[5][6] In 2008 Rossi attempted to patent a device called an Energy Catalyzer (or E-Cat), which was a purported cold fusion or Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) thermal power source.

In 1973, Rossi graduated in philosophy at the University of Milan[9] writing a thesis on Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and its interrelationship with Edmund Husserl's phenomenology.

Investigations showed that petroleum supposedly produced by the company had never been placed on the market, and that mixtures of toxic waste and harmful chemical solvents were being stored in silos or illegally dumped into the environment.

[18] In January 2011, Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi claimed to have demonstrated commercially viable nuclear power in a device he called an Energy Catalyzer.

[20] In 2014, the U.S. company Industrial Heat LLC acquired rights to the device, but later became involved in a legal dispute with Rossi, who asserted that licensing fees had not been paid.

Industrial Heat countered that they had been unable to reproduce the claimed results, and the case was eventually settled out of court on undisclosed terms.