EE Times Award finalist - a noble gas engine?

[tashirosgt]

The EE Times lists "PlasmaERG" as a finalist in their 2010 "ACE Award" for "Most Promising Renewable Energy".
http://www.eetimes-ace.com/finalists.php

The "PlasmaERG" company claims to make an engine whose fuel is a mixture of noble gases. http://plasmiccontrol.com/contact.html

The engine traces its origins to the work of con-man Joseph Papp.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/comments/papp.html

[HenrikOlsen]

Just checked their website.
Wow! That triggers just about every scam detector I have.

[jokergirl]

Fuel... noble gases... does not compute.

[Starfury]

Could you please explain how a nonreactive gas can be used as a fuel? As jokergirl said, it doesn't compute.

[tashirosgt]

I don't take the company's claims seriously. As to why EE Times lists them as a finalist, perhaps there were only 5 entrants.

[TrAI]

Could you please explain how a nonreactive gas can be used as a fuel? As jokergirl said, it doesn't compute.

Well, I think the basic idea is that the gas is not a fuel at all, it is a plasma gas, like in a plasma cutter, only instead of using the expansion of the gas to create a high velocity stream of plasma, the expansion is contained in sealed chambers in this engine, and the expansion is supposed to push the piston on that chamber down, then the plasma becomes gas again, and contracts. So basicaly it is the expansion and contraction of a gas transitioning to and from a plasma state that this thing is based on.

Apparently they have some factor that can be added and removed at will to induce the transition, what they call a catalyst, I suppose the idea is that the gas is electricaly ionized by a low current(so it wouldn't be a high current arc discharge like in a plasma cutter), then this catalyst is added, this causes a powerful expansion, then the catalyst is removed, and the plasma goes back to being an ionized gas.

I am not sure what this catalyst is, or if it even is an actual catalyst at all, I have a feeling it might be something electromagnetic, that is, using RF to create the plasma, as there is mention of a RF generator.

The plasma would be hot, they mention 5 times the surface of the sun, but that the engine itself doesn't get very hot, I suppose the idea is that the gas doesn't have a large thermal mass, so the heat dissipates quickly. That would be required for operation I suppose.

But take this with the standard disclaimer, I am not a motor or plasma engineer, and these pages are really hard to read and navigate, so I can't say I did more than just skim the text...

Grrr... I don't understand why these groups that claim to have some super engine or generator, or that try to put forward some ATM idea must always have sites with such appaling design... Just look at how wide the page is in relation to the character size, and it doesn't scale or wrap to the window size, the underlined texts in differing colors and the placement of the navigation thingy and stuff, it's like something from before web-design was invented... One gets brainstrain from trying to understand what they are talking about and eye strain from reading the stuff...

Is it some sort of attempt at converting the reader by some devious overflow attack, the Snow Crash of ATM theorists?

[HenrikOlsen]

I think it's an attempt at overloading the stupidity detector so it won't notice how stupid the ideas promoted are and how stupid you'd have to be to pour money into it.

[Strange]

They seem very proud of the controller and spend a lot of time on unnecessary details. Presumably hoping people will not notice that there is no power source...

[Van Rijn]

Just checked their website.
Wow! That triggers just about every scam detector I have.

The contact page was hilarious.

I don't feel sorry for anyone taken in by that.