The SunCell and the clean hydrogen revolution.
How a new technology will end our reliance on fossil fuels and rapidly decarbonize the world economy.
There is a revolutionary new hydrogen energy technology that has been in development for decades and is frighteningly close to fruition; and it is a silver bullet to ending global warming. It is called the “SunCell.”
This article is an introduction to how it works, the science behind it, and the economics of power production.
The scientific research behind this new technology - which we will get into shortly - has been going on for thirty years, but the last ten (since 2014) have been the most exciting, because there was a clear transition from basic research to applied engineering.
What is the difference? In 2004, when I was a lab technician in New Jersey, we were analyzing data to look for small amounts of excess heat in benchtop experiments. Reactors were submerged in large foam cubes filled with water, and the data would come in slowly over several days as the heat from the reactor was transferred to the water and then picked up by thermistors.
By 2014, they made the reaction explode.
Explosions are an exothermic reaction that goes to completion in a short time. Explosive power is a good thing; an engine is simply a controlled explosion. By 2020, the reactors designed to for thermal power were rapidly boiling away large baths of water for hours. They were no longer experiments, they were prototypes.
From 2014-2022, the development team posted frequent videos of their progress online. One of my favorite videos is from July 14th, 2016. The team, including head scientist Randell Mills, is standing behind the camera as a lab technician starts up an experiment inside an argon-atmosphere glove box.
We can see into the box via a window. A few second after ignition, a cloud of light builds inside the box. It becomes so intense that it totally saturates the camera and causes everyone standing around to shout. You can hear Mills: “Turn it down, turn it down a little bit… Oh my god, oh my god! Oh, turn it down, turn it off!” And then, once the technician successfully stops the reactor: “Woah, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I can’t even see anything!”
The phenomenon - an incredibly bright white cloud of light, is something very unique. It is caused by a plasma with hydrogen triggered by a high-amperage flow of electricity, utilizing an entirely new reaction that releases 200 times more chemical energy than combustion. It is a new energy source. And it is incredibly powerful.
In 2023, the team posted a video of their latest prototype reactor that could run for about 20 minutes. In the video you see a small transparent cell producing an extremely bright plasma, hundreds of times brighter than natural sunlight. It is like a light bulb positioned over two legs.
When the design is complete, the commercial reactor will surrounded the bulb with a a geodesic array of solar panels.
It will be a sun in a box.
How does the SunCell work?
Let’s talk about the reactor design.
The SunCell is driven by a chemical reaction with hydrogen that is hundreds of times more energetic then fire. This incredible power density becomes the chief driver of the design.
The “bulb” of the SunCell is where the reaction happens. Inside, there is a hydrogen gas, held at low pressure, and the ingredients for the reaction. This is where the plasma happens.
The reaction requires electricity to ignite it, but this is a big engineering problem, because the plasma becomes so hot that it melt, even vaporizes, electrodes. In fact, even when they used molybdenum, which has a vaporization point of 10,000 degrees, the bars were destroyed and looked like they were eaten away by an army of ants within about 20 seconds. The engineers at Columbia Tech, a collaborating engineering firm, said it was the highest power density they had ever seen.
Mills’s brilliant solution was to deliver power via streams of liquid metal. This is why the bulb is positioned over two legs. Each leg contains a pump tube that injects a stream of liquid metal into the cell. The streams are electrically isolated from one another and connected to a circuit, so when the two streams intersect in the cell, electricity can flow between them.
When the power is turned on, the reaction occurs where they intersect. The reaction is so powerful that the metal particles vaporize instantly. Close up, it looks like something out of a Ghostbusters movie. The particles become part of the luminous conductive gas. This allows the electricity to flow through the gas, sustaining what we call an “arc plasma” This is the goal, because wherever the plasma forms, the reaction is happening.
A New Hydrogen Reaction
Now let’s talk about what is happening on a chemical level. This plasma is powered by something totally new - the “hydrino” reaction.
In this reaction, the electron of a hydrogen atom is coaxed to shrink into an orbit in which the electron is closer to the nucleus. It makes the atom smaller - literally. There are a series of hydrino states, each a fraction (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc) the size of the original atom. In fact, there are 137 possible states, although we have only been able to create the first dozen or so states in the laboratory.
