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I stumbled across this website not so long ago and have recently read an article about the work. Was wondering if any scientists on this board would care to comment on this apparently new way to produce energy from hydrogen. I'm pretty sure it has met with a lot of derision so far, but I don't know enough about this to comment.

http://www.blacklightpower.com/

Article I read:

http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=6bcdajsb

Edited by Axiomatic
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I read a space.com article on the same subject today. It was light on details but big on hype. Mills claims that dark matter is actually hydrinos. He also claims to be able to produce hydrinos and manipulate them to create energy. He shows a picture of a capsule full of what he calls "hydrino hydride".

His technology for creating, observing, and manipulating hydrinos/dark matter must be astonishingly sophisticated, given that one of the top goals in astrophysics is the capability of directly observing/interacting with dark matter. Astrophysicists have found that dark matter is so weakly interacting that it would be rare or impossible to directly observe, let alone manipulate.

But more likely he is just a nutter collecting money from fools.

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But more likely he is just a nutter collecting money from fools.

Indeed. This is obviously a crackpot theory, I've seen similar claims made by misunderstood Galileos for many years and curiously enough you never hear that they result in practical machines and applications (surprise, surprise). No doubt they'll tell you that that is the result of a conspiracy of all those evil scientists who thwart the poor genius. Often they have a fake "demo" model, just like those of the "inventors" of perpetuum mobiles.

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Indeed. This is obviously a crackpot theory ...

From http://www.blacklightpower.com/press.shtml

July 30, 2009

Blacklight Power Signs Sixth Utility Deal To Produce Power From Water

Venture Beat

"BlackLight Power, one of the more controversial and mysterious cleantech solutions on the market, announced today that it has landed a commercial licensing deal with Maryland-based utility Akridge Energy. This is the sixth such contract for the company, which claims to have technology capable of generating energy using only water.[…]. But it's hard to assume false advertising when now six utilities have signed on to distribute the power it creates."

March 23, 2010

Press Release: BlackLight Power, Inc. Announces First Commercial License in Europe with GEOENERGIE SpA, Energy Subsidiary of Geogreen - Non-Exclusive License to Produce Up To 750 MW of Continuous Power

They keep raking in business. I have Mill's book. It's over my head so I can't say where he is wrong.

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They keep raking in business.

Good luck finding any information on "Akridge Energy" - according to BLP, it's actually a real estate company. Googling for the word "energy" on akridge.com returns no relevant results.

It appears that BLP is using the word "utility" ambiguously when they refer to Akridge as a "Maryland-based utility".

Edited by brian0918
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  • 2 months later...

I am no physicist, and fail to understand 100% of what is claimed on the website - however I am also pretty sure that it is fake. There is a lot of technobabble as pointed out and stuff that just doesnt really seem to make a whole lot of sense at all.

Also - if this thing had as much potential as claimed, there is the question of why this isnt huge news and why companies do not seem to be clamoring all over it. As usual it is probably because this is a hoax to defraud investors that are not that scientifically savvy or the "inventor" is deluded.

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I am no physicist, and fail to understand 100% of what is claimed on the website - however I am also pretty sure that it is fake. There is a lot of technobabble as pointed out and stuff that just doesnt really seem to make a whole lot of sense at all.

Also - if this thing had as much potential as claimed, there is the question of why this isnt huge news and why companies do not seem to be clamoring all over it. As usual it is probably because this is a hoax to defraud investors that are not that scientifically savvy or the "inventor" is deluded.

Yup, I have since come to the same conclusion after going through their website a bit more thoroughly.

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Sounds like he ripped off Mass Effect. His ideas remind me of Element Zero and how it has the ability to manipulate mass/energy.

LOl - Dwaynes Rule Number 7 of Dubious Sounding Technology - if it reminds you of a video game , someone is probably playing games with you.

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I'm a physics major. While I haven't had time to review the website in detail, I can say that 1) there are some things on there I don't know enough about to judge without further study 2) his explanation of the double-slit experiment seems like it might not be obviously flawed 3) if he were able to create (somehow) a hydrogen atom with a higher binding energy than usual, that would in fact create energy. How much energy? Well honestly I have no idea, as I don't know how close to the proton his theory allows the electron to go, but it could be quite substantial.

Though I tend to think its a crackpot idea with lots of physics terms thrown in.

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Though I tend to think its a crackpot idea with lots of physics terms thrown in.

The two unique things about Mill's crackpottery are 1) his spiel is not obviously flawed and 2) he is not a lone crackpot, but has a lab with other PhD's working for him and pulls in licensees for his Real-Soon-Now technology. He is a really, really good crackpot.

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  • 2 months later...

Perhaps he has actually discovered something, and invented a means of making a use of it, but is wrong about exactly what it is he has discovered. This has happened many times throughout scientific history. In many situations, you don't need to understand something completely in order to use it in some way.

That being said, it seems a little strange to admit that you aren't educated enough to debunk his claims only to call him a crackpot anyway.

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  • 9 months later...

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