Patterson power cell

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The CETI Patterson Power Cell is an electrolysis device invented by James A. Patterson, claimed to be generating more energy than it uses. It is one of several cold fusion cells which have been the subject of media interest but little independent testing.

Construction

The cell has a non-conductive housing. The cathode is composed of thousands of 1 mm microspheres (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 sulfur (LiSO4) electrolyte solution. This makes the fluid conductive so that electric current can flow though it. When asked about reliability Patterson 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 watts and yet is capable of generating thousands of times this amount of power which is released as heat after a brief "warm-up" period. This supposedly happens as hydrogen or deuterium nuclei fuse together to produce heat through some form of low energy nuclear reaction. Initially the byproducts of nuclear fusion had not been detected, e.g. a tritium nucleus and a proton or an He nucleus and a neutron, leading a vast majority of experts to think that no such fusion is taking place.

It is further claimed that if radioactive isotopes 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.

George H. Miley has conducted research on nuclear transmutations in thin films of metals, including the thin films in the Patterson Power Cell.

By using what he refers to as a unique thin-film electrode configuration to isolate the transmutation region and measurements based on neutron activation analysis, Miley claims to have achieved, a quantitative measure of the yield of transmutation products. Results from a thin film (650 Angstrom) nickel coating on 1-mm microspheres in a packed-bed type cell with 1-molar LiSO4-H2O electrolyte had been reported. As well as results for thin-film Pd and for multiple Pd/Ni layers. Miley claims the transmutation products in all cases characteristically divide into four major groups with atomic number:

Z = 6-18, 22-35, 38-55, and 75-85.

Furthermore, Miley and Patterson claim yields of ~1mg of key elements obtained in a cell containing ~1000 microspheres (~1/2 cc). In several cases over 40 atom % of the metal film consisted of these products after 2 weeks operation.

Replications

Scott Little and Hal Puthoff made an independent test and they were unable to measure any excess heat from the cells, but they didn't publish their results outside of their website.

George H. Miley is a nuclear physicist, active in research on low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) in thin metal films. He replicated the Patterson Power Cell and he constructed a "Nuclear Battery" that, like the Patterson Power Cell, contains thin films of nickel and palladium.

During the 2011 World Green Energy Symposium, Miley stated that his device continuously produces several hundred watts of energy.

Quintin Bowles, was professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Missouri in Kansas City at the time. Bowles also claimed to have successfully replicated the Patterson power cell.

Demonstrations

In April 1995, at the Fifth International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF5) CETI demonstrated a cell with input of 0.14 watts and a peak excess of 2.5 watts, a ratio of 1:18. In October 1995, at the 16th biannual Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE '95) the University of Illinois showed a CETI cell with 0.06 watts input and 5 watts peak output, a ratio of 1:83. December 5-7, 1995, a 1-kilowatt cold fusion reactor, manufactured by Clean Energy Technologies, Inc. (CETI), was demonstrated at POWER–GEN 95 in Anaheim (a power generation conference and exhibition). During the demonstration, the electrical input was between 0.1 and 1.5 Watt, and the heat output between 450 and 1,300 Watt, ratios ranged from 1:1000 to 1:4000.

On February 7, 1996, ABC News shows Good Morning America and Nightline featured stories about the Patterson Power Cell.

On June 11, 1997, Good Morning America did a follow up with a public demonstration but they didn't measure the radioactivity of the beads after the test, thus it can't be discarded that the beads had simply absorbed the uranium ions and become radioactive themselves.

Also in 1997, the Lightworks studio documentary film Free Energy - The Race To Zero Point was released. The documentary, narrated by Bill Jenkins, shows many controversial energy technologies including a section on the Paterson cell.

James A. Patterson

Dr. James Patterson(- 2008) of Sarasota, Florida was granted over 150 U.S. patents in a variety of technical disciplines.

Clean Energy Technologies Inc.

Since its foundation in 1995 Clean Energy Technologies Inc.(CETI), of Dallas Texas, has spent about $2 million on research, much of it family money, a large fraction was used to pay for patents. James Patterson's grandson, Jim Reding, served as CETI's CEO.

