E-Cat: A Barrel of Oil's Worth of Energy for the Cost of 1 Penny?

ColdFusionNow_via_ECatNews.net
All systems are apparently "go" for the 28 October 2011 Bologna testing of Andrea Rossi's 1 MW E-Cat LENR reactor. Rossi says that after this upcoming test, all future tests will be closed to the public.

Meanwhile, yet another analysis of Rossi's 6 October Bologna E-Cat test have been released. More information and links to data here.

At Cold Fusion Now, Ruby Carat looks at the claim that 1 gram of nickel can generate the E-Cat energy equivalent of 517 kilograms of oil. The calculations presented in this web posting concludes that one 5 cent piece has the energy equivalent of 5 barrels of oil. Assuming that the 5 cent piece is of standard weight and nickel concentration as described in the link, that would translate to the E-Cat equivalent energy of 1 barrel of oil in 1/5 of a 5 cent piece, or 1 cent.

Just 1.25 grams of nickel, the amount of nickel in one US 5 cent coin, can generate E-Cat energy equivalent to 5 barrels of oil – all without CO2 emissions and no radioactive materials.

Because the energy density from fusion is a million times greater than the chemical burning of fossil fuels, cold fusion will be able to provide energy to build a new infrastructure, this time, one based on clean, peaceful energy with access by all the world. _ColdFusionNow

Of course it seems quite whimsical -- even silly -- and will probably never work out to anything close to that level of equivalence. But it does point out the immense difference in scale between nuclear energy and chemical energy. This will be true even if the LENR phenomenon ultimately provides a somewhat lower power density than hot fusion.

Before popping the champagne corks, however, we should wait for a much better examination of the underlying phenomenon in Rossi's LENR device -- assuming it works as advertised.