WO2012140472A1

WO2012140472A1 - Halogen-catalysed cold nuclear fusion

Info

Publication number: WO2012140472A1
Application number: PCT/IB2011/051584
Authority: WO
Inventors: Giuseppe CIPOLLA
Original assignee: Cipolla Giuseppe
Priority date: 2011-04-12
Filing date: 2011-04-12
Publication date: 2012-10-18

Abstract

The present invention refers to the field of cold nuclear fusion and more precisely it regards cold nuclear fusion of the deuterium alone or deuterium with hydrogen, exploiting the chemical bond between deuterium and hydrogen with halogen atoms to obtain respective halogen acids. The negative charge of the negative ions of the halogen atoms masks the positive charge of the deuterium nuclei or hydrogen and allows them, at temperatures that do not break down the molecule, to approach, due to the thermal agitation, distances such to obtain nuclear fusion thereof.

Description

HALOGEN-CATALYSED COLD NUCLEAR FUSION

DESCRIPTION

Technical field of the invention

The present invention refers to the field of cold nuclear fusion and more precisely it regards a method for providing cold nuclear fusion of deuterium alone or deuterium with hyd rogen or with tritium, taking advantage of the chemical bond between deuterium and hydrogen with halogen atoms to obtain the corresponding hydrohalogen acids. The negative charge of the negative ions of the halogen atoms masks the positive charge of the deuterium or hydrogen nuclei and allows them, at temperatures that do not break down the molecule, to approach, due to the thermal agitation, up to distances suitable to obtain their nuclear fusion.

Background of the invention

Fleischmann and Pons experiments which aim at providing the possibility of direct fusion between two deuterons with production of helium four (He4) are known in the field of nuclear fusion. In the light of numerous experiments conducted, this reaction is considered extremely unlikely or however rare to obtain given that the two deuterons which collide against each other, coming from opposite directions, have a quantity of motion equal to zero and thus also the product of the fusion should have a quantity of motion equal to zero. Should the fusion produce two particles, the energy produced by the fusion develops in form of kinetic energy of the two produced particles which are expelled in opposite directions, so that the overall quantity of motion is always equal to zero. However, should the product of fusion be a single nucleus it is not clear how the energy released from the fusion can be obtained in form of kinetic energy of the produced particle. The only possibility of releasing the produced energy would be in form of electromagnetic energy, this possibility however being extremely rare due to the fact that it would require a weak interaction. Italian scientists Emilio del Giudice and Giuliano Preparata have proposed an explanation to this abnormality arguing that the presence of the metal substrate, within which the reactions would occur, would allow this type of reactions, otherwise practically impossible.

Furthermore, other examples of nuclear fusion such as those mentioned in

WO01/63979, WO92/22909, WO91/06959 are known. The first patent application describes an electrode on which the fusion occurs. However, in order to obtain the fusion, i.e. in order for deuterium or tritium to combine with the metal of the electrode, the temperatures used should be very low, hence making the idea hard to apply from a practical point of view.

Also in WO91/06959 fusion occurs on the surface of an electrode made of semi- fused metal which generates "whiskers" on whose surface the fusion occurs; such method would however require a lot of electrical current to mobilize the deuterons and tritons, thus making it unsuitable for practical applications.

Summary of the invention

Subject of the present invention is to provide a method to obtain cold nuclear fusion of deuterium atoms or deuterium with hydrogen without using metal supports (substrates).

The same mechanism hypothesized for the mutual fusion of the two deuterium nuclei or one nucleus of deuterium and hydrogen can be used for providing the fusion of deuterium with tritium.

This and further subjects are attained through halogens-catalysed cold nuclear according to the invention, whose essential features are defined by the first of the attached claims.

