From: medb@cc.newcastle.edu.au (Dieter Britz)
Subject: Peroxide again!
Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 11:06:26 GMT

In article <1992Jul22.033005.14971@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>, jrw@ecsvax.uncecs.edu
(James R. White) writes:

>> energy. However, there is an absolute limit to the size of this error: the
>> absolute maximum chemical storage capability of palladium (assuming no energy
>> is stored in the heavy water). ...
> 
> This is a bad assumption. The most likely chemical explanation is that
> deuterium peroxide (D2O2) is being formed at the platinum anode.
> High concentrations of D2O2 can pass unnoticed, if no check is made.
> This can lead to excess heat in at least 4 different ways:
etc.

We've been down that path, as our politicians like to say. Forget peroxide.
At the overpotentials in cnf electrolysis cells, you go straight to O2 at the
anode. I am afraid that the only sources of chemical heat one can reasonably
expect in one of these cells is the recombination of D2 and O2, and the
absorption of deuterium by the Pd, both exothermic, with recombination about
ten times larger than deuterium absorption. The strong excess heat results
do seem to be above these levels, or at least comparable to them. E.g., my
favourite quality positive, Belzner et al (wearing a bit thin after much use,
not having been followed up) had excess heat at about the level of
recombination, but without subtracting the heat of water electrolysis. So in
fact, if they had no recombination, then had twice as much excess heat as they
claimed - unless of course, they made a mistake with their measurement.

If you want to invoke chemical storage of heat, there is not much scope here;
the PdDx is a storer of cold, rather than heat, because the release of
deuterium is endothermic, but we are not so sure about high loadings. Should
the release from highly loaded PdDx be exothermic, the heat stored in that way
will not amount to much. BUT: as was shown by Kreysa in 1989, if you expose
PdDx to air (O2) and let it release the D2 and the D2 burns, then you get the
recombination heat, and you can possibly get a melt-down, an IGNITION! (but not
in the nuclear sense implied by FPH). Another storage possibility is the
apparently intermittent function of the recombiners used. Tom Droege, I think,
has told us that he sometimes accumulates gas, and then it recombines in a
rush. This causes heat surges. I can't think of any other ways of storing heat
in these cells. We skeptics must keep our sense of proportion, and not propose
unlikely mechanisms to explain away results of others.

I have a feeling that if cnf is ever disproved, it will not be by way of an
exotic chemical reaction, but by way of finding errors of measurement. This is
one reason I am not expecting it to be ever disproved, because one cannot go
back to the work of, say, Belzner et al, and prove anything. It will have to
be the other way around: the cold fusioneers will have to demonstrate to us
that it does indeed work, and I don't mean by telling us how smart this or that
organisation is, so it has to be real, doesn't it? Stanley Pons' little water
heater would do the job, hot water coming out, with less power applied than
is coming out.

Dieter alias medb@cc.newcastle.edu.au
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