Huizenga Post Script I

This may become a series, or it may not.  I mentioned earlier today in the Morning Summary the idea I had to go back and look at Huizenga's book because I thought he may have left something out.  It so happens that I found several pages in the book that relates to the point in which I will try to make here.

One of Huizenga's criticisms of Flieischmann and Pons (F&P) "cold fusion" theories is the assertion by the two electrochemists that fusion could take place under sufficient pressure in the lattice.  The pressure claimed by F&P was 10^27 th atmospheres, which seems rather extravagant and unnecessary, if I may be so bold.

Here is what I mean: according to the Ideal Gas Law, all other things kept equal, temperature and pressure are related.  That is, if you vary pressure by the very large number mentioned above, you will have to vary temperature as well.  The equation is

PV = nRT

Where P is equal to pressure
           V is equal to volume
           n  is equal to number of particles (or moles)
          R  is a constant which never varies anyway
and    T  which is temperature

a little math will verify my point.  If pressure (P) increases, while V (volume) remains constant, while on the other side of the equation, the number of particles (n) times the constant as a quantity remains constant- in order to keep the equality, T must increase proportionately.

My understanding of fusion is that you need temperatures of about a billion degrees kelvin in order to allow fusion.  Perhaps this is incorrect, but that is my understanding.  Since 1 billion equals 10^9, it is quite a bit less than 10 ^27 atmospheres mentioned above.  Moreover, Huizenga admits to 10^4th increase in pressure, so that may bring the energy requirements down.

Huizenga never discusses energy of the system, in which the temperature is measuring.   He is leaving this out, assuming, I suppose that since it is at room temperature, energy is not being supplied to the system.  But that is a significant oversight, if true.  Since the system is an electrolysis unit, the energy being supplied is good old electricity.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, temperature and electron volts are related by an equation.  It so happens that a modest amount of electron volts can translate into very large degrees kelvin (temperature).  If only a small amount of electricity is applied, it can be equivalent to a billion degrees kelvin!  Now, if you were to look at the Ideal Gas Law equation, in order to keep the equation balanced, you would have to increase pressure dramatically.  It wouldn't bring the number up to 10^27th atmospheres, but it would be more than what Huizenga says.  In other words, fusion is not out of the question.

As with all fusion devices, control is what we are looking for.  With Polywell fusion, the mere achievement of fusion is not enough.  This has been achievable for decades.  But what has not been achieved is net energy.  If, by any chance, F&P may have come up with an ingenious method to confine the gas so that it can be fused by electrolytic means, we cannot disregard it.   In other words, Huizenga can be wrong.