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– Cleantech Forum NY Oct 21
– EESAT SF Oct 27
– WSJ on Cold Fusion, Gasification
– Transmission Line Sag Mitigator
– Mechanical De-Icer
– UFTO comments
– Reinventing Corporate R&D

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Cleantech Venture Forum III

Next week, New York City. The Cleantech Venture Forum III starts on Tuesday afternoon Oct 21 with some pre-conference workshops. I’ll be presenting information about Federal technology resources. The conference gets into full swing on Wed.

The Forum program will have nearly thirty investor presentations and refinements based on participant feedback from previous events. The quality of presenting companies is excellent with the 21 private companies on show collectively having revenue of over $100 million, thereby demonstrating “market traction” for cleantech products and services, from alternative energy to water purification.

The Forum will take place in a positive climate for cleantech venturing. The $641 million invested in clean technology ventures during the first two quarters of 2003 is 22% higher than the $524 million invested over the same period last year, according to the most recent issue of the Cleantech Venture Monitor released this week. “Cleantech” doubled its venture capital market share to 8% during Q1-Q2 2003 from 4% in 2002. Nearly 100 cleantech companies were funded in the first half of 2003.

An executive summary of the most recent Cleantech Venture Monitor downloaded from
http://www.cleantechventure.com/index.cfm?pageSRC=InvestmentReports

The Cleantech III program agenda can be found at:
http://www.cleantechventure.com/index.cfm?pageSRC=Agenda

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Electric Energy Storage Applications & Technology
The EESAT 2003 meeting is in San Francisco, Oct 27-29. I plan to attend on the 28-29th. Hope to see you there. Complete information at http://www.sandia.gov/eesat

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The Wall Street Journal seems to be taking an increasing interest in energy technology.

A. There was a good report Sept. 5 on Cold Fusion, describing a conference the previous week with 150 scientists who continue to make progress, despite the inability to publish, get funding, or avoid risks to careers. The article concludes that whether or not the science is “pathological” (as the establishment holds), the failure to permit or provide honest scrutiny of the evidence certainly is a worse refutation of the scientific method.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106270936017252700,00.html

— Check out UFTO.COM’s “recommended reading” item on Cold Fusion
http://www.ufto.com/documentspublic/uftoextras.html#”Excess%20Heat:%20Why%20Cold%20Fusion%20Research%20Prevailed”

B. Gasification, the basis of the Billion $ DOE plan for “FutureGen”, i.e. zero- emission coal power plant of the future, and CO2 capture/sequestration, are both actually being profitably performed at a decades-old powerplant that was nearly scrapped long ago.
“From Obsolete to Cutting Edge” October 15. In 1988, Basin Electric Power Cooperative took over an experimental facility known as the Weyburn Project, begun in the 70’s. They make methane from lignite, and also sell CO2 via pipeline to oil well operators, who inject it into wells to increase recovery, while possibly sequestering the CO2.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106618439869515100,00.html

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Transmission Line Sag Mitigator
Remember this. The program has made steady progress with CEC (Calif Energy Commission) funding, and it became the subject of an EPRI TC project, following full scale tests at PG&E in the summer of 2002. Developers are in negotiations with manufacturers, so they’re on their way to commercialization, and are looking for partners for business development.

Contact: Manuchehr Shir 510-594-0300 x202 m.shir@misolution.com

CEC issued a newsrelease recently:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/2003_releases/2003-10-02_line_mitigator.html.

Get the full story by downloading:
http://www.misolution.com/SLiM%20Story%209-3-03.pdf

UFTO Note 29 Jun 1999 – T Line Sag Mitigator Gets Funding; Partner Wanted
http://198.63.37.164/clients-only/uftonotes99.html

UFTO Note 01 Oct 2002 – Short Subjects (previous update)

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Passive Mechanical De-Icer
MIS has come up with another innovation for transmission lines — to mechanically prevent ice buildup on bundled conductor by delivering lateral vibration to the line. MIS has shown the initial feasibility of this approach by both dynamic simulations (using finite element methods) and by small scale testing. The central concept of this device, called the De-Icer Device (pat. pending), is that it will prevent, as opposed to remove, ice buildup. It is a passive mechanical device (no electronics) that will function on de-energized lines. It is designed to be installed between existing spacers or, in some cases, replace spacers.

Contact: Manuchehr Shir 510-594-0300 x202 m.shir@misolution.com
or Dr. Ram Adapa, EPRI, regarding the TC 650-855-8988 radapa@epri.com

http://www.epriweb.com/public/000000000001009165.pdf

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A Note to UFTO Clients:

UFTO needs feedback. Please let me know any comments or suggestions of ways I can make UFTO more valuable to you. What recent UFTO Notes have you found especially interesting? Also, visit the website and tell me how it could be enhanced. (Have you seen the new features on both the public and clients-only areas?)

Coming Soon, to an UFTO Note near you…
*** Let me know which ones you think I should do first.**

– Distributed Utility Integration Test (DUIT) Facility Opens
– Enzyme, microbial fuel cells and hydrogen
– Thermal water splitting
– More New New Solar
– Wave, tidal, ocean power
– New progress in Li polymer batteries
– Powerplant exhaust to solar biomass
– Gas-to-Liquids (GTL)..old old technology taking off

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Reinventing Corporate R&D
“Now even companies with big research budgets don’t try to invent everything in-house”

It was great to see this article in Business Week recently (September 22, 2003). It says that ” a new R&D model is emerging, dubbed open innovation. Companies of all sizes are rounding up more partners, big and small, than ever before, and they’re casting wide research nets, snapping up work at diverse corporate, government, and academic labs.” It also mentions that “P&G has 53 “technology scouts” who search beyond company walls for promising innovations.”

So! What does that remind you of??

http://www.businessweek.com/cgi-bin/register/archive.cgi?c=&y=03&w=38&h=b3850067.htm

Cold Fusion Quietly Continues

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In one of the most balanced and thorough discussions I’ve seen, the new issue Wired Magazine has a feature article this month (November, 1998, “6.11”) that reviews the history and current events of cold fusion research. “What If Cold Fusion Is Real?”, by Charles Platt, looks into the continuing work and tantalizing experimental evidence from all around the world.

A decade ago, after a brief wild explosion of world excitement, the scientific establishment was very quick to label it a fraud after numerous big labs were unable to reproduce any effect.

Today, a few hardy souls still continue the work. Many have seen excess heat and other indications of new phenomena. The difficulty is that no-one has quite figured out what makes it work sometimes and not others, a serious impediment for the reproduceability that the scientific method relies on so heavily.

The situation is complicated by the presence of a number of quacks and new agers, and a new fascination with nuclear transformation (“the end of rad waste!!”) that has divided the already small worldwide community. Still, there are respected bonafide scientists who’ve seen results and take them seriously, even if explanations are in short supply. Interestingly, it’s mostly older people who persist–younger scientists would do real damage to their professional careers by mentioning the subject. And, there’s little or no funding.

The article does a nice job of explaining the corner that cold fusion’s been painted into. Since nearly all scientific journals categorically refuse to publish anything on the subject, it’s difficult for good research on the subject to get heard. The hundreds of reported experimental observations make no difference. They are just dismissed with little or no honest scrutiny.

The best hope seems to be in the hands of a few venture-investor backed small companies, who apparently will be taken seriously only when they can put a commercial device on the market. The trouble is, there’s a lot of basic science to do first, and the very limited resources might not be able to go the whole way from lab to commercial device.

One such firm is discussed in the article, CETI, who dramatically demonstrated a device in public at the PowerGen conference in 1995. Since then, they’ve had trouble getting the same performance. They say only that their first batch of material worked, but not later ones, and they don’t know why.

Notably absent from the article is the high profile Blacklight Power (www.blacklightpower.com), which reportedly refuses all interviews, but claims to have an entirely new physics as a basis for its cold fusion process. Also missing is Eneco, the Salt Lake City firm that UFTO relies on for help in tracking developments in the field. Eneco prefers to stay out of the press, and is working quietly on its own approach.

Eneco actually helped Mr. Platt, and arranged for him to attend the ICCF-7 (7th Annual International Conference on Cold Fusion) in Vancouver, April 1998. The proceedings for this conference are now available for $50 a copy. Contact ICCF-7 c/o Eneco, 801-583-2000, fax 801-583-6245, jaeger@enecco-usa.com.

7th Intl Conf on Cold Fusion

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7th International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF-7)
April 19 – 24, 1998
Vancouver Trade & Conventional Centre
Vancouver, Canada

The study of low energy induced nuclear reactions in solids has continued to mature, and many new and compelling scientific findings are becoming known. ICCF-7 provides a unique international forum for direct interaction among top scientists in the field. The quality and diversity of on-going research and commercial implications make ICCF-7 an important event that should not be missed.

