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BlackLight Power Process BlackLight Power, Inc. has created a potentially commercially competitive, nonpolluting new primary source of energy that forms a prior undiscovered form of hydrogen call "hydrino". The net energy released as hydrogen forms hydrino may be two hundred times that of combustion of the hydrogen fuel with power densities comparable to those of fossil fuel combustion and nuclear power plants. As hydrogen atoms and catalyst atoms are normally found bound together as molecules or are bound in other compositions of matter, BlackLight has invented a solid fuel that uses conventional chemical reactions to generate the catalyst and atomic hydrogen at high reactant densities that in turn controllably generate significant energy in the form of heat. The chemistry was advanced with the development of chemical accelerants of the BlackLight Process to achieve an energy output overwhelmingly dominated by that of hydrino formation relative to that of the conventional chemistry. Consequently, the energy gain is limited only by the energy released by forming hydrinos relative to the energy of forming hydrogen from water, a factor of two hundred times. Thus, the hydrogen for the BlackLight Process could be obtained by diverting a fraction of the output energy of the process to power the electrolysis of water into its hydrogen and oxygen gases. With hydrogen from water as the consumable component of the solid fuel, the operating cost of BlackLight Power generators is likely to be very inexpensive. Moreover, molecular hydrino gas and novel hydrogen compounds with potential commercial applications are the by-products. The former is very stable and self-vents from the atmosphere to space due to its high buoyancy and mobility. The BlackLight Process offers a potentially efficient, clean, and versatile thermal energy source. The Company believes that widespread acceptance of power applications utilizing the BlackLight Process may dramatically reduce the enormous annual fossil fuel cost and the environmental impact to the climate, air water, and soil due to the production, handling and use of fossil fuels. Similarly, radioactive waste from nuclear plants, their tremendous infrastructure costs, and security and accident risks may also be reduced. In time, it may be possible to eliminate the use of fossil fuels altogether. Initial applications of its technology are in heating, electric power production, and cogeneration (electricity production with waste heat recovery and utilization). Heat-generating prototypes have shown the BlackLight Process to be potentially competitive with existing primary generation sources over a range of scales from micro-distributed to central power generation. The BlackLight Process thermal power source may be ideal for interfacing with commercially available electric power generating equipment. BlackLight technology has the potential to meet or surpass current operating conditions, and performance parameters, and scales linearly based on the amount of solid fuel. Thus, the BlackLight Process may be well-suited to replace the heat source for the electric utility industry. Based on the observed energy gain and successful thermal regeneration of the solid fuel, the Company believes that environmentally friendly power plants can be operated continuously as power and regeneration reactions are maintained in synchrony using commercially available equipment. The system may be self-contained except that only the hydrogen consumed in forming hydrinos need be replaced as molecular hydrino is released. Hydrogen can be obtained ultimately from the water at an insignificant rate of one-millionth of a liter per second per kilowatt electric power due to the two hundred times energy gain relative to hydrogen combustion. Based on this and other competitive advantages, new power-generation business opportunities of distributed generation and hydrogen-fuel production as a replacement for gasoline with large markets may exist even at power scales that are achievable in the near term using readily available commercial equipment. With simple systems, commercial levels of power can be generated at typical power-plant operating temperatures and at higher power densities. The power was also found to be linearly scalable. BlackLight's commercial development of the energy technologies will focus on optimization of the BlackLight Process, energy device optimization, staged scale-up of power devices, and build-out of power plants. BlackLight expects scale-up engineering activity to take place in parallel with process optimization and device optimization, and intends to significantly increase the number of engineers and scientists dedicated to commercial development. One of the activities of our engineers will be interfacing with the thousands of engineers at design, architecture, and engineering firms around the world, contracted to perform certain aspects of the development work. Based on empirical data and experience, BlackLight believes it is reasonable to scale in factors of ten to one hundred. BlackLight then intends to rely on existing technologies to convert thermal power to electric power. As BlackLight devices generate surface heat at grades comparable to existing commercial fire boxes in natural gas and coal-fired plants, existing heat-to-electric technologies such as gas turbine, micro-turbine