Deuterium gas charging experiments with Pd powders for excess heat evolution

ENVR 51

Akira Kitamura, kitamura@maritime.kobe-u.ac.jp1, Takayoshi Nohmi1, Yu Sasaki1, Tatsuya Yamaguchi1, Akira Taniike1, Akito Takahashi, akito@sutv.zaq.ne.jp2, Reiko Seto2, and Yushi Fujita2. (1) Graduate School of Maritime Sciences, Kobe University, 5-1-1 Fukaeminamimachi, Higashinadaku, Kobe, 658-0022, Japan, (2) Technova Inc, 1-1-1 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyodaku, Tokyo, 100-0011, Japan
We have started a series of deuterium (and hydrogen) gas charging experiments with Pd nano-powders to study possible heat evolution and D (or H)-loading characteristics by using a revised Arata-type twin system. The twin system is made of identically designed A1 and A2 systems, in each of which an inner gas-charging cell with flow calorimeter and an outer vacuum chamber are set up. The A1 system is used for D-gas foreground run, and the A2 system is for the H-gas blank run. Our first data with two commercially available Pd powders (0.1 micron Pd particles and Pd-black) are already meaningful. Experiments with Pd-black sample gave 2.6 kJ/g-Pd excess heat for the second phase of 1,300 minutes operation and D/Pd=0.85 for the first phase (about 100 min interval from start) with zero D-gas pressure. No excess heat with H-gas charging was seen with H/Pd=0.78. Experiments with 0.1 micron Pd powders gave D/Pd =0.45 for the first phase and much less excess heat for the second phase. We are extending experiments for nano-fabricated Pd samples to be reported at the meeting. In situ radiation monitors are for neutron and gamma-ray. Elemental analysis of "before/after" samples is done by PIXE. 4He detection will be also tried.