ICCF-7 Secretariat
c/o ENECO
391-B Chipeta Way
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 USA

Phone (801) 583-2000 Fax (801) 583-6245
jaeger@eneco-usa.com

COMPLETE CONFERENCE AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON LINE:
http://www.ICCF-7.org

ICCF-7 INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (IAC)
Rotating Chairperson for ICCF-7:
Mr. F. Jaeger (USA)
Honorary Co-Chairpersons Emeritus:
Dr. Martin Fleischmann (UK), Dr. Stanley Pons (France)

Committee Members:
Prof. T. Bressani (Italy), Prof. G. Preparata (Italy), Prof. H. Ikegami (Japan), Prof. N. Samsonenko (Russia), Mr. R. Machacek (Canada), Prof. C. Sanchez (Spain), Dr. M. McKubre (USA), Dr. F. Scaramuzzi (Italy), Mr. K. Namba (Japan), Dr. M. Srinivasan (India), Prof. M. Okamoto (Japan), Prof. X.Z. Li (China)

ICCF-7 LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (LOC)
Scientific Chairman: Prof. G. Miley – Univ. of Illinois
Organizing Chairman: Mr. Fred Jaeger – ENECO

Members:
Prof. P. Hagelstein – M.I.T., Prof. R. Oriani – Univ. of Minnesota, Prof Y. Kim – Purdue , Dr. T. Passell – EPRI, Dr. Y. Kucherov – ENECO, Mr. R. Machacek – Ontario Hydro, Dr. Carol Storms – Los Alamos (retired), Dr. E. Storms – Los Alamos (retired), Dr. D. Nagel – Naval Research Lab, Dr. F. Tanzella – SRI

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Sep 26, 1997 — Official call for one-page abstracts.
Nov 1, 1997 — Deadline for abstracts & registration for presenters.
Jan 1, 1998 — Conference fee increases to $500 USD.
Jan 15, 1998 — Final notification of oral or poster status.
Jan 30, 1998 — Final amendments for abstracts to be published
in ICCF-7 Program Manual and website.
Apr 19, 1998 — Deadline for final papers for inclusion in the
ICCF-7 Proceedings (distributed – Summer ’98)
Apr 19-24th — Vancouver, Canada

ICCF-7 DAILY FORMAT

08:30 – 09:10 — Invited presentation of the day’s topic.
09:10 – 09:30 — Follow-up discussion and questions.
09:30 – 09:55 — Oral presentation #1 *
09:55 – 10:20 — Morning break
10:20 – 10:45 — Oral presentation #2
10:45 – 11:10 — Oral presentation #3
11:10 – 11:35 — Oral presentation #4
11:35 – 12:00 — Oral presentation #5

12:00 – 13:30 — Lunch

13:30 – 15:00 — 15-20 oral previews of poster presenters (3-5 min/ea)
15:00 – 15:30 — Afternoon break
15:30 – 17:30 — Poster presentations

19:30 – 20:30 — Evening workshops; three nights

* Regular oral presentations will be 20 minutes followed with a 5 minute question and answer period. All oral presenters in the morning will also host a poster follow-up session in afternoon.
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REQUEST FOR HELP WITH SCHOLARSHIP FUND
November 24, 1997

Significant attention has been drawn to harmful effects that growing fossil fuel emissions have on the environment. Clearly, non-polluting alternative energy sources must be developed to maintain ecological balances and to sustain economic growth.

“Cold Fusion”, a new area of energy research, has the potential to provide economical, clean energy for the next century. The field has steadily evolved to its present form as the study of low energy induced nuclear reactions in solids. It has grown into a diversified, international area of research involving hundreds of scientists from many highly respected laboratories.

An International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF) is held every 18 months to present laboratory results and to exchange ideas for the advancement of scientific knowledge for this promising new field. The 7th international conference, ICCF-7, will be held in Vancouver, Canada next April 19th-24th.

We are seeking financial support from your organization for the ICCF-7 scholarship fund. Conference organizers want to ensure the presentation of the broadest possible peer-reviewed work, regardless of the financial ability of the presenting researcher. Every $5,000 of financial sponsorship will cover basic local expenses and fees for up to five research scientists at ICCF-7. Scholarship recipients can often obtain the balance of travel expenses from their institutes once they have early assurance that their basic local expenses are covered under our cost-sharing scholarship program.

