State of the LENR Industry

It looks like Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (often misnamed cold fusion by journalists) is on the verge of becoming a viable technology and perhaps a business. A great deal of work needs to be done and the technology’s viability needs to be proved but an LENR industry could be developing.

So what is the current state of the industry? Well several firms are attempting to develop and market LENR devices but only one claims to have succeeded.

The only company that claims to have sold working LENR devices is Andrea Rossi’s Leonardo Corporation. Rossi claims to have sold at least one 1 megawatt commercial-water heating system powered by his e-cat technology. Unfortunately he has refused to reveal the customer’s identity. He also claims to have orders for 92 more and deals to conduct LENR research with the University of Bologna in Italy and Uppsala University in Switzerland.

Andrea Rossi and the 1 MW e-cat unit in Bologna courtesy EV World

Rossi has a laboratory and production facility in Bologna, Italy. He is also developing what he calls an e-cat for the people. This would be a home heating and cooling system powered by an e-cat. Currently he claims this would generate about 5 kilowatts of heat and it would cost around $1,500 US. Rossi has also mentioned a slightly smaller system that would cost about $500 US.

Even though he has not made it public, Rossi states he has been testing the home heating systems for some time. He also claims to have solved of the problems inherent in them and developed a system that can operate without an outside hydrogen supply. The current system would run for about six months with a power device Rossi has developed. The current plan is to start selling these to the public through dealers in the United States this fall. Rossi has stated that he or his agents have talked to the US hardware retailer Home Depot about a distribution deal.

Despite what seems to be progress in water heating Rossi admits he’s about a year away from generating electricity from LENR. Many observers have noted that Rossi is a lot farther away than he admits and still needs to do a lot of work.

Rossi has licensing deals with two start up companies HydroFusion which operates in the UK and Sweden and AmpEnergo in the United States. Rossi also claims he is setting up factories to produce home LENR units in Massachusetts and Florida.

Defkalion a Greek Company was working with Rossi. Like Rossi it claims to have developed a working LENR water heater. It plans to bring out a home LENR heating and electric generation system called Hyperion sometime this year. No other details are available and it is unclear how Defkalion would sell its devices. There is no evidence that Defaklion has actually sold a device or is in a position to market one.

Brillouin Energy Corporation is a US company that is working on an LENR powered boiler. Unlike Rossi and Defakalion it has real backing from venture capitalists in the US. Its business plan is to market industrial boilers heated by LENR. The boilers would be powered by a nickel hydrogen LENR process developed by the company’s President and Chief Technology Officer Robert E. Godes who has been researching cold fusion for many years.

Brillouin has not revealed its technology to the public yet but one of its devices is being tested at SRI International a think tank in Menlo Park, California. So far Brillouin has stated when it will start marketing its technology. Nor has it shown off its devices.

Nichenergy based in Milan, Italy, was founded by Francessco Piantelli the Italian physicist who conducted the basic research upon which Rossi’s e-cat device is apparently based with Sergio Focardi. Little is known about Nichenergy but it does have a website and a logo. The website simply says Hydrogen Energy.

Energetics Technology is doing LENR research in Israeli and now has a working relationship with the University of Missouri. Unfortunately it has not developed a working LENR device. It has been featured on US TV.

It seems that some exciting things are happening in the industry which has attracted some favorable attention. The Oilprice blog has noted we could be on the verge of an LENR revolution and has also compared Rossi’s work to Henry Ford’s. Therefore LENR is about where the automobile was in 1900 it has been developed but not yet proven as a technology. This year should show us what sort of future this industry has.

E-cat could be as big a game changer as the Model T Ford

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Readers' Questions

  • EUSTORGIO
    What is the current state of cold fusion?
    1 year ago
  • Cold fusion, also known as low-energy nuclear reactions, has not been widely accepted by the scientific community. Research into the topic is ongoing with many isolated successes, but the scientific consensus is that cold fusion is not a viable energy source. Reports of excess heat, neutrons, and tritium, have been found with electrolysis experiments and other types of experiments, although no satisfactory explanation for these results has been given. While some researchers remain hopeful that cold fusion may eventually provide a viable energy source, the overall research progress has been slow and it appears unlikely that cold fusion will become a true energy source in the near future.