Hydrogen Generator!

[Flatland2D]

Sorry I haven't been around much. I am busy with school and work and honestly, I have a lot of hobbies that I bounce around from. Sort of taking a break from this stuff till I get inspired with new ideas to try more things.

That said, the research I did in my kitchen was ultimately inconclusive. I was testing if two cells at half voltage was better than one cell at full voltage. It appears one cell is better, but some trials were inconsistent so there is more testing to be done. I eventually burned up my wires and melted all their insulation off from the current going through them. I believe the most I drew was around 27A, and these were about 24AWG wires. It'd probably draw more with thicker wires. The whole thing would need to be rewired with 12AWG wire.

The two major factors I found were using a good electrolyte and keeping it heated. KOH (aka potassium hydroxide aka lye) sounds like the best electrolyte from reading other peoples' reports. One of the most important properties of a good electrolyte is minimal corrosion of the electrodes. KOH seemed to corrode the least (from what I read) and yet is still a really powerful charge carrier. Heated NaCl was the best that I tried, better than baking soda. However baking soda produces two useful gasses (H2 and O2) over just the H2 of NaCl. NaCl also produces Cl2, which is really poisonous, but at a much slower rate.

Keeping the system heated would be easy with the throttle body coolant line running through a water jacket around the generator. The main difficulty was finding a cheap and simple way to implement this. Even though I have access to a machine shop and a welder, I'd want to design it in a way that anyone could make. A drill press would be pretty hard to do without though.

I never got around to testing different metals. One of the more abstract ideas was to use graphite rods. Someone mentioned it on another forum but I don't think anyone has tried it yet. Hopefully the carbon wouldn't react with the electrolyte like other metals, but it's still conductive. I did test some 0.5mm pencil lead that failed horribly, but that might be a little different composition than thicker graphite rod, I'm thinking about 0.25" diameter. The pencil lead broke up in no time, but it did conduct just fine.

I have not tested H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide), but that sounds like it might be a good idea if it can produce H2 fast enough. Try boiling NaCl and an H2O2 mixture and see what does better. The good thing about H2O2 is it should only produce "useful" gasses.

I hope to stop by here more often. Catch me on AIM if you need anything.

[Compaq888]

What really surprised me is how fast hydrogen peroxide made the reaction happen.

I see you are having progress with the minimal corrosion. Is it possible to produce the same amount of hydrogen with the electric method as the chemical method without moderate corrosion of good quality metal?

[Compaq888]

I went to 3 different places looking for CPVC and nobody had it. Nobody had Red devil lye because now it's illegal. The hydrogen generator project sucks!

[SVOboy]

Haha, what materials list are you using? Mehbe you should find another, I'll poke around for one that doesn't use this crap.

[Compaq888]

CPVC pipe does exist but I have a hard time finding it in a store. I don't want to order it online. Red devil lye is illegal now so I can only buy drano.

I just need CPVC with the ends and all the fittings and some hoses and some draino. I know where to get draino. I know where to get a chunk of aluminum. Using a chunk of aluminum instead of soda and beers cans will make the reaction last longer and it will be consistent. I was thinking of using the elecrolysis method for short amount of driving and the chemical method for long periods of time.( trips going to another city and etc.)

[SVOboy]

Sounds like a pretty good set up, I hope you can get hold of some cpvc pipe, I'm sure you can find some, might have to check lumber yards or plumbing places, they often have suchness.

[Compaq888]

I did but nobody has some. I even asked them to what temp it's rated to and the guy was like "i dunno"

Also PVC and CPVC can't be used for compressed air or gas so I am confused like crazy.

[Compaq888]

I went out and bought some ABS since it's stronger than PVC. They didn't have some stuff so I got some 3" diameter for my bubbler. I got all the 4" pipe stuff except the pipe itself.

In total I spent $53 but I got enough stuff to run 2 systems instead of one. I still need some fittings and 4" pipe. Then after that it will be ready.

The chemical method will go in 1st.

[SVOboy]

Sweet, keep up the good work! If you wanna do I write up that'd be lovely! I am not a visual learner, but when I'm putting stuff together I can't do it without pictures, haha. :-), I hope it works well, could be pushing 35 mpg...

[Compaq888]

I'll probably do a writeup with all the part numbers and instructions. I think I found some really good fittings for both systems. I have a couple of ideas for the electrolysis hydrogen generator but that will be later on. I just want to get it into my car.