We just finished a $2.5 offering about nine months ago. That enabled us to hire a president, Jack St.Genis, who was a very senior manager at Matsushita, NEC, and IBM. And Lou Furlong joined us six months ago as director of research, formerly at Exxon. Altogether we have 10 people here. Now we're going to raise another $5 million for three projects. The first is filtering tritium from waste water out of fission reactors, using a different invention of Dr. Patterson's. The second project is neutralizing other forms of radioactivity. The third is power cells. When the first venture creates revenue, we'll spin that out and use it as liquidity to raise capital for the other two.
— Jim Reding

References

Krivit, Steven B. "James 'Doc' Patterson, May 17, 1922 – February 11, 2008". New Energy Times, issue 27, March 20, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2011.
US 5494559 "System for electrolysis"
^ New Energy News "Quantitative Observation of Transmutation Products Occurring in Thin-Film Coated Microspheres During Electrolysis" VOLUME 4, NUMBER 10 ISSN 1075-0045 FEBRUARY 1997
^ CETI official website "Quantitative Observation of Transmutation Products Occurring in Thin-Film Coated Microspheres During Electrolysis" George H. Miley, G. Name, M.J. Williams, University of Illinois, Department of Nuclear Engineering, James A. Patterson (CETI), J. Nix, D. Cravens (CETI) and H. Hora
^ http://newenergytimes.com/v2/commerce/ceti/CETI-ColdFusionTechnologyMagazine.shtml
^ Wired "What If Cold Fusion Is Real?"
Manning, Jean. "'Cold Fusion' Breakthrough" Atlantis Rising. 1996. 6:37,56. Retrieved December 10, 2007.
^ Park, Robert L. Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 114–118. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
Voss, David. "Whatever happened to cold fusion?". Physics World, March 1, 1999. Retrieved December 5, 2007. Physicsworld link
G.H. Miley, J.A. Patterson. "Nuclear transmutations in thin-film nickel coatings undergoing electrolysis", J. New Energy, 1996, vol. 1, no. 3, p. 5. Retrieved November 26, 2011.
2nd International Conference On Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (Miley and Patterson, 1996).
Calorimetric Study of Pd/Ni Beads From the CETI RIFEX Kit, Scott Little and Hal Puthoff
"Dr. George Miley Replicates Patterson, Names Rossi". e-Cat Site (blog), October 22, 2011.
"2011 World Green Energy Symposium". October 19–21, 2011.
Cold Fusion – A Discussion (Video). Miley's report begins at 5 minutes and 30 seconds and his statement about his Nuclear Battery begins at 17 minutes and 55 seconds.
G.H. Miley, J.A. Patterson: Nuclear transmutations in thin-film nickel coatings undergoing electrolysis, Infinite Energy, no. 9, July/August 1996, p. 19–32
George H. Miley, Heinrich Hora, Andrei Lipson, Sung-O. Kim, Nie Luo, Carlos H. Costano G., Taeho Woo. "Progress in thin-film LENR research at the University of Illinois". In The 9th International Conference on Cold Fusion, Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, 2002. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press.
Xiaoling Yang, George H. Miley, Heinz Hora. "Condensed Matter Cluster Reactions in LENR Power Cells for a Radical New Type of Space Power Source". American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, March 16, 2009, vol. 1103, pp. 450–458.
^ Nightline report (Video: February 7, 1996) on the Patterson Power Cell: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4.
POWER–GEN 95. Sponsored by PennWell Conferences & Exhibitions Company. Held at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California: December 5–7, 1995.
Transcript of ABC-TV "Good Morning America" Program on Cold Fusion Excess Energy and Radioactivity Reduction, June 11, 1997. Transcribed by Infinite Energy magazine.
Bill Jenkins (1997-06-16). Free Energy - The race to zero point (VHS). United States: Lightworks Audio Video. (video) contains a segment on the Patterson Power Cell, beginning at 44 minutes and 51 seconds.
New Energy Times - James "Doc" Patterson Remembrance
CETI Press release forwarded by Eugene Mallove

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