The eleventh part in our survey of emerging New Energy sciences. This is possibly one of New Energy's most promising fields - that of quantum heat engines. Quantum ratchets or heat engines may one day be used to power our mobile devices without ever needing to be charged. They may also power nanobots inside our bodies for targeted delivery of medicines, arterial cleansing, etc.

1. New Energy for an
Ultramodern Vietnam
Part 3: The Science
June 2014 Saigon New Energy Group

2. To discuss this presentation and pose
any questions you may have, please
visit our website,
www.nangluongmoisaigon.org

3. Our eleventh physics theory for New
Energy development is called
Quantum Ratchets

4. If the thought of running your
car/motorbike on water isn’t enough,
I’d like you to imagine now a
technology which provides you
batteries for your laptop, mobile
phone, I-Pad… which never need to be
recharged.

5. This is another technology which, if
you can help introduce it to our
society, will make everyone love you!
Your grandkids
will never have
to do this!

6. When we say “ratchet” here, we’re not
talking about one of these:

7. Instead, we’re talking about a nano-
scale Brownian ratchet, which looks
like this:

8. A Brownian ratchet has been proposed
as a hypothetical overunity device
• The idea is that random heat fluctuations in a
system will cause particles to circulate in
random directions, some pushing the paddle
to the left and others, to the right

9. Using a pawl, the ratchet is prevented
from turning to the left, but is allowed
to turn to the right

10. In this hypothetical example, the ratchet now
achieves “perpetual motion” as it rotates to
the right without any input of energy

11. Some physicists have suggested that a Brownian
ratchet is an example of “Maxwell’s demon” – in
other words, a device which apparently violates
the Second Law of Thermodynamics

12. Richard Feynman is famous for saying that a
Brownian ratchet is impossible in practice
• Feynman said that the pawl would bounce up
and down, allowing motion of the ratchet in
both directions
• He also believed the spring which held the
pawl in place would tend to force retrograde
motion of the ratchet

13. However, today, scientists are looking at
photosynthesis as an example of a “quantum
heat engine” which suggests that perhaps
Feynman was wrong

14. We’ve already seen
how Stanley Meyer
was inspired by
photosynthesis to
create his electron
stripping circuit in
the water fuel cell

15. We’ve also seen how Viktor Schauberger,
working during World War II in Germany,
supported the idea that we should look to
nature as a guide for developing New Energy
applications

16. In photosynthesis, light is used to
power energy from chemical reactions

17. Prof. Marlan Scully (Princeton) points out that
in this process, the photosynthetic reaction
center in a plant’s cells or bacteria acts as a
quantum heat engine

19. In photosynthesis, quantum coherence
arises from the “random” thermal
noise of the quantum foam
• Photons in sunlight then enter the cell’s
photosynthetic “quantum heat engine” at
random intervals
• The state of quantum coherence allows a very
efficient conversion of heat energy into
mechanical energy

20. This insight is causing scientists to think about
how thermal noise can be used to induce
quantum coherence in other systems, such as
quantum ratchet systems

21. Already, some scientists are starting to use
Scully’s insights to improve the efficiency of
solar panels by helping them to imitate
photosynthesis

22. See: http://www.osa-
opn.org/home/articles/volume_24/february_2013/features/artificial_photosynthesis
_saving_solar_energy_for/#.U7AwtrGv_Vg

23. To produce electricity, some scientists are
experimenting with the use of graphene to
create a quantum heat engine
• Graphene is a very
thin sheet of carbon
which is only about
one atom thick
• It has unusual
interactions with light
which cause
correspondingly
strange quantum
oscillations

24. If graphene loses its spatial symmetry,
an electron ratchet motion can arise
• Experimentally, magnets and terahertz
radiation have been used to create this
asymmetry and the ensuing ratchet motion

25. See: http://www.2physics.com/2013/02/quantum-ratchet-in-
graphene-one-way.html

26. The electrons in the graphene lose
their equilibrium and start to release
energy from the system

27. Drs. Zihan Xu and Guoan Tai (Hong Kong
Polytechnic Univ.) have made a graphene
battery that taps energy from the rapid
movement of ions due to thermal noise

28. Graphene batteries
• The energy of moving copper chloride ions
can reach kilojoules per kilogram per degree
• The Xu-Tai battery attaches gold and silver
electrodes to a strip of graphene
• The battery produces a continuous 2-volt
electrical current
• Theoretically, graphene batteries will work
“forever” without recharging

29. How does the graphene battery work?
• The copper ions (Cu2+) crash into the graphene
• As a result, electrons are ejected from the
graphene
• Some of these electrons combine with a Cu2+ ion.
• Other electrons travel into the circuit.
• Electrons ‘prefer’ to travel in the graphene circuit
since they can do so at much faster speeds
compared to the speed at which they can move
in the solution.

30. Now, scientists are exploring the use of
ultrasound frequencies to make the ions move
faster and thus increase the voltage output

31. Some physicists regard the graphene battery as
an example of Maxwell’s demon – a device
which appears to break the Second Law of
Thermodynamics

32. Dr. Dean Astumian (University of Maine) is
another scientist who is interested in using
thermal noise (which engineers often try to
minimize) productively to cause unidirectional
motion of electrons
Read Astumian’s report
Motors from Molecules,
at
http://www.physik.uni-
augsburg.de/theo1/hang
gi/Astumian.pdf

33. This insight is very like that of Dr. Storms, who
found that in LENRs, cracks in metal (which we
usually consider undesirable) actually are of
great use in causing atomic nuclei to fuse

34. Dr. Astumian has used
sawtooth-like pulses of
voltage to create a
unidirectional current of
electrons in liquid
solution

35. The key idea behind the work of Tai, Xu, and
Astumian is that rapid electrical pulses can cause
subatomic particles to flow in an ordered way by
“biasing thermal noise”, and in the process
releasing ZPE

36. This is similar to what the core of our Milky
Way galaxy does, when it creates coherent
motion at the subatomic level, thus extracting
ZPE from the transmuting ether

37. Dr. Johannes Rossnagel and others are
working on other nano-scale
technologies to harness thermal noise
• Rossnagel proposes “single ion heat engines”
as one solution

38. How does the single-ion heat engine
work?
• A single calcium-40 ion acts as the
“piston” and “drive shaft” of the
engine
• Electrical fields and lasers are used
to isolate the ion

39. The ion would be held in a cone-
shaped “Paul trap”

41. The single-ion engine would operate in
some ways similar to Meyer’s electron
stripping circuit
• A laser at the narrow
end of the cone would
then heat the ion and
cause the electrons to
jump into further
orbits

42. The calcium atom would rush toward the
wide end of the cone, where a cooling laser
would rapidly reduce its temperature
• This rapid heat exchange would power the
engine (in theory, infinitely)
• Because the calcium atom has a natural
resonance, the lasers would need to be timed
to operate in harmony with this resonance to
get increasing amounts of power with each
iteration of the heating-cooling cycle

43. If successful, the engine would apparently break
the “Carnot limit” for engine efficiency and this
would again create an apparent violation of the
Second Law of Thermodynamics

44. To sum up, in our discussion of quantum
ratchets today, we’ve seen how thermal noise
can be harnessed to do useful work
• Using photosynthesis as a guide or form of
“inspiration from nature”
• In graphene batteries
• Using sawtooth waveforms to increase
unidirectional electron movement
• Possibly, in single-ion quantum heat engines

45. This field is still its infancy, so stay tuned for
new developments!
Dr. Thomas Valone considers quantum heat
engines to be one of the most promising
areas of New Energy development, so don’t
let the modest nature of the experimental
results so far deter you from getting into this
field.