Hydrogen Generator!

[Flatland2D]

I have decided it would be best to put the generator inline with the throttle body coolant. If there are any mpg gains/losses with cold/warm air, that would mess up the results of my hydrogen generator. Future tests could indicate which is better. I personally don't think it'll matter. The intake manifold area is already smoking hot from the engine, I don't think it'll make a difference either way.

[Matt Timion]

I was thinking about this more tonight, and I think you're right. There is so much ambient heat in the engine bay that I'm sure it won't matter a bit. This is probably the exact same reason removing the coolant line to the TB has little or no effect.

I'm personally very excited about what you're doing.

I can't remember if I read it here or not, but are you planning on seperating the hydrogen from the oxygen? If so, how are you going to do this?

[Flatland2D]

I would like to keep the gasses separated, but I don't know that it's necessary. I was planning on having the H2 go to the intake on the same vacuum line as the PCV valve and the O2 going to a hose barb I already have on my intake tube. The only reason to do this is you should have a less violent explosion if just the H2 is combusting. I don't think that is much of a possibility though.

H2 comes off the cathode (negative) and O2 off the anode (positive). I believe this is only true for the electrolysis of pure water though. I was reading somewhere about using salt as the electrolyte and the resulting gasses were H2 and Cl2. I verified this in my experiments. I was definitely producing Cl2 (chlorine or mustard gas) because the smell is very distinct. In this case it would be nice to discard the unused gas somewhere else. I need to figure out what I'll produce with sulfuric acid just to be sure.

Hopefully this weekend I'll make some test cells so I can accurately measure the volume of gas produced. I saw a really old ammeter at work last night that is capable of measuring up to 50A or something like that. I will borrow it for these tests.

[dfoxengr]

cool work. keep it updated. and yes the TB coolant line is what i was going to suggest also.

[Flatland2D]

I tried baking soda as an electrolye last night. Near boiling point it was much more impressive than salt which produces better results at room temperature. There is an important difference in these two solutions. Salt is producing hydrogen and chlorine gas, the latter is not useful at all. Baking soda is producing hydrogen and oxygen, both very useful during combustion. Also, the rate of production at the anode is much higher with baking soda. Salt just barely produces chlorine gas, but baking soda produces oxygen almost as fast as hydrogen (stoic. it's 2:1 though). This is a very good thing.

Most of the hydrogen generators for sale seem to recommend basic (as in not acidic) electrolytes. They are also the ones claiming to be all or nearly maintenance free. I wonder if they are less corrosive. In the little time I experimented last night I didn't notice any build up. They looked cleaner than usual. I'll try a prolonged test in the coming days to verify this. I'd also like to try a much stronger base such as lye.

I was drawing about 7 to 8 amps from my generator. I'm trying to keep my max current around 15 to 20 amps. I could put another cell in parallel and be generating twice as much H2/O2 and still be within my limits.

[GasSavers_Diemaster]

why not make the heater in paralell or even relace the heater inthe car. that would produce plenty of heat. or if coolent is a problem u could use oil. just remimber that your containor must withstand 20 psi on collent or ~60 w/ oil.

[Flatland2D]

Putting a heater in parallel (I'm assuming you mean electrical) would be drawing unnecessary current. There's way too much heat being generated under the hood to make use of that the idea of adding another heater seems inefficient.

I'd rather not take away the car's heater just for this application. It is handy to have for the few weeks each year it gets cold.

Withstanding pressure won't be a problem at 20psi.

[GasSavers_Diemaster]

no put your new heater in paralell the the heater in the car ussing the coolent lines. dont go electrical. just T off the heater hoses.

[dfoxengr]

gotten any metals not to corrode as the nodes?

[Flatland2D]

Well tomorrow I'll <i>finally</i> be going to the metal supplies store to pick up some high grade stainless steel and anything else I can find that might work. Hopefully I can do some extended tests with the new materials.

I set up a test rig for determining if two cells in series are better than one. I'm trying to keep as many things constant as possible. I'll post pictures of what I'm doing after the test, which will hopefully be tomorrow also.