Please let me know if your organization is willing to help fund the ICCF-7 scholarship program for presenting scientists. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, Fred Jaeger, Organizing Chairman

New News on “New Energy” (aka “Cold Fusion”)

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Subject: UFTO Note – New News on “New Energy” (aka “Cold Fusion”)
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997
From: Ed Beardsworth

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| ** UFTO ** Edward Beardsworth ** Consultant
| 951 Lincoln Ave. tel 415-328-5670
| Palo Alto CA 94301-3041 fax 415-328-5675
| http://www.ufto.com edbeards@ufto.com
————————————————————–

New News on “New Energy” (aka “Cold Fusion”)

Dr. Randell Mills, BlackLight Power Company, of Malvern, PA, is making some remarkable claims, and has attracted some prominent backers with his “Unified Theory” and devices which generate large amounts of excess “anomalous” heat.

Mills says his theory is consistent with and an extension of Maxwell’s Equations, Newton’s Laws, and Einstein’s Theories of Special and General Relativity. Whether it represents an overthrow or an extension of quantum mechanics and other aspects of modern physics will probably be hotly debated for some time to come. (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun)

Mills believes that his theory explains how his devices generate excess heat, and is pursuing an aggressive business development plan. Dr. Mills and his company, formerly called HydroCatalysis Power Corporation, have been known in the cold fusion community for some time, but his story is now attracting a great deal more attention (a situation not unlike what happened two years ago with Clean Energy Technology, or CETI, with their Patterson Cells–which story also continues to unfold).

BlackLight Power’s story is explained in considerable detail at the company’s web site, at: http://BlackLightpower.com

Meanwhile, ENECO* in Salt Lake City has a very different approach, and has kept a very low profile. Their device is actually quite similar to the BlackLight Power cell–a hot hydrogen gas cell that does not require electrical input and can be operated at high temperature (a fundamental limitation of liquid-based systems).

ENECO’s theory of how the cell operates, however, is very different. Dr. Mills revolutionary theory predicts a new lower energy state for the Hydrogen atom, which he calls the hydrino, and it is a transition to this state, that he says accounts for the release of energy. The subsequent formation of a molecule of two hydrinos (mass 4) is also hypothesized.

ENECO’s explanation involves a form of low energy-induced slow nuclear fission in a lattice, which produces heat, helium, and very small amounts of infra-red and ultraviolet emissions. This explanation for the observed phenomena conforms to all known scientific principles, and it also can consistently explain why the many attempts by others to replicate Pons and Fleischman’s results may or may not have been successful.

Neither company believes that the phenomena first announced in 1989 by Pons and Fleischman, and the subject of such intense controversy ever since, are due to “fusion”. Instead, each has developed an explanation involving different new and controversial scientific concepts.

Both companies have filed for patents for their devices, based on their respective theories. Both are seeking investment capital to fund their respective attempts to scale up and build a several kilowatt device within the next year. The company with the correct theory will probably be more successful. The race is on.

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*ENECO prepared a proprietary Review of State of the Art of Cold Fusion, offered for sale last year–with discount for UFTO members–see UFTO Note Sept. 20, 1996.

ENECO is also the sister company of Thermodyne, which is developing a new type of thermal to electric energy converter — see UFTO Note March 21, 1997.
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CONTACTS:

Fred Jaeger, ENECO
Salt Lake City, UT 801-583-2000, jaeger@eneco-usa.com

Randell Mills, BlackLight Power, Inc.
Malvern, PA 610 651-4938, rmills@BlackLightpower.com

Cold Fusion Survey Offered

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Subject: UFTO NOTE — Cold Fusion Survey Offered
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 13:55:58 -0700
From: Ed Beardsworth

————————————————————–
| *** UFTO *** Edward Beardsworth * Consultant
| 951 Lincoln Ave. tel 415-328-5670
| Palo Alto CA 94301-3041 fax 415-328-5675
————————————————————–

ENECO Offers Survey of Cold Fusion

ENECO has completed a comprehensive review of the entire field of cold fusion, with emphasis on the current status of technical and commercial developments worldwide.

Sections of the report include:
– Summary of the history of cold fusion, with key dates and chronology
– Overview of the field
– Technological Approaches, covering more than a dozen major categories of devices,
phenomenology and theory.
– Review of Key Players and Institutions
– Overview of Intellectual Property
– Recommendations and Proposal for Pooled Research Program

The intent of the survey is to raise the information level of utilities and other interested corportations to the point where they can intelligently decide whether to participate in ENECO’s ’97 Pooled Research Program. This program takes a very practical approach to use pooled funds to provide each participating organization with early, direct, hands-on experience with leading candidates for commercial applications. It will fund specific experiments and tests to confirm or deny key technical and scientific claims, thus positioning participants to establish their own business approaches and strategies with the benefit of superior information.

Price: $10,500 (Reduced to $9,500 for UFTO members, by special arrangement.)

