University adds electrochemical boost in pursuit of cold fusion

While the experiment is benchtop scale, with more energy input than gained, it is the first time that deuterium–deuterium fusion has been demonstrated using the technique, according to UBC. The results were published on August 20 in Nature.

This image from the recent paper includes (a) the working principle of the UBC Thunderbird reactor; (b) photo of the Thunderbird reactor and (c) the electrochemical cell. (Scale bars, 10 cm (b); 2.5 cm (c).) (Image: Nature, Electrochemical loading enhances deuterium fusion rates in a metal target, nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09042-7)

Materials of choice: The team worked with a palladium target because it can readily absorb deuterium in its lattice structure. Confined in a lattice, deuterium ions are sitting ducks and are more likely to collide and fuse with incoming deuterium.

UBC built a tabletop device including a particle accelerator that the researchers call the Thunderbird reactor. The device has three main components: a plasma thruster, a vacuum chamber, and an electrochemical cell. One side of the palladium target is bombarded with high concentrations of deuterium fuel using plasma immersion ion implantation, while on the other side of the palladium target is an electrochemical cell.

The researchers’ electrochemical method involves bathing the palladium in heavy water (water deuterium replacing the hydrogen) and then using a single volt of electricity to introduce an electrical bias, causing the palladium to absorb the deuterium.

“The goal is to increase fuel density and the probability of deuterium–deuterium collisions, and as a result, fusion events,” explained Curtis Berlinguette, corresponding author of the paper and distinguished university scholar at UBC. “One volt of electricity achieved what normally requires 800 atmospheres of pressure. While we didn’t achieve net energy gain, the approach boosted fusion rates in a way other researchers can reproduce and build on.”

Echoes of the past: Palladium and a heavy water bath were also used in the discredited 1989 cold fusion experiments of chemists Martin Fleischmann and B. Stanley Pons, who claimed that experiments at the University of Utah and Brigham Young University had generated anomalous heat, indicating a new, clean, and plentiful energy source. Their findings—and the way they were announced, with a press conference rather than a journal article—caused a stir but could not be independently validated, and cold fusion claims were discredited.

Nuclear News covered the announcement in a May 1989 article titled “The Utah Experiment: Is It Really Fusion?” By July 1989, NN was reporting that Fleischmann and Pons had “sent word” that they would not attend a meeting on cold fusion convened by Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the scientists assembled found that the phenomena “do not have strong enough experimental results to support some of the claims made for them.”

Findings and goal: In contrast to Fleischmann and Pons, the UBC research team is quick to say they are measuring not heat but neutrons as evidence of fusion reactions.

The electrochemical loading of deuterium into the palladium target increased deuterium–deuterium fusion rates by an average of 15 percent, compared with loading the target palladium using the plasma field alone.

“Our approach brings together nuclear fusion, materials science, and electrochemistry to create a platform where both fuel-loading methods and target materials can be systematically tuned,” said Berlinguette.

The team’s findings included that “the electrochemical loading of a metal target at the electron volt energy scale can affect nuclear reactions at the mega electron volt energy scale.”

Present-day research: The UBC team’s work builds on research by a “multiinstitutional peer group” convened and funded by Google in 2015 to reevaluate cold fusion. In 2019, the group (which included UBC researchers) publicized their efforts in a Nature perspective titled “Revisiting the Cold Case of Cold Fusion.” While they “found no evidence to support cold fusion claims” they did identify future lines of inquiry, according to the university—including the work UBC researchers are continuing to pursue.

In February 2023, the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $10 million in funding for eight projects designed to determine whether LENR could one day be a viable energy source. ARPA-E intended the funding to “break the stalemate” and determine if LENR holds merit for future energy research.