© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/new-fuel-source-claims-to-capsize-quantum-mechanics/
This article is marked as 'retired'. The information here may be out of date, incomplete, and/or incorrect.
A man named Randell Mills claims that his company, Blacklight Power, has produced a prototype power generator which only uses tiny amounts of water as fuel, gives off very little waste, yet produces a thousand times more heat than conventional fuel. The key, he says, is a form of hydrogen atom called a “hydrino,” comprised of only one electron and one proton. He claims that the hydrino’s electron orbits its nucleus slightly closer than normal, and that the formation of hydrinos from conventional hydrogen releases huge amounts of energy.
But according to the theory of quantum mechanics, the rules which describe the behavior of atoms, Mills’ hydrino is physically impossible. The theory allows for no variation from the fixed distance between the electron and the nucleus in hydrogen. If Mills turns out to be correct, the entire field of quantum mechanics will be thrown into question.
From the Guardian article:
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.”
Tens of millions of dollars have been invested in the research, including some from NASA’s institute of advanced concepts. Blacklight Power hopes to have a small unit for heating homes available within four years, followed some time later with a scaled-up version to be used in power plants to produce electricity for communities.
As is true with all outlandish claims of clean alternative energy, it is wise to bring a biggie-size grain-o’-salt, and to practice extremely cautious optimism. It will be cool if it comes to fruition, but that’s a big IF.
Further reading:
Article at Guardian Unlimited
Blacklight Power home page
A discussion on hydrinos
© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/new-fuel-source-claims-to-capsize-quantum-mechanics/
Since you enjoyed our work enough to print it out, and read it clear to the end, would you consider donating a few dollars at https://www.damninteresting.com/donate ?
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=47803
can anyone find these peer-reviewd publications?
river-wind said: “can anyone find these peer-reviewd publications?”
The aricle you’ve linked to says “Two of the papers have been accepted for peer-reviewed publication.” Does that mean they will be published, or that thay are just being considered for publication pending further peer-review? It could be that latter, cleverly worded to make it sound like the former. If that’s the case, it’s basically misleading marketing.
In the end, the technology will work as described, or it won’t. If the company isn’t able to produce devices which create heat energy from a bit of water without much waste, it won’t matter how many peer-reviewed articles they had. And if it does work, it may not turn quantum mechanics on its ear, because there may be a non-hydrino explanation.
Right now, all we really know about their results is what they tell us, which isn’t enough.
Sounds like another ‘cold fusion’ job to me.
I’m putting my money on Quantum Mechanics. It’s been a reliable source for many a Star Trek episode. Unless Q get’s involved and everything is thrown out. Maybe HE lives in Dark Matter as Dark Energy. Hey, they could turn that into an episode!
Hey, if they can have a Borg return to her stunning looks after all that machinery was hooked up, they can get us to believe anything….if they stick boobs on it.
I don’t know if any of you remember the University of Utah with its claim of cold fusion…but I really hope that this isn’t of the same kin. Although, I do hold one of my degrees from BYU…the University of Utahs arch nemisis to the south, so I think their mistake to be rather amusing. Still….with energy costs as they are, I would enjoy adding a cup of water to my furnace each month and forgetting about it.
I find it interesting that Randell Mills uses a “form of hydrogen atom called a ‘hydrino'”, which has “only one electron and one proton”. Is this not the exact same as your basic hydrogen atom? One proton, one electron and no neutron, 1.01 amu?
Apparently the ‘hydrino’ is just a standard hydrogen atom which is somehow capable of reaching a ground state lower than the currently accepted ground state of hydrogen…
Does this company actually DO anything? I mean, it’d be more believable if we could see this little hydrogen-thing actually produce some energy for the world, rather than just this Randell guy shouting about what sounds to me like a hoax.
Even if it doesn’t work, the oil and coal companies will want to buy it up.
Enter your reply text here.
jimboy753 said: “Enter your reply text here.”
all i’m saying is what is wrong with eating a persons flesh if that person is already dead but you did not kill her, and she or he has not been dead that long.
