Separate Hydrogen and Oxygen from Water Through Electrolysis

Step 6: Thats it!

Thats it! Turn it on, and watch it bubble. The amount of time it takes depends on how powerful your power source is. Stronger it is, faster it bubbles. Mine takes about 5 min for a test tube.

The electrodes do corrode if you don't have graphite, its pretty gross, but i don't think its dangerous. (don't quote me)

Here is a video of it bubbling:

Comments

[epicnoobpwn]

Can I use an engine's gas tank (lawnmower) as the hydrogen reservoir? How would I collect the hydrogen directly in the gas tank?

Can I hook up a motor to the driveshaft of an engine to generate the electricity instead of a battery?

Does hydrogen require oxygen to burn?

How many volts are required to create a decent amount of hydrogen? What contributes to how fast the electrolisys process is: volts, amps, or watts?

[x3n0c1dal]

Yes, you can, just fill it with salt water and place it in the container, like you would a test tube.

Anything that generates electricity can be used, really.

The chemical reaction known as combustion always requires oxygen.
2H₂ + O₂ → 2H₂O + heat

I am merely a high-schooler, but from what I know the watt is a unit of power. Also, the strength of the electricity is not relevant, as long it produces electricity.

[gemmangary]

Well Ladies and Gentilemen, If you want to poison your yard yourself and all your children as well as your pets or anything else thats your business. When you use stainless steel you are going to have chrome ,nickel, and several percolates that not only can cause death, nickel is a known cancer causing agent when in the percolate form. May I sugest that you take the time and look up the alloy that is being used by some other people that will increase your gas production some say by at least 50 times. Also if you make an engine use the heat energy to make more motive power and will even produce more hydrogen and oxygen while cooling your engine.

[gemmangary]

read this and then come to own conclution!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_toxicity

The only SAFE metal is the Nobel one Platinum! By the way if you use the heat from your engine you can make more power via 1st by using several sterling engines then on the low heat end power then using by the same steam turbine and a radiator even more power then keep on going down till itscool water by using a fan.

[ronjan41]

Can you elaborate and give me some pointers as to where to find this.

[Vlad the impaler]

Hi all, Firstly I have no knowledge about chemistry, I know basic mechanics only. Having read through this and read information from a few sites, I am interested in trying this - mainly from the cost saving aspect as I live in the uk which has the most expensive (taxed) gas prices in the world. I have one question, could this hydrogen system damage my pistons and possibly valves in any way? I ask this because of the conflicting views on the heat generated. I have read on a few sites that pistons can be damaged by the extra combustion heat generated - I can't afford this to happen as I need my car on a daily basis for work. Apologies for this being on a very basic level.

[daddyo44907]

Good question. The short answer would be No, it will not damage the tops of your pistons, or your valves. I say that because you will not be making a significant volume of HHO, compared to the Air your engine is already taking in. The powerful HHO gets diluted to the point that it is no longer an explosive. When the air and HHO mix, you now have more oxygen content in the air, and a little hydrogen. Plus, and this is a big plus, you now have introduced more water vapor. Where did the vapor come from? It came from the bubble membranes. You see, when the gases pop out of the water, they carry a thin layer of water with them. It turns out, this is actually a good thing. The extra moisture gets turned to steam, which helps push the pistons down. It also aids in washing out the carbon deposits that buildup in the combustion chambers. That restores lost power. The water also has a cooling affect when it enters the combustion chamber. What you don't want is for water to flow into the engine. That can be avoided, using a Bubbler to trap any foam that may be coming from the HHO cell or generator. Hope this helps.

[Timofte Andrei]

use the graphite from a dead AA battery ;)

[Mega Nucleus]

I did the experiment but with sulfric acid and i used the lead from a pencil

[wbucket]

Hi, if given the same power source, what would be the other factors that you can play with to increase bubble production?

[simon155]

Don't overlook air. The interplay between the excited water and the air results in state change. This has been further highlighted by recent copper nanofiber materials, said to increase bubble production 30-fold. Ultimately that's what you're after. I'm curious also if the anode / cathod setups stricly necessary in the traditional sense. I've heard you can ionise two streams of water passing them through both ends of a polarised field. Connecting the outputs vessels to opposite poles may boost the field strength?

[zolar1]

If you want a TON of hydroxy (AKA HHO), all you need is a strong alkali (Lye for example) and some aluminum chunks. Place the Aluminum chunks in a non-plastic container, add water (any kind), and a spoonful of Lye. Wait a few minutes and you should see a violent production of hydroxy - no smoking please! LOL And the container gets extremely HOT. Keep a water hose handy just in case.

