Does anyone have any links to skeptical articles on this particular claim or Andrea Rossi generally?
No skeptical articles, but your link includes a link to
the international patent application they filed on this device.
There's a few things in this application that stand out to me as signs they know they don't have a real device, and are trying to sneak it through the various patent offices.
First off, the patent is classified as C01B 3/00 under the International Patent Classification (IPC) system.
That class covers:
C01 INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
C01B NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; COMPOUNDS THEREOF
3/00 Hydrogen; Gaseous mixtures containing hydrogen; Separation of hydrogen from mixtures containing it (separation of gases by physical means B01D); Purification of hydrogen (production of water-gas or synthesis gas from solid carbonaceous material C10J; purifying or modifying the chemical compositions of combustible gases containing carbon monoxide C10K) [3]
The IPC is usually based on the broadest independent claims (the part of a patent that legally defines their patent protection, or the desired protection in the case of a application for patent). That suggests to me that they've written their claims in such as way as to obscure the "cold fusion" aspects of their work. Note that, as classified, it would be examined by a chemist, who might not know much about fusion, and the cold fusion claims in particular.
Looking at claim 1, my suspicions are confirmed:
1. A method for carrying out an isothermal reaction of nickel and hydrogen, characterized in -that said method comprises injecting hydrogen into a metal tube filled by a nickel powder, even of nanometric dimensions, or nickel granules or bars, in a high temperature and pressurized hydrogen gas saturated environment, thereby generating energy.
Notice there is no mention of where the "energy" comes from, and of course it's possible for a chemical reaction to be able to produce energy. In fact, the word "fusion" isn't used anywhere in the claims. There's an allusion to fusion in claim 15:
15. An apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in that said exothermal reaction is a multiple exothermal reaction, adapted to provide different atoms depending on an amount of protons interacting with nickel nuclei.
But "adapted to provide different atoms" is so vague that it could mean almost anything if the examiner notices it, and challenges them on this point.
His description does discuss his theory that the energy is generated by fusion (and he also mentions fission, at one point, that's pretty weird!), but one quirk of patent law is that an inventor cannot be denied a patent just because their theory of how it works is incorrect, so long as the device actually works. He even covers his butt a bit on this front:
The exothermal reaction thereon Applicant's invention is based differs from those adopted by prior searchers since the inventor has not tried to demonstrate an emission of elementary particles supporting a validity of a theory, but he has exclusively tried to provide an amount of energy larger than the consumed energy amount, to just achieve a practical method and apparatus for generating an energy amount larger than the consumed energy, and this by exploiting nuclear energy generating processes starting from electrochemical energy. Thus, the inventive apparatus has been specifically designed for producing the above mentioned energy in a reliable, easily controllable, safe, repeatable manner, for any desired applications.
...essentially saying, "I haven't even tried to prove it's fusion, I just want it to work!"
So, based on a reading of their patent application, I suspect they know it's bogus, and as such, doesn't actually work. If they thought it did, why would they obscure their true invention, and in fact draw attention to the fact that they haven't even tried to prove it's really fusion?
I'll also note that, despite all that, if you read the International Preliminary Report on Patentability, the international examiner still isn't buying it. So it seems we're making progress on these sorts of crap patent applications.