Price includes three bound copies of the complete confidential report for the same organization.

Also included is an update/supplement to report on developments at the very important Cold Fusion conference, October ’96 in Japan.

A more detailed description of the Survey and ENECO are available on request.
Contact ENECO at 801-583-2000, and ask for the Cold Fusion Survey Information Package. (Identify yourself as an UFTO member.)

Bulletin #19 – Washington DC, Tampa Meeting, UFTO Topics, Cold Fusion

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In this issue: . . . . . . . . .
Washington DC Tampa Meeting UFTO Topics Cold Fusion

1. My Washington trip was packed with meetings, including the “Technology Partnering” conference. A number of interesting developments, as outlined in the attached notes.

2. The Breakthrough Conference is taking shape nicely. EPRI and EEI are now sponsors, and we’re working on DOE. (See the ad on page 45 in the February Electrical World.) You’ll receive a registration package in the mail soon.

PLEASE: respond to me about who’ll come to Tampa, and in particular who will be coming to the UFTO MEETING on Wednesday April 24. And if dinner on Thursday sounds like a good idea. And on what we want to accomplish at our meeting.

3. I may be able to announce one or two new UFTO members soon. (It’s all but certain, but I’d prefer to be certain.)

4. Filemaker! Enclosed is an example of a “cut & paste” topic report on NOx and SOx, from the new UFTO Topics database, now in “pre-prerelease.”

Alpha testers wanted. Prerequisite — familiarity with, and your own copy of, Filemaker Pro 3.0 for PC or Mac.

It’s important that everyone understand that this is strictly “as-is” software. You may prefer to simply ask me to do topic reports for you, rather than deal with the database yourself.

5. Many of you asked for copies of the Cold Fusion tapes and materials. Any thoughts or reactions?

ENECO, the company that provided the 1994 CBC tape and put together the booklet, is exploring the possibility of doing a state-of-the-art survey for interested parties, on a multi-client basis. A two page proposed outline is enclosed. The price hasn’t been set yet –that will depend on the number of subcribers and what their interests are. Probably in the neighborhood of $5K-$10K. Would your company want to participate? Let me know if you’re interested, and I can put you in touch with them.

6. See some new “UFTO Tech Nuggets” attached.

7. Upcoming events you might want to know about. (I could attend for you if you want.)
I have a little more information on each of these meetings if you want it….

• 1st Annual Conference of SMES Customer Interest Group, April 15-16, Chicago.
A half dozen manufacturers, Sandia and the US Air Force will be making presentations. Call 608-831-5773.

• DOE/EPRI Green Pricing Workshop, April 11-12, Golden CO. Open to anyone.

Call Lori Adams, EPRI Conferences, 415-855-8763.

 

• World Renewable Energy Congress, Denver, June 15-21. Call NREL 303-275-4358

 

UFTO Tech Nuggets

March 7, 1996

 

• Biochemical Upgrading of Petroleum (“BUP”)

Work at Brookhaven National Lab has shown that certain catalysts can effectively upgrade crude and processed oils in ways that have significant economic potential. These processes enchance lighter oil fractions, reduce organic sulfur and nitrogen content, and remove trace metals such as nickel and vanadium.

To date, processes have been demonstrated at 50 gallon bench scale. BNL, assisted by the Long Island Research Institute(LIRI), has set up a company and is seeking industrial partners. They’ve prepared a detailed commercialization plan that discusses a wide range of potential applications.

The Technology can be applied in upstream and downstream processing of oils and oil fractions, and in pretreatment of oils in many applications. Calculations show net financial benefits (i.e. after capital and operating costs) of $0.30 to $1.20 per barrel.from changing high sulfur oil into low sulfur oil.

Related technology can also treat waste streams from geothermal energy production, recovering valuable trace metals and converting geothermal sludges into commercially viable products.

Contact Ed Beardsworth, UFTO, or Phil Palmedo, LIRI, 516-361-6800

 

• Lighting Technology Screening Matrix (LTSM) is a software tool the calcualtes the life-cycle cost of an existing fixture and potential energy efficient replacements. Funded by the DOE Federal Energy Management Program, it was developed at the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL). It can be ordered through the Battelle Memorial Institute at 1-800-451-3543. The price is $499.

• Small Gas Turbines for Distributed Generation Workshop, was held in San Francisco in February 1995, sponsored by EPRI, GRI, PG&E, and DOE. The 2-volume proceedings are available on request from Sargent and Lundy. Call J. N. Darguzas, 312-269-6902.

• CAGT? ICAD? Do these acronyms mean anything to you? See attached letter….