Brief description of the drawings

Features and advantages of the method for obtaining cold nuclear fusion according to the invention will be clearer from the following description of a n embodiment thereof, solely provided by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the attached drawings wherein:

- figure 1 shows an example of a possible reactor capable of transforming the fusion energy produced into motive power;

- figure 2 shows the structure of the two hydrohalogen acid molecules with the respective deuterium bonded with the negative halogen ion; it also shows a model of interaction between hydrohalogen acids capable of generating the fusion of th e deuterons carried by the two molecules;

- figure 3 shows an example of elastic collision between molecules of different mass with consequent transfer of the kinetic energy of the heavier molecule to the lighter molecule;

- figure 4 shows the various attractive forces that occur between the two molecules of a hydrohalogen acid;

- figure 5 shows the repulsive forces that occur between two molecules of a hydrohalogen acid;

- figure 6 is an explanatory representation of how only a quarter of the collisions between two hydrohalogen acid molecules is suitable to generate nuclear fusion; and

- figures 7a to 7c show the reduction of the work required to approach, two isolated charges B1 , B2 (figure 7a), a dipole A1 and one isolated charge B3 (figure 7b) and two dipoles A2, A3 (figure 7c), respectively.

Detailed description of the invention

The present invention is based on the idea of using the repulsive component of the Van der Waals intermolecular force as a force for approaching the hydrohalogen acid molecules having deuterium or tritium nuclei. The Van der Waals intermolecular force has a two-phase development: it is weakly attractive at high intermolecular distances while as the two gas molecules approach each other, the force is nullified and then it becomes violently repulsive.

Between two neutral gas atoms the only attractive force possible is the one between the positive nucleus of an atom and the negative electron cloud of the other atom. The inversion of this attractive force to repulsive force indicates that, as the two atoms approach the attractive force, a repulsive force is superimposed u p to surpassing it. This force occurs between the two electron clouds of the two atoms. The sudden inversion of the weak attractive force into violent repulsive force, when the internuclear distances are still relatively long, indicates that this repulsion, which increases thus suddenly due to minimum reduction of internuclear distances, is not due to the repulsion between the nuclei but due to repulsion between the two electron clouds whose relative distance reduces more markedly than the distance between the two nuclei does.

The presence of two positive charges on the surface of two hydrohalogen acid molecules which face each other as shown in figure 2, inverts the Van der Waals repulsive force into two attractive forces. While between two free deuterons there is only one repulsive force, there is an assembly of attractive and repulsive forces between two hydrohalogen acid molecules formed by the combination of a hydrogen isotope (deuterium, tritium or hydrogen) with a halogen atom.

Figure 4 shows the various attractive interactions between two hydrohalogen acid molecules. The attractive force 1 refers to the attraction between the nucleus B and the charge electron of the ion A, when the electron is at the maximum distance. The force 1 B is the same force with the electron at the minimum distance. Forces 2 and 2B are the same forces of 1 and 1 B, between the nucleus A and the charge electron of B. The force 3 is the attractive force between the deuteron C and the charge electron of B with charge electron at the maximum distance. The force 3B is the same force but with charge electron at the minimum distance. The force 4 is the same force, between the deuteron D and the charge electron of A, with charge electron at the maximum distance. The force 4B is the same force but with charge electron at the minimum distance. The force 5 is the attraction between nucleus B and electron cloud of A. While at long distances the electrostatic forces of the electrons are identical to the electrostatic forces of the nucleus, at short distances the electrostatic forces of the closest electrons are markedly greater than those of the nucleus and the overall electrostatic force of the electrons exceeds the electrostatic force of the nucleus. This allows the forces of the charges of the electrons to behave as if they were generally closer to the deuteron, with respect to the charges of the nucleus. Hence, the centre of attraction of the electron cloud (y) will be closer to the deuterons with respect to the nucleus. The force 6 is the same force as 5, between nucleus A and electron cloud of B. The force 7 is the attraction between deuteron C and electron cloud. Given that the distance between the deuteron and electron cloud is even smaller, the displacement of the centre of attraction (x) of the cloud will be even greater. The force 8 is the same as 7, between deuteron D and electron cloud of A.

Figure 5 shows the overall repulsive forces. The force 1 1 is the repulsion between the charge electron of B and the electron cloud of A (the displacement of the centre of repulsion y also in this case). The force 12 is the same as 1 1 , between the charge electron of A and the electron cloud of B. The force 13 is the repulsion between the two charge electrons. The distance between the two electrons oscillates between 13 and 13A. The force 14 is the repulsion between the deuteron C and the nucleus of B. The force 15 is the same as that of 14, between deuteron D and the nucleus of A. The force 16 is the repulsion between the two nuclei of the two negative ions. The force 17 is the repulsion between the two electron clouds of the two ions (repulsive component of the Van der Waals force). The centre of repulsion (x) is even more displaced with respect to the centre of the ion. The force 18 is the repulsion between the two deuterons.

