vaughn said:
For me, the following quote from the article represents the bottom line:
"... any extraordinary discovery requires extraordinary proof. ... the
E-Cat must be verified by an independent study conducted by scientists who
are allowed access to the machine's inner-workings."
I would honestly like to believe in Rossi, but this whole thing reminds me
entirely too much of the MDI "aircar". This is a compressed air-powered
car that will forever be in production "next year". MDI regularly shows
slick prototypes to the press, but never allows any independent evaluation
of his range claims for them. He cant! His claims defy the laws of
thermodynamics. Yet this scam has gone on for over a decade now.
I never perceived that as a scam. It worked. They were not saying it had the
speed of a jaguar, it was for around town trundling. One version of the
engine was an integral hybrid that could use gasoline and air all in one
engine.
At the time they were promoting it, the Toyota Prius emerged, which set the
trend of the current hybrids - a large auto maker, MDI are not.
Since then the aim of the big auto giants has been electric batteries,
electric motor traction with on-board range extenders (an IC genset). A
highly simple arrangement - much simpler than we have now. The Chevy Volt
was to be this, but cut back at the 11th hour to have a series of complex
clutches giving direct drive in certain conditions. Chevy were using an
suitable engine for the genset.
Enter the Russians with very different newly developed range extender
engine. It has 100% electric motor traction using a revolutionary new rotary
toroidal "vane" engine". It is 25% the size and weight of normal engines of
the same HP.
The battery pack is reported to be small for the car so nearly always runs
with the genset running.
http://pesn.com/2011/04/23/9501814_Russian_firm_claims_MYT_engine_design_its_own/
Combining the Russian engine and compressed air to claw back kinetic brake
energy (no expensive batteries, just an air tank) and this may be even
better and far more cleaner running in cities. Like the MDI car, the
compressed air tank could be charged up on the driveway, so no problem of
cold starts in the mornings. Air could start the engine as it runs along,
bringing the engine in and out as needed.
Air is free and all around us, all it needs is a tank. Batteries will cost
and they giant corps know this.