This is a great idea! What a powerful way to harness grant money for selfish purposes! I think this is done by bombarding protons and electrons in opposite directions in a strong magnetic field at near absolte zero and near perfect vacuum. A perfectly balanced atom would be unstable and have to come undone if “released”. But , if possible, in order to create such particles one must use more energy than they would even release. Eat your spinach ass holes!
I bet this guy’s lab is in the side of a hollowed out volcano.
Didn’t someone once say the Earth was round? And got similar rebukes as those above?
Give the guy a chance, he may be onto something. If he’s right, we all benefit. If he’s wrong, he’s the one that takes the blame. Besides, according to the article above, several scientists unconnected to him validated part of his claim.
I think that by describing the hydrino as one proton and one electron, they are indicating that the atoms are devoid of neutrons.
Blacklight tried to get some researcher friends of mine at Princeton to do some experiments for them to boost Blacklight’s credibility. Gave them a free 1,000-page tome called “The Grand Unified Theory of Quantum Mechanics” as part of the buttering up – one of them who read through it and told me it was filled with bad physics. Needless to say, they did not collaborate.
Drakvil, notallwhowander and bug: Most hydrogen atoms on Earth (99.985%) have one proton and one electron. If you want to give it a name, it’s usually called protium, as opposed to deuterium (1 proton, 1 neutron) or tritium (1 proton, 2 neutrons). If you could create a stable electron-proton system with lower energy, statistical mechanics (the math behind thermodynamics) says that would be the preferred state, and most hydrogen would already be there. My best guess is he must be talking about doing nuclear physics and reversing a beta-decay. If he can do it, more power to him, as long as he doesn’t take any money out of my pocket for his research.
i for one agree with “JustAnotherName” and welcome our erotically boobified female cyborg overloards. and their magic water.
Judging by what can be read from the Wikipedia entry I smell baloney. There’s way too much discrepancy between what the company claims regarding peer-reviewed publications and reality to assume it was anything less than misleading.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrino
So, two and a half years ago the guy who ‘discovered’ this wonderful energy source said he’d have demonstrable results in a couple of months… still waiting… still waiting…
I wonder if his backers have caught on to him yet?
Just a couple of months… anytime now… just another setback but it really works, honest… still waiting… tick-tock, tick-tock… the world is still waiting.
Another name for this ‘below ground state, ground-state’ element might be called “Bullshitium” or ‘pieintheskyium’ … go ahead, pull the other one, it’s got bells on.
Another crackpot with a perpetual motion device.
Enter your reply text here. OK
I just took a shit. OOOHhh I mean…. This is bull shit.
oppps I cursed. Sorry bout that.
Could end up being a terrific story!
“Cranbury, NJ (December 11, 2008)—BlackLight Power (BLP) Inc. today announced its first commercial license agreement with Estacado Energy Services, Inc. in New Mexico, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative, (Estacado). In a non-exclusive agreement, BLP has licensed Estacado to use the BlackLight Process and certain BLP energy technology for the production of thermal or electric power. Estacado may produce gross thermal power up to a maximum continuous capacity of 250 MW or convert this thermal power to corresponding electricity.
BlackLight Power is committed to announcing all future progress as it occurs. ”
Time to revisit this story perhaps?
Their home page now states they have a second commercial deal. A lot of nay sayers out there.
Oh, and if JUSTANOTHERNAME was correct, then the erotically boobified cyborg overlords haven’t taken over yet….unless my new wife is fembot. Hmmmm….she does like the computer rather a lot more than my previous wife. Say…is there a way to check to see if she really is a fembot? Should I be concerned about the way her spine glows when she is really happy? She does bear a striking resemblance to number six (Caprica Six).
Perhaps hydrinos will escape, react with atmospheric oxygen and enter the water supply. From that point this “evil water” will end all life on earth except for a few bacteria who aren’t affected by the satanic hydrinos.