"Free" Energy

Has anyone else out there been following the developments of a company called BlackLight Power, Inc.? Its CEO, Dr. Randy Mills (who is actually a medical doctor) claims to have developed a revolutionary method of generating power. I know, free energy claims these days are as numerous witch doctors’ cure-all elixirs were at the turn of the 20th century. The problem is apparently a good number of people are taking this one seriously. He has raised over 30 million dollars in funding and has had some of his findings peer reviewed. I can’t seem to find a good debunking of his process. Most physicist just reject the whole thing outright, the whole process is just too fantastic. I tend to agree. It sounds too much like a sales pitch to me.

Here’s the general scheme: using some fancy catalyst hydrogen reacts in a plasma phase reaction to form 1) a “small” hydrogen atom (that is hydrogen with lower potential than conventional ground state) and 2) copious amounts of energy. As if clean, cheap, and abundant energy wasn’t enough, these small hydrogen atoms can be used to form countless novel compounds in an entirely new branch of chemistry.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see free energy as much as anyone, but this just sounds way way way too good to be true. More info can be found by a web search of randy mills or blacklight power or alternatively at blacklightpower.com. This is my first post to the SDMB. I know it’s a bit of an obscure topic but I’d love to hear what this wonderful learned community has to say about the matter.

Welcome to the board!

IANAS, but I’ve played one on TV.

The idea of “smaller-than-normal” atoms seems like the first clue of bologna here.

The second clue of bologna is that the Government or some Very Big Energy Concern hasn’t bought them out, or invested with them.

Here’s a link presenting more skeptical (actually, more objective) views of BLP’s claim. I haven’t had time to read through it all or check all the links yet, but it looks interesting. I was surprised at the size of the facility BLP has.

That link has some pretty juicy stuff in it! My favorite: