From Wikipedia:
The Energy Catalyzer is an apparatus built by [...] Andrea Rossi, [and] Sergio Focardi. The 2009 patent application claims "a method and apparatus for carrying out nickel and hydrogen exothermal reactions," with production of copper. Although the patent cites previous works on cold fusion, one statement by Rossi asserted that it is not cold fusion, but rather LENR, Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction.
[...]
According to Focardi, "the hydrogen is heated at a given temperature with a simple resistor. When the ignition temperature is reached, the energy production process starts: the hydrogen atoms penetrate into the nickel and transform it into copper.”
Are these claims true?
Answer
I suppose I did not make myself clear, and spent too much time talking about stellar evolution.
The main reason why this cannot work is that, when you are working with elements that have atomic numbers higher than Iron (26), you cannot get energy by converting an element into another that has an even higher atomic number. In this case we're converting Ni (element 28) into Cu (29). That conversion does not generate energy, it uses energy. Fusion only generates energy for atomic numbers below Iron; above it you can only generate energy through fission. This is why I mentioned stars: they cannot "burn" to any element above Iron. It needs energy from the gravitational collapse of a supernova to create the higher elements.
This is because Iron has the highest binding energy of any nucleus, as explained here and here. Adding more protons or neutrons to Iron means you have to supply energy. Below Iron it's the reverse. This is why fission bombs use Uranium (92) or Plutonium (94) and fusion bombs use Hydrogen (1).
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