Andrea Rossi and suppressed energy claims
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Type | Event (energy claims) |
|---|---|
| Inventor | Andrea Rossi, Italy |
| Device | Energy Catalyzer (E-Cat), claimed nickel–hydrogen "cold fusion" |
| Demonstrations | Bologna, 2011; reports 2013–14; E-Cat SK livestream, 31 January 2019 |
| Patents | Italy only (6 April 2011); international report unfavourable; U.S. provisionally rejected (March 2014) |
| Lawsuit | Rossi v. Industrial Heat, filed April 2016, settled 5 July 2017 |
| Related claims | Steven Greer on suppressed energy technology |
| Status | Never independently verified |
| Date | 15 November 2015 |
| Topics | Propulsion & physics (topic) |
| People | Steven Greer |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 182 |
| Year | 2015 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2015 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
The Italian inventor Andrea Rossi promoted a device called the Energy Catalyzer (E-Cat). He claimed it produced large amounts of excess heat through a form of "cold fusion" in which hydrogen reacted with nickel. The device has never been independently verified, and no peer-reviewed test of it has been published. The testimony groups it with Steven Greer's claims that breakthrough energy inventions have been suppressed, a theme that runs through much of the UFO disclosure movement.[1][2]
The E-Cat
Rossi was supported by the physicist Sergio Focardi. They said the device worked by infusing heated hydrogen into nickel powder, transmuting it into copper and releasing heat. Focardi said the process depended on a secret additive known only to Rossi. The two could not find a peer-reviewed journal to publish their paper, which appeared only on Rossi's self-published blog, the Journal of Nuclear Physics. Invited guests attended demonstrations in Bologna in 2011. Phys.org reported that the January–April demonstrations had flaws and that Rossi refused tests that could verify his claims. The skeptic Ian Bryce suggested power was being fed in through the earth wire. Dick Smith offered Rossi a million dollars to demonstrate the device while that wire was measured, and Rossi refused. On 5 November 2011 the University of Bologna said its researchers had attended only as observers and had not been involved. Rossi's contract with the university had been terminated when he failed to make the first payment.[1]
In a "customer test" on 28 October 2011 the unit was said to release 2,635 kWh over five and a half hours, an average of 479 kilowatts, just under half the promised megawatt. Independent observers could not watch the measurements or make their own, and the plant stayed connected to a power supply. Reports in May 2013 and October 2014, partly funded by the Swedish consortium Elforsk, claimed excess heat. They were not peer reviewed and were criticised as not truly independent. Rossi intervened in the 2014 test when the fuel was inserted and extracted. The particle physicist Tommaso Dorigo said this "totally invalidates any conclusions". Rossi's engineer Fulvio Fabiani, who joined him in 2012 to work on the power supply, later described him as a genius and said the team had films that "cannot be disclosed" of "creatures that emit pure light" melting down a reactor. On 31 January 2019 Rossi livestreamed a new version, the E-Cat SK. Observers said its inputs, outputs and measurements were undefined. Bryce concluded "there is no real doubt about it being a fake".[1][8]
Patents and lawsuit
A 2008 international application received an unfavourable preliminary report from the European Patent Office. It cited "numerous deficiencies" and said the claims offended "against the generally accepted laws of physics and established theories". In March 2014 the U.S. Patent Office provisionally rejected Rossi's application as inoperable, saying there was "no evidence in the corpus of nuclear science" for the claimed process. He obtained a patent only in Italy, on 6 April 2011, under a largely formal examination. In January 2014 the newly formed U.S. company Industrial Heat acquired rights to the technology. In April 2016 Rossi sued it for an $89 million licensing fee due after a one-year test. The company said that after three years it had never been able to reproduce his results. The case was settled on 5 July 2017 on undisclosed terms.[1]
Scientific view
Physicists such as Ethan Siegel and Peter Thieberger of Brookhaven National Laboratory have argued that the claimed reactions conflict with basic nuclear physics. The Coulomb barrier would be insurmountable, and the reaction would produce gamma radiation strong enough to sicken bystanders. The copper in the "spent fuel" also had the same isotope ratios as natural copper. Peter Ekström of Lund University predicted in May 2011 that "the whole story is one big scam". Popular Science wrote in 2012 that the claims appeared "thoroughly debunked" and that Rossi "looked like a con man clinging to his story to the bitter end". A few cold-fusion supporters were more positive. In 2011 Dennis Bushnell of NASA Langley called low-energy nuclear reactions "promising".[1]
Greer's claims
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The physician-turned-ufologist Steven Greer founded the Disclosure Project in 1993 to reveal alleged government knowledge of UFOs and of "advanced energy and propulsion systems". At its National Press Club event on 9 May 2001, with about twenty former military, intelligence and government witnesses, his group said zero-point energy and anti-gravity technologies held the keys to "stopping global warming" and "ending the energy crisis". Greer's 492-page briefing document claimed that reverse-engineering crashed craft had led to "significant technological breakthroughs in energy generation". He said they had been hidden because the "social, economic and geo-political order of the world" was at stake. The journalist Leslie Kean, who attended, said some speakers made "outrageous, grandiose claims". NASA's former engineer James Oberg described Greer's theory as a "worldwide real X-file cabal". Separately, Greer claimed in 2015 that the Army had shelved alternative-energy inventions by other inventors.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Assessment
Neither claim is supported by evidence. The E-Cat has never passed an independent test. No inventions shelved by the Army or hidden energy breakthroughs have been documented. The testimony groups them as part of the broader "suppressed energy" theme that runs through much of the disclosure movement.[1][2]
People and topics
- Steven Greer — Physician who founded CSETI and the Disclosure Project.
On the Timeline
- NRO "no UFO records" reply (2015) (5 November 2015) — The NRO tells a FOIA requester it has no UFO records.
- Project Greenglow (December 2015) — A BAE engineer discloses Project Greenglow, a UK gravity-control research project.
See every 2015 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Steven M. Greer — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO documents — NSA · nsa.gov · archived copy
References
- Energy Catalyzer — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Steven M. Greer — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "Greer's Disclosure Project", UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- 'Group calls for disclosure of UFO info' — ABC News (2001) · abcnews.go.com · archived copy
- A historian on the Disclosure Project — History News Network · historynewsnetwork.org · archived copy
- Disclosure Project briefing document (2001, PDF) — Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- youtu.be · youtu.be · archived copy
- animpossibleinvention.com · animpossibleinvention.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Energy Catalyzer”, “Steven M. Greer”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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