When the electron drops to form this new orbit, it goes through a change in its energy level that is enormous in comparison to the changes that are experienced by molecules during a chemical reaction. This is because the electron is physically getting much closer to the proton than it does during chemical reactions.
Forming an H(1/4) hydrino atom releases about 100 times more energy than burning hydrogen gas - closer to 200 times more than what the burning of gasoline in your car engine. And it does so in the same amount of space. This makes it a very dense power source. More on that in a moment.
The hydrino reaction is different from combustion (fire) in an important way. A typical combustion reaction produces a lot of infrared light, lower frequency than what we can see, but we can feel it on our skin as heat. This kind of light is easily absorbed by a gas and converted into heat, which makes it good at doing mechanical work in the combustion chamber of an engine.
By contrast, the hydrino reaction produces light in the ultraviolet (UV), extreme ultraviolet (EUV), and even X-ray spectrum, higher frequency than what we can see. In the plasma, these frequencies are absorbed and then emitted as a brilliantly bright, white light, in the visible range. They are only inefficiently converted into heat.
If the reaction happens in a closed cell, the light will easily be captured and become heat. It will proceed to heat up all the parts and pieces of the reactor, and wants to melt the entire apparatus down into scrap metal. But if the reaction occurs in a transparent cell, the light escapes. This keeps the reactor cool enough to function.
And as a bonus, you can capture it with solar panels. When Mills first realized this, he called it “a gift from Nature.” The resulting reactor – the SunCell – is a sun in a box, an optical power source like nothing we’ve ever seen.
The light emitted by the cell describes a curve that we call a “blackbody spectrum.” The curve tells us the temperature. In the case of a hydrino plasma, the temperature is 2-3,000 degrees Celsius. That’s really hot. But it also closely matches the spectrum produced by the sun, and therefore what our solar panels are designed to capture.
What is the hydrino atom?
Once the electron of a hydrogen atom is coaxed into the hydrino state, it becomes a permanent new state of matter. Hydrino atoms, like hydrogen atoms, will combine to form diatomic hydrino gas molecules (H2(1/n). These molecules have unique chemical properties and signatures.
Hydrino gas is unique. For starters, it is highly inert - much more inert than anything else known to science. This makes molecules unable to participate in other kinds of chemical reactions.
Hydrino gas is also unique because it does not reflect light. The ability of electrons to jump between orbits - what allows light to bounce off everything around us - is forbidden for hydrino. So you must observe hydrino in other ways, such as nuclear resonance transitions, rotational and vibrational molecular transitions, and so forth. Hydrino produces unique signatures when it is being made, but it becomes much more difficult to see after.
In space, we see unexplained light emissions in the EUV and X-ray wavelengths, and we see hundreds of diffuse absorption lines, coming from all directions in space, that appear to be caused by gas molecules but have not been conclusively assigned to anything known. We also see evidence for an enormous amount of unseen matter that forms vast clouds around galaxies - the “dark matter.”
Hydrogen is the most abundant element of the visible universe. Our galaxy is but a large spinning disk of hydrogen. Hydrogen may also turn out to be the “dark matter” in space - just in “hydrino” form. (That’s just a tease for another podcast.) In a very science-fiction sounding - but nevertheless accurate - way, the SunCell is a dark matter manufacturing device. That’s just cool.
Hydrino gas, like hydrogen gas, is also very light. When released into the atmosphere, it diffuse out into space, because the gravity of Earth is not strong enough to capture hydrogen or helium. (However, hydrogen does form a substantial portion of the atmospheres of the gas giant planets like Jupiter.)
Because the hydrino reaction does not produce carbon, does not pollute or interact with our atmosphere, and can use the hydrogen from water as fuel, it might be the silver bullet for ending climate change.
The legacy of fire
In 1871, Charles Darwin remarked that next to language, the discovery of fire was the greatest made by man.
Fire has served our species for almost a million years. Our use of fire created a cascade of consequences: we heat-treated stones to better form tools; we cultivated the landscape with controlled burning; we used fire to keep us warm in colder climates which allowed us to expand across the landscape; we began cooking a wider variety of foods which also unlocked more resources for our mind.
Fire became the handmaiden of our species. We now each use 40 times that of our hunter gatherer ancestors.
