This was an interesting project, which has potential in the future, but did not deliver desired results. The idea was to make a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) that instead of charging a battery, would deliver its power directly to an electrolysis apparatus to make hydrogen and oxygen gas. The reason for doing this would be to avoid the complications and expenses of inverters, batteries, and connecting the turbine to the grid. It would also make hydrogen gas which could power a car, a generator, or be used as a welding/cutting torch, which is what I intended to use it for.
That was the idea, however I rarely saw the turbine actually spinning, and it never caught and converted enough energy during its few months of operation before winter to produce any noticeable amount of hydrogen in the collector.
To make the turbine, I cut a large plastic jar in half using a razor blade and my Dremel rotary tool. The two halves were offset to create a sort of "S" shape to catch wind from all directions and bolted to a piece of plastic cut from the housing of a salvaged non-working computer scanner. A small piece of polypropylene tube was used to connect the piece of plastic at the bottom of the turbine to a small gear usinjg JB Weld. The small gear slid perfectly onto a small DC motor salvaged from the same computer scanner as the piece of plastic. The DC motor was screwed to the lid of an applesauce jar with hot glue placed over to screws to help prevent moisture from getting inside the jar. A long wire salvaged from a broken vacuum cleaner was attached to the leads of the DC motor and connected to the electrolysis apparatus.
The electrolysis apparatus consisted of two thin stainless steel sheets spaced apart roughly 1/16 of an inch. One sheet was connected to one lead coming from the DC motor, and the other sheet was connected to the other lead. This way, when the wind blows, the turbine would spin, creating electricity through the DC motor, which would pass through the water, breaking it into hydrogen and oxygen. The gases were collected in an inverted water-filled bottle.
Image notes have more information.
I may revisist this project in the future, but in my suburban area and a mother that doesn't want anything on the roof, wind power is hard to harness. It was a fun project, and one that may have potential in the future. Thanks for reading!!
That was the idea, however I rarely saw the turbine actually spinning, and it never caught and converted enough energy during its few months of operation before winter to produce any noticeable amount of hydrogen in the collector.
To make the turbine, I cut a large plastic jar in half using a razor blade and my Dremel rotary tool. The two halves were offset to create a sort of "S" shape to catch wind from all directions and bolted to a piece of plastic cut from the housing of a salvaged non-working computer scanner. A small piece of polypropylene tube was used to connect the piece of plastic at the bottom of the turbine to a small gear usinjg JB Weld. The small gear slid perfectly onto a small DC motor salvaged from the same computer scanner as the piece of plastic. The DC motor was screwed to the lid of an applesauce jar with hot glue placed over to screws to help prevent moisture from getting inside the jar. A long wire salvaged from a broken vacuum cleaner was attached to the leads of the DC motor and connected to the electrolysis apparatus.
The electrolysis apparatus consisted of two thin stainless steel sheets spaced apart roughly 1/16 of an inch. One sheet was connected to one lead coming from the DC motor, and the other sheet was connected to the other lead. This way, when the wind blows, the turbine would spin, creating electricity through the DC motor, which would pass through the water, breaking it into hydrogen and oxygen. The gases were collected in an inverted water-filled bottle.
Image notes have more information.
I may revisist this project in the future, but in my suburban area and a mother that doesn't want anything on the roof, wind power is hard to harness. It was a fun project, and one that may have potential in the future. Thanks for reading!!
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I would concentrare on finding a suitable tank , if one exists yet , which guarantee a safe use of the hydrogen.
Wouldn't it be safer to look into flywheels (made of concrete for example-cheaper) for energy storage (from a wind turbine) ?
Flywheels would certainly be safer than hydrogen, however those would require more moving parts than this project uses. Also, the flywheel energy would have to be converted to electrical or another sort of usable energy at some point.
Really, there's a myriad of different ways to store wind and solar energy, and hydrogen was the way I chose because I think it's awesome, and I thought it could be implemented on a small scale. Batteries, compressed air, elevated water, and molten salt are all other methods being looked into now to try to store the energy.
Thanks for the comment!!
A larger-scale test is definitely recommended.
Thanks for the comment!!
Overall, this is an interesting method of energy storage. Keep up the good work.
RE:"Make sure you have some type of electrolyte, table salt works well (a level teaspoon would suffice)."
I would tend not to use table salt as an electrolyte because of other discharge gases during electrolysis, try a weak solution of Potassium Hydroxide from your Garden Center. I think it's known as "PotAsh" ? Add the Potassium Hydroxide slowly to your warn electrolyte water and note the current drawn from your power source. Too much current will only heat the solution up and even boil it away. Granted, more current will produce more "HydrOxy" gas but careful balancing is the name of the game for good efficiency.
It's also worth noting that combined "Hydrogen-Oxygen" electrolized gas mix (HydrOxy) implodes very loudly upon ignition........... TAKE CARE
Above is offered in good faith and without predjudice.
John
Some have questioned why this would work better than a blade turbine, look at the overall surface area of the wind collector. this type unit will produce a higher output with a lower required air speed, and may even need to be restricted to prevent it from going too fast.
I've seen units similar in design, that were impossible to stop manually and had to have a disc brake system installed to stop it, even with just a slight breeze blowing.
My Solar Design Prof at USM built the one that couldn't be stopped. He used a different design, but the same principle. A student tried to stop it when there was just a slight breeze, using a huge pipe wrench, and the power of the thing broke both of his arms. Next they tried a big chain the was covered with radiator hose and it snapped the chain. So, we built a brake assembly using disk brake pads, mounted to a frame near the drive pipe, and finally stopped it by compressing the pads against the pipe. The pads were about work out when it finally stopped. Before we set it free again, we installed a heavy duty hydraulic brake assembly on the pipe with a push pedal that worked fine, but still had to work stopping it.
We did some really off the wall building in that program. For my final project I designed a house that could be heated to 70 degrees with it -30 outside, and all it used was the same amount of heat as what a book of matches produces per hour. The Prof said it couldn't be done, and I'm one of those people who can make anything work. My nickname in the military was The Wizard, so that should tell you how I am.
Also, I would be really interested to learn how your house heating worked? Was it thermal mass and south facing windows, for passive solar or more advanced than that?
Thanks
As I said before, the other walls had dirt against them that was even with the roof. I put a roof on the house, but built on the roof was was an area that some people call a captains deck. It is a fenced in area in the center of the roof, where you gain access to it from a stairway inside the house. What it does is gives you an area where during the summer you can go up there to relax. The other advantage is that because of the walls being bermed, and because the frost line will only be three feet down, the ramainder of the wall will be exposed to dirt that will stay at 50deg all year. So when it comes to heating, you only need to raise the inside temp 20deg, and during the summer you will still need to draw warm air in to bring the temp up where it is comfortable.
One of the drawbacks is that a dehumidifier would be needed year round as it would be a perfect breeding ground for mold. I was also going to use a solar water heater to heat the water and pv panels for the electricity. It was a really simple design, but I still had to put in a sizable amount of insulation to help with keeping a barrier between the house and the cold dirt.
The wind unit is pretty hard to describe, so give me a couple of days and I'll scetch it out for you and will send it that way.
Do you happen to remember the design or an specifics to the shape of the blades for the turbine that wouldn't stop? That sounds like a perfect companion to an earth home.
There are tons of pros to this design.
There are tons of pros to this design.
Thanks for the comment!!