E-Cat Test Yesterday in Bologna: More Questions than Answers?

After three hours of operation, the measured temperatures were still constant; by putting a hand on the insulated enclosure, one could clearly feel the water boiling.

By a conservative estimate, Ny Teknik calculated power output during self sustaining operation at two to three kilowatts. _NyTeknik_via_Peswiki

Yesterday's Bologna test of Andrea Rossi's E-cat LENR device was an apparent success. The device ran for 4 hours on self-sustain mode without power to the heating resistors of the device. Over that 4 hours, the temperature of the device was said to maintain and even increase slightly. Here is an update from Peswiki:

The good news, is that it seems the test was a success. The device continued to self sustain for hours, with almost no drop in temperature, and possibly even a slight increase in temperature! Also, it seems the E-Cat was losing a LOT of heat to the environment, before the output of the E-Cat even made it to the heat exchanger, to heat the secondary circuit. I think this is obvious for a couple reasons. First, the surface of the device itself was very hot (between 60 and 85 C). Secondly, it's probable that a good bit of heat was lost as the steam traveled between the output of the E-Cat, and the input to the heat exchanger. Because of this, whatever the output was measured to be, the output was really larger.
It seems like the device clearly showed excess energy. However, there are a few issues that need to be addressed. First of all, this comment from the report by NyTeknik.
"Power to the resistance was set to zero. A device “producing frequencies” was switched on. Overall current 432 mA. Voltage 230 V. Current through resistance was zero, voltage also zero. From this moment the E-cat ran in self sustained mode."
What the heck is this device that, "produces frequencies."
If there is a device transmitting frequencies to the E-Cat, it means that there is additional input power being consumed. We need to know how much input power did this device consumed! If it was significant, we cannot really say the device truly self sustained! It may have self sustained in a way, in that the reactors were not heated. But if power was being transmitted in any form (even wirelessly) that is a transfer of energy!
Also, what is the function of this black box? Does it stimulate the energy production in the E-Cat? We have never been told about this box before! We were told that an E-Cat could be powered purely by heat from a Bunsen burner. Why is a box like this producing "frequencies" needed at all?
We need to learn more about this device. Could this device be what Raymond Zreick called the box with the "secret ingredient" yesterday?
"We'll be able to take pictures of all the components BUT the SMALL black box with the so called secret ingredient."
We have been told the E-Cat produces excess power due to a catalyst, that is composed of one or more elements. These elements are said to be in addition to the elements hydrogen and nickel, are cheap, and are plentiful. Does the device need stimulation by the device "producing frequencies" in addition to the catalysts? To be blunt, we need more information about this device. _Peswiki LENR Update

Rossi cannot help but reveal more details about the device as public testing proceeds. But he cannot get more funding unless he convinces investors that he has something subtantive, which means more testing in front of credible observers. The pulse generator described above reminds me of the LENR approach taken by Brillouin. There is a great potential here for significant litigation involving Piantelli, Rossi, Brillouin, and other LENR developers, if each player cannot distinguish his approach sufficiently from the others.

Here is more preliminary information from Cold Fusion Now:

...E-Cat running for about 4 hours in self-sustain mode, the condition where the E-Cat is not connected to any external source of power, and the reaction continues indefinitely. If true, and there is no reason to doubt the veracity of that report, this will be a huge victory for Mr. Rossi and his partners, and a successful show of the first cold fusion clean energy technology.

Self-sustain mode was ended purposefully in order to allow the device to cool down for disassembly. Allowing scientists to view the inner components of the E-Cat will prove, at least to those present, that there is no additional input power to the reactor other than the nickel-hydrogen reaction chamber itself.

Some as yet unconfirmed data compliments of Raymond Zreick’s tweets include “the steam was always kept above 110 degrees” and a cryptic “from 15 to 19 the difference in average temperature was 5 ° C (water inlet and outlet water), for 0.6 cubic meters / hour”. That sentence may mean from 15:00 hours to 19:00 hours the difference between the ambient temperature of the incoming water and the Energy-Catalyzed hot outgoing water was 5 degrees with a volumetric water flow of 0.6 cubic meters per hour. This is the data needed to compute the thermal energy generated by the E-Cat reactor and, if true, indicates a very good output of energy.

Multiplying the total mass of the water that went through the reactor in self-sustain mode with the specific heat of water and the change in temperature will give you the amount of energy used to perform that work in joules. [Ed. note: See link below for actual details of calculation]

Change in temperature of for kilograms of water, using a specific heat of water of gives. [see link]

These preliminary numbers show an energy of 50.4 Megajoules of energy expended to heat the water. Dividing the energy above by the total time 4 hours = 14,400 seconds gives [see link]

or, a power of 3.5 kiloWatts, where power is the energy delivered each second of operation. We look forward to confirmed details tomorrow from Mats Lewan. _ColdFusionNow

The purported power delivered was 3.5 kw, using only 1 out of the 3 device modules available. The actual device is supposedly rated for ten times the power delivered. Clearly Rossi will need to extend the length of self-sustain runs, and try to ramp up power, in future tests.

The caution being exhibited by Rossi points either toward unexplained hazards of the device if allowed to run too hot, or perhaps something to hide about the apparatus itself.

More information from the test will be coming in over the next few days. But what is really needed is independent testing by top notch neutral scientists who have complete control over all the inputs and outputs of the apparatus. Until that happens -- or until Rossi produces heat / steam at an industrial scale without consuming appreciable electric power to do it -- room for scepticism will remain.