inexpensive Energy as a replacement for Fossil Fuel, Oil, Gas, Fracking and URANIUM is here NOW. From this time, orders can be placed for Industrial and Commercial 1MW heating Units. Please see Sol Millin after this Meeting.”

The story about the investment meeting ran on Jan. 13 in the Sydney Morning Herald; an E-Cat Web site written by a ghostwriter plagiarized a lot of the Herald story and ran a similar story.

Bryce wasn’t convinced about the E-Cat, as he told New Energy Times.

“Nothing I learned at the meeting changed the doubts I had developed,” Bryce wrote. “The next morning, I reported to Smith and said there were too many bad signs causing doubt that the invention is real: Do not invest.”

Smith decided to pass on the investment opportunity. But for Millin, Smith’s decision was unsatisfactory.

On Jan. 16, Millin sent an e-mail to Smith and threatened to sue Smith for “damages” of AUS$100 million if Smith didn’t give him AUS$200,000 by the next day. According to Millin, this would have enabled him to acquire the Australasian E-Cat license, which apparently was a limited-time offer. Needless to say, Millin’s demand didn’t inspire Smith to share his wealth.

On Jan. 19, Bryce concluded that Rossi’s demonstrations had a potential loophole that would have allowed undetected power into the system. The Australian Skeptics Society issued a press release about this on Jan. 31.

“Bryce found that, in all six [publicized] tests up to July, a misconnected earth lead could funnel in up to 3 kilowatts, thus bypassing the power meters used, and accounting for all the measured output power in the form of steam. In all later tests, there was no valid power measurement due to poorly placed thermometers,” the society wrote.

Bryce may have been correct about the earth lead. New Energy Times cannot confirm this. However, Bryce gave more credence to Rossi’s claimed power gain than is appropriate. Rossi never directly measured the power output. He inferred it from a very weak set of assumptions and a few sporadic measurements of steam with the wrong tool.

New Energy Times has not taken the time to review Bryce’s idea because of what we saw and filmed on June 14 in Rossi’s presence. Our video shows that Rossi’s experiment was producing no more steam than an ordinary electric tea kettle and drawing an equivalent amount of power from the wall.

It also shows how Rossi had designed an obvious method to pass unvaporized water down a hole in the wall, thus making the water disappear, along with the credibility of his claim.

On Feb. 5, Millin sent a “final demand” to Smith. In his e-mail, Millin restated that he had fullfilled his side of the deal by providing the report from Kullander and Essén.

In this demand, Millin provided Smith with bank instructions to wire funds to Millin’s account and an attachment with an invoice from Rossi with bank account numbers and instructions to wire 100,000 Euro directly to Rossi’s Leonardo Corp. account.