Despite the invention of many new energy sources over the last century, fossil fuels have remained the cheapest and most broadly used. They have given us massive wealth. But their use has dealt a devastating shock to the Earth: a warming climate, acidified oceans, oil spills, and the release of toxic chemicals. It appears that our exploitation of fire is surpassing the sustainable limits of nature. There are now over 8 billion of us. Our activity as a species is overwhelming the natural flows in the biosphere, causing us to rapidly experience the consequences of our own unsustainable acts, as well as straining the web of life around us.
In the Paris Climate Accord, nations around the world pledged to limit global temperature rise to 1.5° C to alleviate what we perceive to be the worst of the potential future impacts. To meet this target, we can emit no more than 590 gigatons of CO2 (or 10 more years at current rates). The challenge with this pledge is that the global cost to decarbonize with current technologies is likely $100 trillion.
Darwin reminds us that our ability to innovate originated in nature under conditions that challenged our survival. Our technological innovation is our natural gift, and it is coming through for us again with the scientific advance represented by Mills’s discovery of the hydrino.
Hydrino power changes the economics of the energy transition from a burden into an opportunity.
The burning of fossil fuels is the metabolism of our civilization. Fossil fuels power our cars, spin our generators, and are transformed into materials we use. Fossil fuels even provides much of the fertilizer used to grow crops (the hydrogen in ammonia) showing that we metabolize the products of fossil fuels, like cells in a superorganism.
Fossil fuels are dense energy. Burning wood can produce 21 MJ/kg. Coal, adopted by England and Wales in 1650, releases about 30 MJ/kg, and enabled a new prime mover, the steam engine. Crude oil, a mix of hydrocarbons first put to use in the 1860’s in lamps, releases 44 MJ/kg. Gasoline refined from crude releases about 46 MJ/kg, and enabled another new prime mover - the internal combustion engine - so light and powerful that it enabled the automobile revolution.
More recently, we have seen the rise of natural gas, which can release 54 MJ/kg in a combined cycle turbine. It is the most energetic of fossil fuels per unit weight, and the invention of fracking by American engineers substantially increased the global availability over the last twenty years - a natural gas revolution. Although natural gas releases less CO2 per unit energy, it is not, by any means, “clean,” just a little cleaner than dirtier forms.
Fossil fuels are cheap, energy dense per unit weight and volume, and available as a natural resource in many countries. Despite the invention of many new, more renewable technologies, fossil fuels still produce about 75% of all “primary energy” and still have - regrettably - many advantages over renewable technologies. That is about to change.
Hydrino energy economics
The energy transition made possible by the SunCell will enable the energy transition, but it will also be a second industrial revolution. This becomes clear when you look at the numbers.
Burning hydrogen gas to make water produces 120 MJ/kg, but hydrogen is not useful as a fuel for automobiles because we must manufacture it, as it isn’t found in pure form; and to transport it efficiently, it must be cooled to a very low liquefaction point, or else it must be transported as an explosive gas.
When the hydrino reaction to produce a one-fourth hydrino molecule is utilized, the energy density is a phenomenal 16,310 MJ/kg. If you want to transport the hydrogen as water, in convenient liquid form, then the gravimetric energy density decreases substantially because oxygen is a much heavier atom. Taking into account the energy cost of splitting water into its components (electrolysis - the reverse of fire) and the that of purifying water, gives us 2,450 MJ/kg. That’s still 50 times the energy density of gasoline.
Water is fuel that falls on us from the sky. From the tap, it costs about 2 cents per liter. A 10 L tank in a Suncell-powered hydrino hybrid electric vehicle (HHEV) would take you 10,000 km and cost 20 cents. Unless it rains, and you can collect the rainwater into your tank during that drive.
A commercial 747-100 requires 144,000 kg of fuel; hydrino power would reduce this to 2,880 kg of water, at a total cost of $7.20. This would cut the cost of commercial flights by 40%, but it would likely do more than that, triggering a total redesign of aircraft to use electric ducted fan instead of jets, concepts which are being engineered now.
Hydrino power would also enable electric air taxis. These are much cheaper and easier to fly than helicopters, much less expensive to manufacture, and would have sufficiently low fuel weight to enable long flights. These air taxis may replace commercial air travel as we know it.
