CETI Patterson Power Cell
Encyclopedia
The CETI Patterson Power Cell is an electrolysis
device invented by retired chemist James A. Patterson, which he said created more energy than it used. Promoted by Clean Energy Technologies, Inc. (CETI) and demonstrated at a conference in 1995, it is one of several cold fusion
cells which have been the subject of media interest.
The CETI Patterson Power Cell is given little credence by mainstream scientists. Physicist Robert L. Park
describes the device as fringe science
in his book Voodoo Science
. Park says the device's supporters are "ignored or even ridiculed by other scientists".
is composed of thousands of 1 mm microsphere
s (co-polymer beads), with a flash coat of copper and multiple layers of electrolytically deposited thin film
(650 Angstrom) nickel
and palladium
. The beads are submerged in water with a lithium sulfate
(Li2SO4) electrolyte solution. This makes the fluid conductive so that electric current can flow though it. When asked about reliability, Gabe Collins, a chemical engineer at CETI, stated: "When they don't work, it's mostly due to contamination. If you get any sodium in the system it kills the reaction - and since sodium is one of the more abundant elements, it's hard to keep it out." CETI holds at least 3 U.S. patents on the beads.
and yet is capable of generating thousands of times this amount of power
which is released as heat. Patterson said it "produces a hundred times more energy than it consumes". This supposedly happens as hydrogen
or deuterium
nuclei fuse together to produce heat through some form of low energy nuclear reaction. The byproducts of nuclear fusion, e.g. a tritium
nucleus
and a proton
or an 3He nucleus and a neutron
, have not been detected in a reliable way, leading a vast majority of experts to think that no such fusion is taking place.
It is further claimed that if radioactive isotope
s such as uranium
are present, the cell enables the hydrogen nuclei to fuse with these isotopes, transforming them into stable elements
and thus neutralizing the radioactivity; and this would be achieved without releasing any radiation to the environment and without expending any energy. This claim has never been properly verified. To date, the neutralization of radioactive isotopes has only been achieved through intense neutron bombardment in a nuclear reactor
or large scale high energy particle accelerator
, at a large expense of energy.
John Huizenga, professor of nuclear chemistry at the University of Rochester, who was head of a government panel convened in 1989 to investigate the cold fusion claims of Fleischmann and Pons, and who wrote a book about the controversy, said "I would be willing to bet there's nothing to it", when asked about the Patterson Power Cell.
George H. Miley
is a professor of nuclear engineering and a cold fusion
researcher who claims to have replicated the Patterson Power Cell. During the 2011 World Green Energy Symposium, Miley stated that his device continuously produces several hundred watts of energy. Earlier results by Miley have not convinced mainstream researchers, who believe that they can be explained by contamination or by misinterpretation of data.
In the television show Good Morning America
, Quintin Bowles, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Missouri–Kansas City
, also claimed to have successfully replicated the Patterson power cell. In the book Voodoo Science, Bowles is quoted stating: "It works, we just don't know how it works".
Electrolysis
In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of using a direct electric current to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction...
device invented by retired chemist James A. Patterson, which he said created more energy than it used. Promoted by Clean Energy Technologies, Inc. (CETI) and demonstrated at a conference in 1995, it is one of several cold fusion
Cold fusion
Cold fusion, also called low-energy nuclear reaction , refers to the hypothesis that nuclear fusion might explain the results of a group of experiments conducted at ordinary temperatures . Both the experimental results and the hypothesis are disputed...
cells which have been the subject of media interest.
The CETI Patterson Power Cell is given little credence by mainstream scientists. Physicist Robert L. Park
Robert L. Park
Robert Lee Park , also known as Bob Park, is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park and a former Director of Public Information at the Washington office of the American Physical Society...
describes the device as fringe science
Fringe science
Fringe science is scientific inquiry in an established field of study that departs significantly from mainstream or orthodox theories, and is classified in the "fringes" of a credible mainstream academic discipline....
in his book Voodoo Science
Voodoo science
Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud is a book published in 2000 by physics professor Robert L. Park,critical of research that falls short of adhering to the scientific method. Other authors have used the term "voodoo science", but it remains most closely associated with Park...
. Park says the device's supporters are "ignored or even ridiculed by other scientists".
Construction
The cell has a non-conductive housing. The cathodeCathode
A cathode is an electrode through which electric current flows out of a polarized electrical device. Mnemonic: CCD .Cathode polarity is not always negative...
is composed of thousands of 1 mm microsphere
Microsphere
Microsphere are small spherical particles, with diameters in the micrometer range . Microspheres are sometimes referred to as microparticles....
s (co-polymer beads), with a flash coat of copper and multiple layers of electrolytically deposited thin film
Thin film
A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer to several micrometers in thickness. Electronic semiconductor devices and optical coatings are the main applications benefiting from thin film construction....
