Jovion Corporation Gets Patent for Zero Point Energy Extraction

* item 10 – An array of parallel Casimir Channels with conducting strips
* item 22 – A pump for providing gas through the tunnels
* item 24 – something to capture the emitted energy – a heat sink
* item 26 – something to convert heat to electricity a thermal solar cell

Jovion Corp is trying to extract energy from the reservoir of “zero point energy” using Casimir cavities. One proposed device would generate up to 21.5 kilowatts of heat from sugar cube sized device. The heat would need to be captured and converted to electricity. Micro-gap thermal photovoltaics could match up well for this application to convert 50% or more of the heat to electricity. NOTE: This is a funded company that is a technology spin-off of research from the University of Colorado.

UPDATE:
From Peswiki

As of Feb. 4, 2009, the company has gone through $200,000 in funding, partially from POCi, as well as from DARPA and some private investors.

The POCi funding covers the design, construction and testing of a practical and scalable energy harvesting system. The funding is contingent on the satisfactory achievement of certain scientific proof of principle milestones relating to a prototype Casimir cavity device as described in a current research grant to Dr. Garret Moddel, Professor in CU-Boulder’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an inventor of the technology.

The patent is based primarily on papers published in the journal Physical Review by Hal Puthoff in 1987 and Timothy Boyer in 1975.

Bernard Haisch, who is a co-inventor, is quick to point out that this is all purely speculative at this point and that they have not yet been able to prove anything in the laboratory. The sporadic signals they have seen can’t be ruled out as experimental error. That said, the model is still “well worth pursuing”.

It is a “high risk / high gain” venture, he said, wanting to avoid the common mistake of overselling and under-delivering.

They are presently (as of Feb. 4, 2009) looking for major funding of around $10 million to carry out more sophisticated testing.

END UPDATE

Jovion Corporation of Boulder aims to develop and commercialize a device for extracting energy from the reservoir of “zero point energy” that has been shown to fill all of space. The Jovion device would employ numerous Casimir cavities, consisting of closely spaced metal plates within which a range of electromagnetic modes are excluded due to quantization of the electromagnetic field. The harvested energy would be in the form of electromagnetic radiation and could in principle be converted directly into electrical power through the incorporation of solar cells. The POCi funding covers the design, construction and testing of a practical and scalable energy harvesting system. The funding is contingent on the satisfactory achievement of certain scientific proof of principle milestones relating to a prototype Casimir cavity device as described in a current research grant to Dr. Garret Moddel, Professor in CU-Boulder’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an inventor of the technology.

A proposed device:

10cm X 10 cm parallel plates separated by 10 micron non-conducting strips aligned to form 5000 Casimir strips. Gas flow rate of 10 cm/second would generate 21-210 watts. A stacked set of 10 or more layers could yield 210 to 2100 watts (thermal) for a 10X10X10 cm block.

Another more powerful proposed device:

A one cubic centimeter “sugar cube” size block with 1.3 billion tunnels would generate 2150 to 21500 watts (thermal). The 0.1 micron tunnels could be assembled a layer at a time using microchip lithography and then assembled into stacks. Other means of manufacturing the channels could be possible.

Jovion Corp has been awarded a patent.

United States Patent 7,379,286 Haisch and Moddel
Quantum vacuum energy extraction Patent

The 21 page patent is here

A system is disclosed for converting energy from the electromagnetic quantum vacuum available at any point in the universe to usable energy in the form of heat, electricity, mechanical energy or other forms of power. By suppressing electromagnetic quantum vacuum energy at appropriate frequencies a change may be effected in the electron energy levels which will result in the emission or release of energy. Mode suppression of electromagnetic quantum vacuum radiation is known to take place in Casimir cavities. A Casimir cavity refers to any region in which electromagnetic modes are suppressed or restricted. When atoms enter into suitable micro Casimir cavities a decrease in the orbital energies of electrons in atoms will thus occur. Such energy will be captured in the claimed devices. Upon emergence form such micro Casimir cavities the atoms will be re-energized by the ambient electromagnetic quantum vacuum. In this way energy is extracted locally and replenished globally from and by the electromagnetic quantum vacuum. This process may be repeated an unlimited number of times. This process is also consistent with the conservation of energy in that all usable energy does come at the expense of the energy content of the electromagnetic quantum vacuum. Similar effects may be produced by acting upon molecular bonds. Devices are described in which gas is recycled through a multiplicity of Casimir cavities. The disclosed devices are scalable in size and energy output for applications ranging from replacements for small batteries to power plant sized generators of electricity

Jovion plans to use MEMS devices or polymer sheets to form the small Casimir cavities.

Francis Roarty [Unknown Qualifications/Background] Interpretation
Francis Roarty believes and writes that the Jovion work is closely related to Blacklight Powers Hydrinos. Francis also wrote up his description at the science blog.

Francis seems to at least have read the work of Blacklight Power and the University of Colorado researcher at Jovion closely. They are both talking about reducing electron orbits using previously unknown means. The reasons being given about how these changes are occurring are very different. The University of Colorado reasoning is based on quantum mechanics while Blacklight Power applies a variation on classical mechanics.

The physical result of energy production can end up being the same even if only one of the explanations is right. The experiments could work even if both explanations are substantially wrong or incomplete.

Francis has a third interpretation of why the increased energy could be produced:

What is very clear is that a new branch of science is being born. This new field leverages chemical reactions performed in exclusion fields created by closely spaced metal plates. These exclusion fields are recognized by both QED theory and The Casimir effect. The two theories dispute whether closely spaced plates are pulled together electro-statically or pushed together by virtual particles. The hydrino neatly bypasses the argument because both theories agree that bracing the plates apart forms a permanent exclusion field where longer wavelength vacuum fluctuations are restricted. It is this property that converts the hydrogen atom into a hydrino not a chemical reaction. Blacklight Power (BLP) and Cal-Tech University of Colorado both claim diffusing hydrogen atoms through the field allows them to fall to a sub zero state. I believe that University of Colorado and BLP wrongly attribute energy emission to this falling orbital. I am convinced the orbital energy is unchanged, it is the lower ratio of large to small virtual particles in the exclusion field effecting the micro gravity well of the atom. If there are more small virtual particles than large virtual particles keeping the orbital away from the proton then it is actually the boundary that bends and the electron simply remains stationary relative to the boundary!

The energy gains reported can only be accounted for logically if a covalent bond is formed between 2 atoms while inside this exclusion field. If not the atoms will simply return to their original axis or radius while exiting the field without claiming any energy as it unbends along the boundary condition back to what we call zero state in normal space. The covalent bond is the knot we need to rectify the change in boundary conditions while exiting the field. IF you form a molecule while in this state you release energy AND you lock the orbitals together so that they can no longer translate freely back to normal space. This forces the normally chaotic virtual particles to organize and tear the bond apart by its’ orbitals when it tries to exit the field. This then requires nature to resupply the hydrogen atoms to monatomic energy levels.

In the real world these plates are realized as cavities that are mechanically or chemically formed. Cal Tech University of Colorado uses stacks of metal plates drilled with arrays of sub micron holes. BLP uses skeletal catalysts like Rayney nickel which are cavities chemically leached out of the softer AL metal in a Nickel – AL alloy

FURTHER READING
Google search on Jovion Corporation references

Calphysics Institute site

Calphysics zero point energy page