The SunCell is about the size of a refrigerator and is likely to be commercialized as a 500 kW unit that may cost only $25,000 in mass production. For stationary power, it could be installed in a distributed or even micro-distributed power grid, allowing us to dismantle high voltage transmission infrastructure.
Perhaps the best comparison is made to natural gas, which has a capital cost of $2,000/kW of rated capacity, and for which the levelized cost of delivered power is about $50/MWh. By comparison, the capital cost of a SunCell installation is likely about $100/kW. With nearly free fuel and no long-distance transmission, the levelized cost that may be 10-100 times cheaper, at $1-$10/MWh. In any market, SunCell power will be enormously profitable.
The company developing the technology, Brilliant Light Power, has been quietly building a massive global IP portfolio, while vocal skeptics avert any potential competition, either US corporations or foreign states, from paying attention.
Hydrino power will likely outcompete all other power sources on the basis of cost, energy density of the fuel, power density of the prime mover, area density required for generation, and embodied energy of manufacturing.
The first industrial revolution prompted a 20-fold increase in energy use from a pre-industrial farmer to a modern person in a developed nation. But the next industrial revolution, enabled by hydrino power, could make power 100 times less expensive and prompt another 20-fold increase in energy use. We can only imagine the results.
Hydrino power is the ultimate form of energy, and harnessing it will not just decarbonize our economy, it will be a second industrial revolution.
How quickly can we deploy?
The world uses 600 EJ of primary energy each year. Of that, about 20% is generated onboard vehicles. The remaining 80% (480 EJ) serves stationary applications, including electricity, heat, and industrial uses.
Let’s image that the SunCell is commercialized as a 500 kW reactor. Remember that one Watt of power is one Joule of energy generated per second. A single reactor running at 90% capacity over a year can produce about 14 million MJ of energy. To replace the entire world’s primary energy demand in stationary applications, we need at least 34 million SunCells around the world. That seems like a lot, but the world manufactures 200 million refrigerators each year. The world manufactured almost 100 million automobiles each year before the pandemic downturn.
If manufacturing a SunCell is like manufacturing an automobile, 34 million SunCells represents only 4 months of global production capacity. Perhaps the most limiting part of the supply chain is the PV needed for the SunCell. About 2 million solar modules are manufactured each year. If we assume that the solar array around the SunCell requires about one module in area, 34 million SunCells would take 15 years to make at the PV capacity of today.
The transition to hydrino powered cars will take longer. The global fleet of automobiles is about 1.5 billion. At a replacement rate of 100 M/yr, we still need 15 years to replace them all, even without considering the scarcity of PV.
We are expecting the first engineered prototypes capable of long duration runs in 2025. This is not years away, it is months away.
An ecosystem of engineering and manufacturing partners is in place to deliver units in commercial packaging for field testing; the unit has been designed to be assembled with two wrenches.
At which point, all hell breaks loose.
Thoughts and questions? Subscribe to join the conversation.
For further reading, this topic is covered in the forthcoming book: The End of Fire: how the hydrino sparks a revolution in physics and clean energy by Brett Holverstott.
Hi Brett,
This is a wonderful summary of Mill’s progress to date, and a great article to share with others who are not familiar with what is about to occur, the total clean energy transformation of the planet! Again, great work here.
BTW, I really enjoyed your PodCast of the Parker Probe!
Kind Regards,
—Dan Evans
Hi Brett.
I'm more than familiar with your work and obviously Mills' & Brilliant Light Power.
Nothing here I haven't read before, but always good to re-read and forward on to anyone tha may not be familiar with this.
...
When is the new book available? Update of 2016? (Search For Hydrino Energy?)
...
Does anyone discuss the potential 'dark side' to this technology? Sorry!
But weaponisation, interest from black ops, military complex...the potential for a new arms race?
Also such a disruptive technology (a new energy source!), has major geo-political ramifications! Oil, gas, major corporations, intelligence agencies... None of this is ever discussed (at least not publicly).
I understand that Mills has people like Amb. James Woolsey as advisory board member (I've heard many of his board are current and former CIA)... Which is understandable for many reasons.
...
I love theorising about the future of space travel and warp drives as much as anyone else... But c'mon man, this is the most powerful technology in human history, let's not be naive about the way our civilization works. 🤷