ENG8: Scam or really a cold fusion cell ?

[aidan.f]

Serious post, as a friend has  'invested a tiny amount that has grown 50 x'.
All the hallmarks of a scam to me despite the nice website with university logos  peer reviews and list of references.
If I'm right I need to advise Paul to keep his hands in his pockets.
https://eng8.energy/energicell/

[Adam]

Seems to be a scam.  The peer reviews are probably just for their electrical wiring safety.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fusion/comments/17mszx1/news_is_all_aflutter_about_eng8_and_their_new/

[JonBuoy]

I had a quick look at the people on their 'About us' page and saw a lot of people with finance/marketing/investor relations backgrounds and not a great deal of science/technology/engineering.

[rogerzilla]

It sounds like utter bollocks to me, and just another variant on the cold fusion idea that has been selling snake oil for decades.

A heat pump also appears to produce more energy than it consumes, but the energy produced (really moved from the environment into the home) is low-grade heat that can't be used to make electricity.  There have also been "cold fusion" devices in the past where a net energy gain was actually coming from the materials in the equipment being burnt up.

[Tim Hall]

I had a quick look at the people on their 'About us' page and saw a lot of people with finance/marketing/investor relations backgrounds and not a great deal of science/technology/engineering.

Haslen Back, down as founder and BDO, is a convicted fraudster.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/british-contractor-agrees-plead-guilty-wire-fraud-conspiracy-related-iraq-reconstruction

I see on their sketch/diagram of their wonder gadget that they've turned Ingress Protection all the way up to eleven.

Electronics Box IP76

. Which is nice.

[Pickled Onion]

It's clearly 100% bollocks, just a flashier website of the same thing that's been circulating on the internet for decades.

I had a quick look at the people on their 'About us' page and saw a lot of people with finance/marketing/investor relations backgrounds and not a great deal of science/technology/engineering.

I did a quick google on the CEO. Her last real job was selling clothes from a home business in Moscow 20 odd years ago. Since then she's been forming and dissolving a series of small companies in the UK, Spain and Gibraltar, many of which look suspiciously like tax "planning".

I didn't see any reference to peer-reviewed papers just bragging about "patent applications", well anyone can apply* for a patent. I did spot "we went to a conference", really? Well done!

Let's face it, if it were even the slightest bit real, they wouldn't be looking for investors, they'd be fighting them off.




* They may even get one. From the CF wikipedia article: "A patent only legally prevents others from using or benefiting from one's invention. However, the general public perceives a patent as a stamp of approval, and a holder of three cold fusion patents said the patents were very valuable and had helped in getting investments."

[rogerzilla]

Would love to see the alleged physics behind it.  If they claim it's nuclear fusion, there is barely any deuterium or tritium in "tap water".   Are they detecting helium in the output?

[Pickled Onion]

I see on their sketch/diagram of their wonder gadget that they've turned Ingress Protection all the way up to eleven.

Electronics Box IP76

. Which is nice.

 

[Cudzoziemiec]

If cold fusion had really been achieved I kind think it would be all over the news. And the date would be fifteen years from whenever you're reading this.

[spesh]

To paraphrase a little something from an online compendium of science jokes...

"Hey Mike?"

"Yeah, Gabe?"

"We got a problem down on Earth. Someone's found a loophole in the physics program. They're getting energy out of nowhere."

"Again? Lemme have a look..."

<tappity clickity tappity>

"Well I'll be damned... I thought I'd fixed that cold fusion bug! All right, let me find my terminal."

<tappity clickity tap... save... compile>

"There, that ought to patch it."

[ElyDave]

It sounds like utter bollocks to me, and just another variant on the cold fusion idea that has been selling snake oil for decades.

A heat pump also appears to produce more energy than it consumes, but the energy produced (really moved from the environment into the home) is low-grade heat that can't be used to make electricity.  There have also been "cold fusion" devices in the past where a net energy gain was actually coming from the materials in the equipment being burnt up.

Yes and no, there are now several applications of high temperature heat pumps at industrial scale for process heating i.e. water/steam/hot oil as a heat transfer fluid.  Using a heat pump, which is electrically driven, to concentrate heat enough to generate steam and put it through a turbine to generate more electricity, would be an utter waste of energy.  I'm regularly advising clients against using renewable electricity to generate hydrogen to put into a gas turbine or engine - just use the fucking electricity!

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Oh well, back to dreaming of the National Lottery win..

[aidan.f]

Thanks for all the info - sent Paul the fraud conviction link...

Thanks Aidan...a sobering read..Many thanks...if it's too good to be true it probably isn't

Glad he's not been sucked in - by much -