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Jan 172013
 
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Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Boston’s Logan International Airport Jan. 14, 2013 (Photo: Brian Snyder, Reuters)

Jan. 17, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliners use high-capacity lithium-ion batteries. These batteries have materials similar to those used in the most common type of low-energy nuclear reaction experiment. Boeing is considering LENRs for future aerospace applications. On June 22 and 23, 2011, Boeing representatives met with NASA and the Federal Aviation Authority to discuss such applications. Will they meet again to consider the possible relationship between the battery fires and LENRs?

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all U.S.-operated Boeing 787 Dreamliners on Wednesday as a result of unexplained lithium-ion aircraft battery fires. Two Boeing 787s have experienced battery fires in nine days. A battery fire occurred last week at Boston’s Logan International Airport, and another fire took place as an All Nippon Airways 787 flew over Japan this week.

What is a lithium-ion battery? It is an electrolytic device with a cathode, an anode, and an electrolyte comprising a lithium salt and materials that provide sources of hydrogen.

What is the most common type of low-energy nuclear reaction experiment? It is an electrolytic device with a cathode, an anode, and an electrolyte comprising a lithium salt and materials that provide sources of hydrogen.

LENRs are weak interactions and neutron-capture processes that occur in nanometer-to-micron-scale regions on surfaces in condensed matter at room temperature. Some researchers believe these reactions are caused by a “cold fusion” process; however, the reactions can be explained by conventional, though unexpected, nuclear physics.

Theorist Lewis G. Larsen has been watching the unexplained lithium-ion fires with interest, as shown by his July 16, 2010, slide presentation, but he declined to speak with New Energy Times on the matter.

In his slides, Larsen writes about how lithium metal dendrites, a type of fractal structure, can grow inside lithium-ion batteries, even when the batteries are not in use.

He writes that “such dendrites are well-known to sometimes short-out electrically, rapidly discharging current arcs into nearby battery structures, creating local physical damage.”

According to Larsen’s slides, a lithium-ion battery has all the ingredients for LENRs, and they are close to one another.

“If a violent electrical discharge from a dendrite tip suddenly produces high local electric fields,” Larsen wrote, “then e –> e* [a heavy electron is formed which provides the starting point for the nuclear reaction] and voila!”

Larsen and his co-author, Allan Widom, published a paper in 2006 in European Physical Journal C – Particles and Fields that depicted a lithium-based reaction chain that could lead to unusually high energy releases.

In his slides, Larsen mentions that there have been poorly understood catastrophic failures of lithium-ion batteries and battery-packs for many years. He cites a May 14, 2009, Hewlett-Packard recall of 70,000 laptop batteries for what the company called a “fire hazard.”

Larsen cites the Jan.1, 2008, ruling from the Department of Transportation for spare lithium-ion batteries in carry-on and checked baggage. He also cites the Toyota Prius that was owned by Central Electric Power Cooperative of Columbia, South Carolina, which was modified to use lithium-ion batteries. Larsen writes that it was destroyed by an unexplained fire during a routine test drive on June 7, 2008.

FAA Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Test

In a 2006 slide presentation, Harry Webster, with the Federal Aviation Administration at the William J. Hughes Technical Center at the Atlantic City International Airport, N,J., reported an April 1999 aircraft cargo fire in which a pallet of lithium primary batteries on a loading ramp was dropped and caught fire. Webster wrote that there was no external ignition source.

He reported another aircraft cargo incident in Memphis, Tenn. Baggage handlers smelled smoke coming from one of the cargo containers. As they off-loaded the container from the aircraft, the container burst into flames on the ramp.

New Energy Times asked Keith Holloway, a public affairs officer with the National Transportation Safety Board today, whether NTSB was looking into possible LENR-related issues with the lithium-ion battery incident that occurred on the Boeing 767 in Boston. Holloway said that the agency is still collecting information.

“We don’t know at this time because we are still gathering factual information,” he said. “We are not ruling out anything, nor are we highlighting anything in particular at this time. We are examining all the components that are involved.”

New Energy Times asked Holloway whether NTSB had done any investigations into any incidents with lithium-ion battery fires. He said that, in 2006, an incident occurred with a UPS freight aircraft in Philadelphia.

The NTSB report said that “the flight crew members sustained minor injuries, and the airplane and most of the cargo were destroyed by fire after landing.”

New Energy Times asked Lori Gunter, a public affairs officer with Boeing today, whether Boeing was looking into possible LENR-related issues with the Boston lithium-ion battery incident.

“That is something I cannot answer,” Gunter said. “The specific events are under investigation by regulatory authorities; we’re a party to that investigation, and that means we cannot discuss specific details about the investigation.”

