In 1986 Randell Mills MD developed a theory that
hydrogen atoms could shrink, and release lots of energy in the process.
He called the resultant entity a "Hydrino" (little Hydrogen), and
started a company called Blacklight Power, Inc. to commercialize his
process. He published his theory in a
book he
wrote, which is available in PDF format on his
website. Unfortunately, the
book
contains so much mathematics that many people won't bother with it.
On this page I will try to present the energy related aspect of his
theory in language that I hope will be accessible to many.
According to Dr. Mills, when a hydrogen atom collides with certain
other atoms or ions, it can sometimes transfer a quantity of energy to
the other atom, and shrink at the same time, becoming a Hydrino in the
process. The atom that it collided with is called the "catalyst",
because it helps the Hydrino shrink. Once a Hydrino has formed, it can
shrink even further through collisions with other catalyst atoms. Each
collision potentially resulting in another shrinkage.
Each successive level of shrinkage releases even more energy than the
previous level. In other words, the smaller the Hydrino gets, the more
energy it releases each time it shrinks another level.
To get an idea of the amounts of energy involved, I now need to
introduce the concept of the "electron volt" (eV).
An eV is the amount of energy that a single electron gains when it
passes through a voltage drop of one volt.
Since a volt isn't much (a "dry cell" is about 1.5 volts), and the
electric charge on an electron is utterly minuscule, an eV is a very
tiny amount of energy. Nevertheless, it is a very representative
measure of the energy involved in chemical reactions.
e.g. when Hydrogen and Oxygen combine to form a water molecule, about
2.5 eV of energy is released per water molecule formed.
When Hydrogen shrinks to form a second level Hydrino (Hydrogen itself
is considered to be the first level Hydrino), about 41 eV of energy is
released. This is already about 16 times more than when Hydrogen and
Oxygen combine to form water. And it gets better from there. If that
newly formed Hydrino collides with another catalyst atom, and shrinks
again, to the third level, then an additional 68 eV is released. This
can go on for quite a way, and the amount gets bigger each time. Here
is a table of some level numbers, and the energy released in dropping
to that level from the previous level, IOW when you go from e.g. level
4 to level 5, 122 eV is released. (BTW larger level numbers represent
smaller Hydrinos).
Level
|
Energy
|
2
|
41 eV
|
3
|
68 eV
|
4
|
95 eV
|
5
|
122 eV
|
6
|
150 eV
|
7
|
177 eV
|
8
|
204 eV
|
9
|
258 eV
|
For those of you with a mathematical bent, the formula is ((2 x n) -1)
x 13.598 eV, where "n" is the level number.
(BTW the maximum level number is certainly no larger than 137, and may
well be less than that, not least because when a Hydrino gets very
small, it may undergo fusion reactions with other atoms.)
Of course, the numbers can be added up. IOW if you start with a
Hydrogen atom, and end up with e.g. a level 5 Hydrino, then you get a
total of 41 + 68 + 95 + 122 = 326 eV.
The total for any level can be calculated with the formula (n^2 -1) x
13.598 eV.
Since 2.5 eV of energy was released when a water molecule was formed,
it also takes about that much to split it apart again into H2 and
1/2 O2. However it takes about another 4.5 eV to split the H2 molecule
into 2 H atoms, ready to be shrunk into Hydrinos. Now we have used 2.5
+ 4.5 = 7 eV. If each Hydrogen atom formed from the H2 now converts to
a Hydrino, we get 2 x 41 eV = 82 eV ( > 11 times the energy needed
to split the water and H2, and this is just for shrinkage to the second
level. Any energy released through further shrinkage is a bonus.)
This means that water could be a fuel, and the oceans are full of it!
There are a few atoms that can be catalysts, however most are ions. An
ion is an atom that has lost one or more electrons.
I will indicate this with a "+" for each lost electron, e.g. Ar+ is an
atom of Argon that has lost 1 electron.
Some catalysts are (only a few are listed here, there are many more):
Catalyst
|
m
|
Comment
|
Ar+
|
1
|
Argon ion (Argon is about 1% of the air)
|
O++
|
2
|
Oxygen ion (lost two electrons)
|
K
|
3
|
Potassium atom
|
Fe
|
3
|
Iron atom
|
You may be wondering about the "m" column in the table. In all of the
text above, I have talked about shrinking the Hydrino one level at a
time. However some catalysts can shrink it more than one level at a
time. This is the "m" (for "multiple") value of the catalyst. e.g. O++
can shrink a Hydrino 2 levels in one collision, say from level 5
to level 7 directly rather than in two separate hops.
When this happens the energy released is the sum of the differences
between the levels, so for this example it is 150 + 177 = 327 eV, in
one go (see energy amounts in first table for levels 6 and 7).
Note however that not all collisions result in a shrinkage reaction, in
fact almost all don't. Usually, the atoms just bounce off one another.
All of the catalysts in the table are very common, and hence cheap.
However Oxygen usually likes to grab electrons, and become a negative
ion (O--), so making it give up two electrons instead is difficult to
do, which means that O++ is only formed at very high temperatures, or
where very energetic reactions are taking place (such as where Hydrinos
are being formed!).