The repulsive force 16 between the two halogen nuclei is surpassed by the attractions 5 and 6 between these same nuclei and the halogen electron clouds of the opposite molecule (attractive component of the Van der Waals force). Also the single force of repulsion between the two charge electrons is surpassed by the double force of attraction that each deuteron or triton exerts on the charge electron of the halogen ion of the other molecule (the distances between the deuteron and triton oscillate between values that are half the maximum distances between the two charge electrons). In the same manner, the two attraction forces 7 and 8 exerted by each deuteron or triton and the electron cloud of the halogen ion of the other molecule are much larger than the single force of repulsion between the two electron clouds. The overall sum of the attractive and repulsive forces is markedly smaller than the sole repulsive force between two deuterons or tritons approaching each other, as it occurs in a thermonuclear plasma.

Generally, the presence of the negative halogen ion transforms the repulsion between the single charges of the two deuterons into the repulsion between two dipoles. The latter are formed by the positive charge of the deuteron and the negative charge of the ion, located in the electron cloud of the ion. When the molecules approach each other, the repulsion between the electron clouds is especially given by the closest electrons of the electron clouds. This means that the distance between the charges of each dipole is as if it reduces. The distance between the two charges of each dipole is further reduced by the attraction that the deuteron exerts on the electron cloud, attracting the electrons thereto. When two molecules approach each other, the attraction that the deuteron of the other molecule exerts on the electron cloud of the ion is added to the attraction of the deuteron of each single molecule. Figures 7a to 7c show how the work to approach the two dipoles (figure 7c) is markedly less than the work required for approaching the two isolated charges (figure 7a). Actually, a dipole operates like an electrostatic condenser: the smaller the distance between the two armatures thereof, the greater the capacity, i.e. the lesser the work required to take a charge thereto. If the work required to take a charge thereto reduces from 100 to 10, th e redu ct i o n of th e wo rk required to approach the two dipoles will be 10/100x10/100=1/100 with respect to the case of two isolated charges and 1/10 with respect to the work required to approach a dipole to an isolated charge (figure 7b).

The lower overall repulsion between the two molecules allows the two deuterons or tritons, carried by the respective halogen ions, to approach, even at relatively low temperatures, distances such to allow nuclear fusion.

Another factor that has a positive impact on the efficiency of the present invention lies in the greater number of collisions between the molecules with respect to the number of collisions which occur between the deuterons and tritons of a thermonuclear plasma. The formula which indicates the mean free path λ of a gas molecule with ideal behaviour constituted by a single assembly of homogeneous particles with Maxwellian distribution of the velocity is:

wherein K_B is the Boltzmann constant, T the absolute temperature, δ the collision diameter (equal to the radius of the particle, assumed to be spherical-shaped) and P the gas pressure.

As shown above, the mean path is directly proportional to the temperature and inversely proportional to the pressure. Given that the sole collisions of interest between the gas molecules are those that imply the mutual collision of the two deuterons or tritons, it can be assumed that the collision diameter is equal in the two gases. Admitting that both gases have the same pressure (which in a plasma magnetically confined by a field of about 5 Tesla is of about 100 atmospheres: ITER: International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor magnetic field), the mean free path of the hydrohalogen gas molecules at 1000 degrees Kelvin is 100000 times greater than that of the deuterons and tritons at one hundred million degrees Kelvin, such temperatures being measured in a thermonuclear plasma. Actually, this second path is double, given that half of the pressure and density of the plasma is given by the free electrons. Thus, considering the same pressure, the mean free path of the deuterons and tritons is 200000 times that of the gas under analysis. The number of collisions per time unit between the components of the two gases being analysed is equal to the ratio: mean free path/velocity.

