Industrial Heat Acquires E-Cat Technology, Opening Commercial LENR Frontier

A major development in the story of LENR (low energy nuclear reactions, aka 'cold fusion') broke on Friday afternoon from Raleigh, North Carolina, with start-up Industrial Heat, LLC's announcement via a press release that the company had acquired the rights to Andrea Rossi's E-Cat technology. The E-Cat is an energy production technology that produces industrial levels of heat through a proprietary LENR system using nickel and hydrogen. E-Cat inventor Andrea Rossi has for a long time stated that he had sold the rights to his technology to a US partner, but has never named them due to confidentiality agreements. This is the first public announcement of his partner's identity.

Industrial Heat, LLC is a new company founded by JT Vaughn and Tom Darden (and other unnamed investors), both of private equity firm Cherokee Industrial Partners, also based in Raleigh. For years Cherokee has been in the business of investing in and cleaning up brownfield sites, and has a strong record of commitment to environmentally friendly business practices.

Related article: Andrea Rossi’s Official ECAT Website Ready to Accept Orders for 1MW Unit

The press release emphasizes the environmental benefits of E-Cat technology, stating that 'A primary goal of the company is to make the technology widely available, because of its potential impact on air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and biomass.' Industrial Heat spokesman JT Vaughn remarked that 'The world needs a new, clean and efficient energy source. Such a technology would raise the standard of living in developing countries and reduce the environmental impact of producing energy.'

LENR/cold fusion has been a very controversial topic ever since it was first brought to the attention of the world by chemists Pons and Fleischmann in 1989. LENR advocates have always claimed that it is possible to create a system that can produce more energy than is input into it -- but this anomalous heat effect has often been very difficult to achieve, and many people have been skeptical of the reality of the phenomenon. Andrea Rossi's contribution to the field has been to apparently devise a way to amplify and control this effect so that useful levels of excess heat can be produced consistently and in a stable manner.

Related article: What Could be Bigger than Shale -- How about LENR?

One of the most significant aspects of this announcement is the fact that Industrial Heat is fully convinced that Rossi's technology works. The press release mentions their satisfaction with independent E-Cat testing reports, and their own investigation of the technology. I believe this announcement represents a major milestone in the history of energy production, with a serious business organization publicly getting behind a new form of clean and abundant nuclear energy.

Not only does this announcement represent a crucial endorsement of the E-Cat, it also indicates that a major new frontier has been opened up in the field of energy production technology. My expectation is that before long we will see widespread and serious research undertaken around the world in science and industry to more fully understand and harness the mysterious and seemingly very powerful forces that take place in these low energy nuclear reactions. We could now be seeing the emergence of an important and viable alternative to both fossil fuels and nuclear fission.

By. Frank Acland, Publisher, E-Cat World