Thermoelectric excess heat effect in electrolytic cells

A new thermo-electrochemical effect similar to Peltier heat is introduced in this paper and suggested as a main cause of the excess heat observed in electrolytic cells. If the cell electrodes are made from different materials, we show that the system will function like a thermoelectric heat pump. With finite work input, this thermodynamic engine will pump in an infinite amount of low-grade environmental heat for vanishing temperature differences between the hot and cold source in the reversible, low current density, limit. A partial irreproducibility of excess heat observations is expected due to differences in the location of the calorimeter wall in each experiment. The heat pump nature and the thermoelectric properties of electrolytic cells are basic new notions introduced here. They may solve the excess heat paradox in electrolytic cold fusion, thus removing the well-known discrepancy between the small output of nuclear reaction products and the large excess heat, redefining this way both the notion of excess heat and the focus of our cold fusion research.