The velocity of the components of a gas or of a plasma varies proportionally to the square root of the temperature and, in case of two gases of different molecular mass, considering the same temperature, the velocity is inversely proportional to the square root of the ratio between the two molecular weights. Hence, given that, for example, the mass ratio between the deuterium halide Dl wherein halogen is iodine and the deuterium is about 65 (square root equal to about 8) and that the ratio between the two temperatures is about 100000 (square root about 330), it is observable that the deuteron has a velocity of about 8X330=2640 times the velocity of the molecule of Dl. However, the mean free path of the deuteron is 200000 times greater and, hence, the 200000/2640 ratio is equal to about 75. Thus, for each collision between two deuterons or between the deuteron and triton, there would be 75 collisions in the hydrohalogen acid gas. This value should be divided by four given that, considering all the other conditions to be the same, the two deuterons are in the correct position in only one collision out of four: as represented in figure 6 only the condition indicated with number 4) allows fusion.

Even in this case, considering the same pressure, there will be a number of collisions potentially capable of terminating in a nuclear fusion 19 times greater than in a thermonuclear plasma. Another factor related to the low operating temperatures of the present invention and the large mass of interested molecules is that in the collisions between the molecules the contact times between the deuterons are markedly greater than in the case of collisions between deuterons or tritons in a thermonuclear plasma. Actually, if the deuteron has a velocity about 2640 times greater than the molecule of Dl, the contact time between these particles will be 2640 times smaller than the contact time between two deuterons carried by the respective halogen ion (iodine in the specific case). Such a brief contact time requires, so as the tunnel effect can be established, that the two particles be d rawn very close, hence in turn requiring the high temperatures required for a thermonuclear plasma. The fact that time influences the establishment of the tunnel effect is proven by the muonic fusion. In a m uon ic molecule, deuterium or tritium nuclei are approached to a bou t 0.75/200 Angstrom=approximately 1/300 Angstrom, a distance about 30 times greater than that to which the two deuterons should be approached in a thermonuclear plasma to obtain fusion. Evidently, the crucial factor in muonic fusion is given by the duration of the approaching between the two nuclei in the muonic molecule. Fusion between deuterium and tritium in the muonic molecule require about one thousandth of a billionth of a second, much more than the contact time between two deuterons that collide against each other at one hundred million degrees Kelvin. The fact that, in the collision between deuterons carried by halogen ions and at temperatures much lower than those of a thermonuclear plasma, the contact time is up to 2640 times greater than the contact time between two deuterons in a thermonuclear plasma is a factor that facilitates nuclear fusion, even though the minimum distances achievable between the deuterons or between the deuteron and triton will be greater than those required in a thermonuclear plasma.

The method according to the present invention achieves cold nuclear fusion of the deuterium alone or deuterium with hydrogen, through the chemical bond between deuterium and hydrogen with halogen atoms to have the corresponding hydrohalogen acids. The negative charge of the negative ions of the halogen atoms masks the positive charge of the deuterium nuclei or hydrogen and allows them, at temperatures that do not break down the molecule, to approach, d ue to the thermal agitation, distances such to produce their nuclear fusion.

The idea is to obtain the cold fusion of deuterium (fusible hydrogen isotope with chemical symbol D) by combining the latter with the halogen atoms to generate the corresponding hydroh a l o g e n a c i d s (fluorine=hydrofluoric acid=DF; chlorine=hydrochloric acid=DCI; bromine= hydrobromic acid =DBr; iodine=hydroiodic acid=DI). In these molecules the deuterium nucleus, which is the positive ion of the molecule, is so close to the negative ion formed by the halogen, that the positive charge is more or less masked by the negative charge of the halogen ion and by the electron cloud which surrounds the negative ion. In these molecules deuterium, deprived of the electron, is reduced to only one nucleus and thus it does not have an electron shell capable of keeping separated the positive charge of the hydrogen nucleus and the negative charge of the halogen ion. This proximity between the negative ion and positive nucleus obtains the maximum masking of the nucleus charge. The aforementioned masking, combined with the thermal agitation of the molecules, allows two deuterium nuclei or a proton and a deuterium nucleus, with the respective positive charges masked by the negative ion to which they are joined, to face each other by mutually approaching at a much smaller distance with respect to that at which the two isolated nuclei could approach each other considering the same temperature. The mutual distance can be so small as to allow fusion between the two fusible nuclei. The fusion reactions are those that provide for, in order to occur, two fusion products (Deuterium+Deuterium=Tritium+proton; Deuterium+deuterium=He3+neutron; Deuterium+Tritium=He4+neutron) and reaction s with on ly one fusi on prod u ct (Deuterium+Deuterium=He4; Deuterium+Proton=He3). As previously described, various cold fusion experiments have proven that, contrary to what occurs in a plasma, direct fusion between two deuterium nuclei can be obtained on a palladium or titanium electrode without intermediate steps and without emission of particles. According to some hypothesis, this would occur due to the presence of a metal substrate. Given that also these fusion reactions occur in the presence of a substrate, i.e. the halogen ions that carry the deuterium and hydrogen nuclei, it can be assumed that fusion reactions can also be obtained without emission of particles.