and Sterling engines can be melded with BlackLight power cells to generate electricity, as well as space and process heat. BlackLight intends to incrementally pursue commercial development of power plants of all useful scales and applications such as heating and central, distributed, and microdistributed electrical power. This will be done through a combination of internal engineering and development, external consultants, architect and engineering (A&E) firms, and under license. BlackLight will license its process for a fee per thermal energy unit (e.g. $x per thermal kilowatt hour or $y per BTU) (see Business & Licensing). BlackLight anticipates licensees contracting for retrofit of existing plants and for turnkey plants to be built by architect and engineering firms and original equipment manufacturers. Due to the unique capabilities of our power source, new power-generation business opportunities of distributed generation and hydrogen-fuel production with large markets exist even at power scales that are achievable in the near term. In case of the latter application, consider that the average US gas station pumps about 2,000 gallons of gasoline per day corresponding to an energy equivalent of 3 MW of electricity that could be provided by using the BlackLight Process. Thus, power cells of the 1-10 MW electric scale may be a competitive solution for generating electricity locally at gas stations, for example, while also producing hydrogen gas from the electrolysis of water using the electrical output temporarily diverted from the local grid as a replacement for gasoline. The savings of avoiding transmission and distribution costs represent a considerable cost advantage that is often half the price of electricity. Considering the absence of fuel costs that is permissive of reduced complexity and costs of power-conversion equipment, lack of pollution, the ability to economically produce hydrogen on-site for use in internal combustion engines and PEM fuel cells, BlackLight represents for the first time a possibility to realize the vision of the hydrogen economy that frees the world from fossil fuels. |
Technical
Presentation - Summary Technical
Presentation Business
Presentation Technical
Papers BlackLight
Process Theory
Resources Diagram of the BlackLight Plant Process - This diagram shows how a BlackLight Reactor might power a steam turbine.
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The lower-energy atomic hydrogen product of the BlackLight Process reacts with an electron to form a hydride ion, which further reacts with elements other than hydrogen to form novel proprietary compounds called hydrino hydride compounds (HHCs). BlackLight is developing the vast class of proprietary chemical compounds formed via the BlackLight Process. Test results indicate that the properties of HHCs are rich in diversity due to their extraordinary binding energy (i.e., the energy required to remove an electron which determines the chemical reactivity and properties). Hydrino hydride ions have the potential to be as useful as carbon as a base “element.” Carbon is a base element for many useful compounds ranging from diamonds, to synthetic fibers, to liquid gasoline, to pharmaceuticals. The novel compositions of matter and associated technologies could have far-reaching applications in many industries including the chemical, lighting, computer, energetic materials, battery, propellant, surface coatings, electronics, telecommunications, aerospace, and automotive industries. BlackLight is researching and developing the following: Hydrino-terminated Silicon for Microelectronics Applications BlackLight has synthesized amorphous silicon hydride films containing hydrino that is more stable to air. Ordinary amorphous silicon hydride films are the active component of important semiconductor devices such as photovoltaics, optoelectronics, liquid crystal displays, and field-effect transistors. The published results of highly stable amorphous silicon hydride coating may advance the production of integrated circuits and microdevices by resisting the oxygen passivation of the surface. In addition, an increase in device performance and versatility is anticipated by altering the dielectric constant and band gap. Polycrystalline crystal diamond films and novel hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (HDLC) surface coatings terminated with hydrino hydride ions were synthesized using the BlackLight Process at lower combined temperature and power requirements and at a higher rate compared to conventional techniques. BlackLight believes its novel method involving generation of highly energetic species in the plasma from the BlackLight Process is a revolutionary departure from the limiting process used currently. Diamond and HDLC films have many applications such as cutting tools, thermal management of integrated circuits, optical windows, high temperature electronics, surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters, field emission displays, electrochemical sensors, composite reinforcement, microchemical devices and sensors, and particle detectors. |
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Hydride Compounds |
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A battery based on the high
stability of a class of the negatively charged hydrino hydride
ions may have an unprecedented high voltage with the advantages