Gunter said that NTSB is the investigating authority for the event in Boston and the Japan Transport Safety Board is the investigating authority for the event in Japan.

On Aug. 3, 2012, New Energy Times wrote a news story on a research report “Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research Phase-II: N+4 Advanced Concept Development,” written by Marty K. Bradley and Christopher K. Droney of Boeing Research and Technology and prepared for NASA Langley Research Center.

 

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Jan 152013
 

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Jan. 15, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

Daniele Passerini, a clerk for a local municipality in Italy who published the 22 Passi d’Amore blog (22 Steps of Love) in his spare time, has stopped blogging.

Passerini was the driving force in Italy that promoted Andrea Rossi and his Energy Catalyzer hoax. Worldwide, Passerini’s promotion of Rossi, a convicted white-collar criminal with a string of failed energy ventures, was second only to that of Mats Lewan of the Swedish technology magazine Ny Teknik.

Yesterday, Passerini posted a notice titled “Ad Maiora” (“on to greater things”). He wrote that he needed to devote more time to his family and thus would be stopping his blogging, at least for the foreseeable future.

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English Translation:
I’ve done all I could for months to be able to manage my blog, only to finally find myself in the typical situation where nobody is happy – both here on the web as much as in real life – as always happens when one tries to mediate between evidently incompatible parties. I’m not able to commit time and energy to [my] blog anymore, if at the same time I’m not able anymore to support my partner and her son, [and] if at the same time I’m not able to give due care to my daughter and my parents anymore. When it rains, it pours: because a few years ago I wanted to lend a hand to a friend in a difficult situation (read: bank guaranty) I ended up finding myself in a difficult situation, at the worst moment it could have happened (read: Murphy’s law).

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His announcement comes exactly two years after Rossi’s first press conference, which Passerini reported in real-time through text updates on his blog. Yesterday, Passerini wrote that he still believes in Rossi. Continue reading »

Jan 142013
 

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Jan. 14, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

New Energy Times has completed a major update and reorganization of our indexes of low-energy nuclear reaction meetings and conference proceedings.

There are two index pages:

LENR Conference Proceedings and LENR Conferences, Symposia and Colloquia Listings.

Continue reading »

Dec 272012
 

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Dec. 27, 2012 – By Steven B. Krivit –
(Updated 11:20 a.m.)

Evidence for Rossi’s claim of extraordinary production of excess-heat from his E-Cat rested on the assumption that all water going through his device was vaporized into steam. This was not the case, as would have been revealed by rudimentary measurements of steam versus water output.

Two Swedish scientists, Hanno Essén and Sven Kullander, appearing on Swedish public television on Dec. 17 continued their endorsement of Andrea Rossi and his Energy Catalyzer. This New Energy Times article is in response to that program and presents a critical review of the behavior of these scientists and a review of the potential consequences of their actions.

Essén is a theoretical physicist and lecturer at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology. He is the former chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Association. Kullander is a professor emeritus at Uppsala University and chairman of the Swedish National Academy of Sciences Energy Committee.

All evidence for Rossi’s extraordinary claim of kilowatts of excess heat from his E-Cat device hung on the qualitative as well as quantitative measurements of steam, had those measurements been made. By July 30, 2011, evidence collected by New Energy Times made clear that these measurements had not been performed and that the Rossi device was a hoax, if not a fraud.

Continue reading »

Dec 262012
 

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Dec. 26, 2012 – By Steven B. Krivit –

Andrea Rossi and his Energy Catalyzer, a “cold fusion” hoax, were featured on a Swedish public television program on Dec. 17. The program aired on SVT1’s “Vetenskapens Varld” (“The World of Science”). SVT1 portrayed the Rossi device as real.

For credibility, SVT relied on statements made by Rossi and two Swedish scientists, Hanno Essén and Sven Kullander, who were paid by Rossi to go to Italy and watch his device operate in an empty industrial building behind a tire shop in Bologna for a few hours. Essén and Kullander relied on facts and data given to them by Rossi.

Essén is a theoretical physicist and lecturer at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology. He is the former chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Association. Kullander is a professor emeritus at Uppsala University and chairman of the Swedish National Academy of Sciences Energy Committee.

SVT also filmed and quoted Anders Aberg, a research manager for Vattenfall, a large European energy company. Aberg believes Rossi, Essén and Kullander.

Below are some screen shots from the TV show. English subtitles were made by John Olov Hampus Ersa Ericsson, a sociology student at Umea University.

Tomorrow, New Energy Times will analyze this matter in detail.

Continue reading »

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