In order to increase the number of collisions between the molecules and increase the percentage of molecules provided with kinetic energy sufficient to overcome the residue electrostatic repulsion between the deuterium and hydrogen nuclei, the gases (pure hydrohalogen acids are gaseous) has to be compressed and hot. The maximum temperatures useable are those beyond which there is the disassociation of the gas molecules (i.e. the acid is entirely broken down), with ensuing loss of the masking effect by the negative ion.

Upon starting the fusion, the heat produced thereby will keep the temperature high. This is a hydrogen-catalysed fusion due to the fact that the halogen atoms do not take part in the fusion: as deuterium and hydrogen are fused generating Helium 3 (He3) and Helium 4 (He4), the fusion products, being noble gases, detach from the halogen which can thus react with the new deuterium or hydrogen. Hence, at the enter of the reaction environment only deuterium or deuterium with hydrogen is present, while at the exit He3 or He4 are present, the halogen being maintained. Therefore, the halogen behaves like an actual catalyst. The objection that the masking effect described herein is not sufficient to approach the deuterium and hydrogen nuclei to each other enough to have a reaction speed comparable to that of the other methods can be overcome considering that this method allows providing conditions close to very large fusion quantities of deuterium and hydrogen (even tons and tens of tons) and maintaining these fusion conditions over long periods of time, years or decades (all that is required is that the gas be maintained at ideal temperature and pressure conditions for fusion reactions). Furthermore, the yield is always positive, even with very low reaction velocity, given that in a heat insu lated recipient maintaining the ideal conditions does not require any power supply.

In practice, at given temperature and pressure conditions the energy result is always positive, regardless of the fusion velocity and without supplying power from outside.

Thus, even the reduction of the internuclear distance between the deuterium nuclei such to guarantee nuclear fusion thereof over years and decades is sufficient to produce enough energy and with positive energy results. I n order to increase the velocity of the molecules without having to increase the temperatures beyond the limits tolerated by the material the container is made of, a heavy and a light hydrohalogen gas (example, DF or DCI with Dl or DBr) can be mixed, or an inert gas having a molecular weight four times or more greater than the molecular weight of the acid, can be added to the hydrohalogen gas. Actually, when two identical molecules collide, there never occurs the complete transfer of the kinetic energy of one molecule to the other (except only in the case when one molecule has kinetic energy equal to zero).

On the contrary, when two molecules having the same kinetic energy, but with a molecular weight ratio of four or more collide mutually, there may occur the transfer of almost all the kinetic energy from the heavier to the lighter molecule. This may allow - within the gas and considering the same temperature - a fraction of the molecules provided with double kinetic energy with respect to the maximum one present in a monomolecular gas. This greater kinetic energy allows the molecules to further reduce - by half or less - the minimum distance between the deuterons or between the deuteron and proton, with increase of the tunnel effect. The impossibility to exceed the temperatures beyond which the molecule breaks down, prevents the application of this of this fusion method for war purposes.

With respect to the classic cold fusion on electrodes of palladium or other metals the method for obtaining cold fusion according to the invention reveals considerable advantages:

- it does not require electrical power to charge the palladium electrode, given that the condition required for the fusion to occur is solely the stable chemical bond between deuterium and halogen;

- palladium has two phases, alpha and beta, during charging with hydrogen or its isotopes thereof and only in the beta phase the maximum concentration of hydrogen in the metal lattice occurs. The heat prevents the accumulation of hydrogen in the metal lattice, to a point that the beta phase does not occur beyond 300 degrees Celsius;

- the heat generated by the fusion deforms the metal lattice, hindering the further use of the electrodes;