of much greater power and energy density. BlackLight has analytical
data identifying extremely stable negative ions, the hydrino
hydride ions, which can stabilize positively charged ions in
highly charged states. The extraordinarily stable hydrino hydride
ions may balance the charge of the positive ions without reacting
with them and function as an electrochemical compound of an
advanced battery. At least a 10-fold increase in performance
relative to current batter technologies may eventually be possible
using BlackLight Chemicals. BlackLight’s experimental results provide strong support that special formulations of hydrino hydride ions may react to form the corresponding observed much more stable hydrogen molecule called the dihydrino molecule. The more stable the molecule, the more energy given off in its formation. Based on the measured energy difference between the resultant molecule and the starting reactant hydride ion, the energy release may be more than ten-times that of conventional energetic materials. A hydrino hydride-based propellant with the energy release per weight of many factors that of the hydrogen-combustion reaction currently used to propel the space shuttle may be transformational especially given the logarithmic dependence on fuel-weight to lift in the rocketry equation. |
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In an embodiment, the power from the BlackLight Process forms plasma (a hot, glowing, ionized gas) that represents a primary light source, as well as a primary energy source in the form of heat. Systems have been developed that harness the power primarily as light. Prototype lighting devices comprising a cell similar to a conventional light bulb but containing a catalyst of the BlackLight Process as well as a source of atomic hydrogen have produced thousands of times more light for input power using 1% the voltage compared to standard light sources. Projected into a product, these results indicate the possibility of a light that could deliver the power of conventional fluorescent and incandescent lighting, but operate off of a flashlight battery for a year without an electrical connection. The lower-energy molecular hydrogen
(designated dihydrino) having experimentally-confirmed vibration
and rotational energy levels that are at extraordinarily higher
energy levels than known molecules may be exploited as a revolutionary
laser medium. Gas lasers such as the carbon dioxide laser are
extraordinarily efficient and powerful; thus, they are ubiquitous
in industry. Essentially any simple molecule like carbon dioxide
and hydrogen can be made to emit laser light based on the fact
that each vibrates and rotates at many discrete frequencies. The
molecule can be pumped (or energetically excited) to a high vibration-rotational
level and emit laser light by cascading to an intermediate level
not ordinarily populated at the operating temperature of the gas
where the laser transition may be selected based on the laser
cavity design. A laser may be realized using cavities and mirrors
that are appropriate for the desired wavelength similar to those
of current lasers based on molecular vibration-rotational levels
such as the CO2 laser. However, an advantage exists to produce
laser light at much shorter wavelengths such as ultraviolet (UV)
and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. Such lasers have a
significant application in photolithography, the technique for
manufacturing microelectronics semiconductor devices such as processors
and memory chips. The density of integrated circuits can be increased
by a least a factor of 10 with an EUV laser which would be transformational
in a trillion dollar annual hardware market. Only a free electron
laser (FEL) appears suitable as a light source for the Next Generation
Lithography (NGL) based on EUV lithography. The opportunity may
exist with BlackLight Technology to replace a FEL that occupies
the size of a large building with a table-top laser comprising
a laser tube containing dihydrino gas that is excited by a standard
electron beam. Many other wavelengths from the infrared to soft
X-rays are possible based on the selected electronic-energy state
of the dihydrino gas of the laser medium. A soft X-ray laser has
been long sought for missile defense systems. BlackLight believes that it has demonstrated that the BlackLight Process maintained in its plasma cell may cause population inversion of the ordinary atomic hydrogen lines in the plasma cell. This further confirms that the catalytic reaction releases enormous amounts of energy to cause steady-state inversion in plasma which was not previously possible. This breakthrough of inversion is projected to be the basis of a hydrogen laser having a wide range of commercially important wavelengths that are ideal for many communications and microelectronics applications such as displays, optical sensors, laser printers and scanners, fiber optical communications, medical devices, and higher density compact disk (CD) players. A key distinguishing possibility is the realization of a blue laser since blue wavelengths can see submarines and mines from space, and permit light-of-sight and undersea telecommunications as well as many other applications. A blue laser is also possible using dihydrino as the medium, which may also be pumped by application of power such as electron-beam power. |
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