(650 Angstrom) nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
and palladium
Palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pd and an atomic number of 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired...
. The beads are submerged in water with a lithium sulfate
Lithium sulfate
Lithium sulfate is a white inorganic salt with the formula Li2SO4. It is the lithium salt of sulfuric acid.-Properties:Lithium sulfate is soluble in water, though it does not follow the usual trend of solubility versus temperature — its solubility in water decreases with increasing temperature, as...
(Li2SO4) electrolyte solution. This makes the fluid conductive so that electric current can flow though it. When asked about reliability, Gabe Collins, a chemical engineer at CETI, stated: "When they don't work, it's mostly due to contamination. If you get any sodium in the system it kills the reaction - and since sodium is one of the more abundant elements, it's hard to keep it out." CETI holds at least 3 U.S. patents on the beads.
Claims and observations
Its proponents claim that the device uses less than 1 wattWatt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
and yet is capable of generating thousands of times this amount of power
Electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
which is released as heat. Patterson said it "produces a hundred times more energy than it consumes". This supposedly happens as hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
or deuterium
Deuterium
Deuterium, also called heavy hydrogen, is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen. It has a natural abundance in Earth's oceans of about one atom in of hydrogen . Deuterium accounts for approximately 0.0156% of all naturally occurring hydrogen in Earth's oceans, while the most common isotope ...
nuclei fuse together to produce heat through some form of low energy nuclear reaction. The byproducts of nuclear fusion, e.g. a tritium
Tritium
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus of tritium contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of protium contains one proton and no neutrons...
nucleus
Atomic nucleus
The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the famous 1909 Rutherford experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of Rutherford. The...
and a proton
Proton
The proton is a subatomic particle with the symbol or and a positive electric charge of 1 elementary charge. One or more protons are present in the nucleus of each atom, along with neutrons. The number of protons in each atom is its atomic number....
or an 3He nucleus and a neutron
Neutron
The neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...
, have not been detected in a reliable way, leading a vast majority of experts to think that no such fusion is taking place.
It is further claimed that if radioactive isotope
Isotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
s such as uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
are present, the cell enables the hydrogen nuclei to fuse with these isotopes, transforming them into stable elements
Chemical element
A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...
and thus neutralizing the radioactivity; and this would be achieved without releasing any radiation to the environment and without expending any energy. This claim has never been properly verified. To date, the neutralization of radioactive isotopes has only been achieved through intense neutron bombardment in a nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
or large scale high energy particle accelerator
Particle accelerator
A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams. An ordinary CRT television set is a simple form of accelerator. There are two basic types: electrostatic and oscillating field accelerators.In...
, at a large expense of energy.
John Huizenga, professor of nuclear chemistry at the University of Rochester, who was head of a government panel convened in 1989 to investigate the cold fusion claims of Fleischmann and Pons, and who wrote a book about the controversy, said "I would be willing to bet there's nothing to it", when asked about the Patterson Power Cell.
Replications
Scott Little and Hal Puthoff made an independent test and they were unable to measure any excess heat from the cells.George H. Miley
George H. Miley
George H. Miley is a physicist, inventor, and professor emeritus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.In 1955 Miley received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering/Physics from Carnegie Mellon University. He obtained his M.Sc. and his Ph.D...
is a professor of nuclear engineering and a cold fusion
Cold fusion
Cold fusion, also called low-energy nuclear reaction , refers to the hypothesis that nuclear fusion might explain the results of a group of experiments conducted at ordinary temperatures . Both the experimental results and the hypothesis are disputed...
researcher who claims to have replicated the Patterson Power Cell. During the 2011 World Green Energy Symposium, Miley stated that his device continuously produces several hundred watts of energy. Earlier results by Miley have not convinced mainstream researchers, who believe that they can be explained by contamination or by misinterpretation of data.
In the television show Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, Quintin Bowles, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Missouri–Kansas City
University of Missouri–Kansas City
The University of Missouri–Kansas City is a public university located in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It is a branch of the University of Missouri System. Its main campus is in Kansas City's Rockhill neighborhood east of the Country Club Plaza...
, also claimed to have successfully replicated the Patterson power cell. In the book Voodoo Science, Bowles is quoted stating: "It works, we just don't know how it works".
Further reading
- Bailey, Patrick and Fox, Hal (October 20, 1997). A review of the Patterson Power Cell. Retrieved November 19, 2011. An earlier version of this paper appears in: Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1997; Proceedings of the 32nd Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference. Publication Date: 27 Jul-1 Aug 1997. Volume 4, pages 2289–2294. Meeting Date: 07/27/1997 - 08/01/1997. Location: Honolulu, HI, USA. ISBN 0-7803-4515-0