- in the metal lattice of palladium and other metals hydrogen forms a hydride, i.e. it assumes a negative charge. Thus, the hydrogen nucleus, besides the normal electron, is surrounded by another electron which further prevents the two nuclei from approaching each other. In the molecule of hydrohalogen acid, instead, the proton is uncovered due to the fact that the bond with the halogen deprives it of the electron thereof. This halogen-hydrogen bond has a more or less high degree of ionicity, i.e. the electron that the hydrogen transfers to halogen may indistinctively rotate only around the hydrogen nucleus (ionic phase) or rotate around both the nucleus of halogen and hydrogen (covalent phase), but there is a concrete percentage of cases in which the proton is present uncovered on the surface of the negative ion. In these cases the proton, deuteron or triton may mutually approach each other.

An inert gas whose molecular weight is four times the molecular weight of the acid can be added to the hydrohalogen gas in order to increase the probability of collisions capable of generating a fusion. I n a gas formed by only one type of molecules, when two molecules - coming from diametrically opposite directions and provided with the same kinetic energy, i.e. the same velocity - collide, there occurs, according to the law of quantity-of-motion preservation, only an inversion of the direction of motion of the two molecules (elastic rebound) without any variation of the quantity of motion of the two molecules. Vice versa, when two molecules - provided with the same kinetic energy (i.e. with the same thermal energy) but with different mass collide, coming from diametrically opposite directions, still according to the law of quantity-of-motion preservation, there occurs the transfer of a more or less high amount of the kinetic energy of the heavier molecule to the lighter molecule. In case the mass ratio between these two molecules is three or four, the collision between two molecules having the same kinetic energy but different mass causes an almost complete transfer of the kinetic energy of the heavier molecule to the lighter molecule. Regarding this, figure 3 shows an example of an elastic collision between two molecules having different mass (in particular a molecule with mass M four times greater than the other) and equal to the kinetic energy and it shows how almost all the kinetic energy of the heavier molecule is transferred to the lighter molecule.

This allows - within the mixture of gases - that there be a small percentage of gas molecules provided with kinetic energy almost twice the maximum energy that they have at the same temperature, within a gas formed solely by one type of hydrohalogen acid. When two molecules of lighter hydrohalogen gas belonging to this small fraction of molecules - and thus provided with greater kinetic energy - collide, their kinetic energy allows them to approach the deuterium nucleus thereof to the nucleus of the other at a distance about half the distance obtainable, under the same conditions, with a single gas.

The distance between the two deuterium nuclei reduces by half because the work (i.e. the kinetic energy) required to approach the two identical charges is inversely proportional to the distance: the double kinetic energy requires half the distance. This further reduction of the distance between the two deuterium nuclei produces an increase of the probabilities of fusion of the two nuclei such to exceed compensating the fact that this kind of collisions, given the greater number of conditions required to obtain them, are much rarer than those between two molecules of the same hydrohalogen acid gas. If lighter molecules of hydrohalogen gases are used as the source of the fusion, then the role of the heavier gaseous molecules could be conducted by heavier hydrohalogen acid molecules (DBr or Dl).

The following are examples of percentages of gases in the various mixtures:

A) hydrohalogen acid formed by deuterium combined with only one halogen: no mixture.

B) two gases formed by the combination of two hydrogen isotopes with the same halogen (for example, DCI+TCI); in this case, the mixtures are obviously 50%+50%, i.e. the two gases in equal amounts.

C) mixture between a lighter hydrohalogen gas and a heavy gas which serves as a kinetic energy donator to the first gas. In this case, the percentages of the heavier gas may vary empirically. The lighter hydrohalogen gas, also in this case, will be only of one type (i.e. the combination of a halogen with only one hydrogen isotope, i.e. deuterium) or the combination of a halogen with two hydrogen isotopes (and in such case, the information provided for in B: 50% +50% shall apply); a heavier hydrohalogen acid gas or a heavy inert gas with the molecule closest possible to a sphere can be used as the heavier gas; the conditions in which the collisions between the light and heavy molecules occur should be closest possible to those of the collision between two ideal molecules, i.e. spherical; the latter conditions are the ones that facilitate the greatest transfer of kinetic energy between the two molecules.

Even though the ideal reaction is the one between two deuterium nuclei with production of a Helium 4 (He4) nucleus without emission of any type of particle, this method also applies to other types of reactions such as D+D=He3+neutron, or D+T= He4+neutron or D+D=T+proton. Figure 1 shows a diagram of a possible reactor which applies the method for obtaining cold fusion according to the invention. The reactor comprises a container 101 made of material resistant to pressure and thermal insulating. Within this container the gaseous mixture there is provided formed by a single hydrohalogen gas or by a mixture of two hydrohalogen gases having different molecular weight or, lastly, a mixture of a hydrohalogen gas and an inert gas with high molecular weight. Within the container 101 there is a line of metal pipes 102 which serve as absorbers for the heat produced by the nuclear fusion. These pipes are filled with a fluid (such as, for example, water) which absorbs the heat. The line of pipes is supplied with water through a conduit 103. The generated water vapour exits from the container through a conduit 104. Within the container 101 there is provided an opening 105 from which deuterium enters, deuterium is combined within the container with the free halogen molecules to obtain the corresponding hydrohalogen acid.

Besides the single deuterium, the reaction can be supplied with deuterium and tritium or with deuterium and hydrogen, i.e. all possible combinations of hydrogen and isotopes thereof suitable to generate nuclear fusion. At the top part of the container there is a pipe 106 which terminates in a bell 107 where the produced helium is collected. Actually helium, an inert gas, does not react with the halogens and being much lighter than the hydrohalogen gases, it tends to gather at the top part of the container accumulating in the bell 107. This allows obtaining a continuous cycle reaction, with deuterium or other isotopes entering from the conduit 105 and with helium exiting from the pipe 106 to accumulate in the bell 107. Halogen remains confined in the container and reacts with deuterium and isotopes thereof as they enter into the container. Figure 2 shows how the two hydrohalogen acid molecules carry the deuterons to obtain the fusion.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, a method for providing - within the gases - a percentage of molecules provided with more kinetic energy than the maximum one obtainable at a given temperature, is also provided for. Such method consists in mixing two hydrohalogen acids in gaseous state and with having the highest possible molecular mass ratio or adding an inert gas with molecular mass three or four times greater than the hydrohalogen acid to the gaseous hydrohalogen acid; according to the law of quantity-of-motion preservation, the collisions between two molecules provided with the same kinetic energy, with a mass ratio of three or four and with structure sufficiently compact to behave, colliding, like elastic spheres, produce a transfer of almost the entire amount of kinetic energy from the heavier molecule to the lighter molecule, doubling or almost doubling the kinetic energy of the latter; the latter transfer does not occur in the collisions between molecules of the same mass, unless when one of the two molecules has zero or almost zero kinetic energy. Figure 3 shows, as mentioned, an example of an elastic collision between two molecules having different mass and equal kinetic energy with transfer of kinetic energy from the heavier molecule to the lighter molecule.

The present invention has been described up to now with reference to a preferred embodiment. However, different embodiments regarding the same invention concept can be provided for as defined by the scope of protection of the claims that follow.

Claims

1 . A method for obtaining cold nuclear fusion reactions of hydrogen isotopes, wherein a gas containing a hydrogen isotope is compressed and heated, said method being characterised in that the gas is a hydrohalogen acid heated to temperatures below the critical point which leads to the dissociation of the gas molecules, the fusion reactions being catalysed by the chemical bond between the hydrogen isotope and the halogen atom.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein further fusion reactions are promoted between hydrogen isotopes bonded to halogen and free nuclei.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said free nuclei are obtained as a result of the fusion reactions of claim 1 .

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein said free nuclei are nuclei of atoms added from the environment.

5. Th e method according to any one of the previous claims, wherein two hydrohalogen acids in the gaseous state having the highest possible molecular mass ratio are mixed so as to obtain - within a gas - a percentage of molecules provided with greater kinetic energy with respect to the maximum kinetic energy obtainable at a given temperature, thus accelerating the fusion reactions.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein an inert gas with molecular mass between three and four times greater than that of the hydrohalogen acid is added to the gaseous hydrohalogen acid so as to obtain - within a gas - a percentage of molecules provided with greater kinetic energy with respect to the maximum kinetic energy obtainable at a given temperature, thus accelerating the fusion reactions.