[zolar1]

Area of the plates, the plate spacing, the electrolyte concentration, the design of the plates & plate assembly, the size/shape/location of the housing, the choice of electrolytes, the injection site, a PWM, ultrasonics, and probably much more. This is all I can think of right now.

[hildebrand]

I am interested in testing Hydrogen on my car and after reading all these comments last night I wanted to ask you for your advice. What will be the basic equipment I can buy or put together myself to test the hydrogen gas on my car? Any inofrmation will help since I am just starting. Thank you

[zolar1]

sheesh. this computer keeps erasing my posts. I'll have to try again when I can get this thing fixed.

[Mike8913]

don't really need a PWM if you use several small units. Connect them in sereis with a current of no more than 20 amps. If you're running a tweleve volt circuit * actual 11.something), then run 4 or five units in series. You will be running the same current through all but you're voltage will be in the 2's per unit, reducing heat and maintaining or exceding single unit HHO production. Think small and plentiful.

As for the hard drive disks. Depends what you want, more plates wil almost always produce more gas, but even just one will work. I never even use plates to be honest, i use 2 bolts dipping into the water from the top. I run about five of them, I dont know what my production rate is, but I'm happy with the results, running my camry 4cyl at 42mpg (27mpg orig)

[zolar1]

Sheesh! Rub it in why don't ya!. I can't even manage more than a 25% boost due to the lousy vehicle computer fighting me.

[zolar1]

This is for all those "Doubting Thomas's" out there who THINK that this technology takes more energy than you get out of it. Original MPG was 18 city and 30 Highway. (Pats self on the back and self laughs all the way to the bank)

[viralspirit]

This reply might be a bit late, but anyways. The reason why it does not work anymore is because the last time your battery had an initial charge, so that initial charge was giving you the extra MPG until the alternator would have to start recharging it. However, even with a hydrogen production from an outside source you should not be getting twice the mpg. There must be some other reason.

viral

[zolar1]

Well, I could not duplicate that MPG increase. The MPG steadily went back down to normal within a few days.

Can't figure it out...

[viralspirit]

Well, there could be any number of things. Hydrogen burns hotter than gasoline (also a lot faster), this can cause damage to your spark plugs, together with extra water. Also, I heard that water can get into oil through the piston rings, but I am not sure if that is true. As you probably know the oxygen sensor will think that there is not enough air and will try to suck in more oxygen than what the engine needs for a complete combustion. Hydrogen cell might also not be operating properly. Just a million things. But like I said earlier if you recharge that battery to the fullest and than try it again it should work.

viral

[zolar1]

Well, the car's computer keeps on screwing me. I cannot duplicate the nice MPG. I even switched to a better cell, making much more Hydroxy than before, but the car still won't get the good MPG anymore. And no engine codes either. Any thoughts?

[GrumpyOldGoat]

Well, a pre computer car would probably work better.

Try it on a lawn mower, generator, or some other small gas engine.

I'm waiting for somebody to try it on diesel engines. I get 18mpg with my power stroke, but i would like 25 about 30% better!

[Mike8913]

good stuff..where'd you get your scan gauge?

[zolar1]

Did a google search for scangauge. Went to their site and ordered it. Gauge with an extra cord was about $180 BTW, that MPG was taken on a reasonably level road, no stops and cruise on, windows down. Vehicle was a 2004 Chevy Classic, 2.2L I4, automatic. I had to tweak the MPG down a bit because my settings were too aggressive. A subsequent test on the highway revealed 51.8 MPG @ 65MPH, with 2 stops to turn around. As soon as I can determine induction air vacuum, I will install a vacuum switch, another overriding relay and bigger resistor so when you are actually driving it (not idling or stopping), the best MPG can be obtained. Note: My unit sure does use a LOT of water....

[wbucket]

So any updates on how you tweak the ECU? Still that same device which you ordered online too.

[zolar1]

I just set the lower pulses to no less than .370v on the EFIE. I just turned the little screw with a VERY small screwdriver. As for the PAM sensor, I spliced a 50K POT in series with the VREF signal wire and the MAP sensor. Took a long varied set of drives on highway, city, a/c on & off. Measured actual resistance of the POT each time I took a reading. I was using a Scangauge and watching the MAP sensor values. I concluded that as long as the Check Engine light didn't come on and the car didn't stall, that had to be the best setting for that type of driving. To be conservative on my resistor choices, I chose the nearest 'out of the box' resistor that Radio Shack sold, that didn't exceed the resistance values I determined. I got a project board and a relay (Still need one more yet, & a big resistor, and a vacuum switch), and started soldering. I did notice that the best MPG was while driving with the maximum resistance I could give it. BUT - each time I stopped, the check engine light came on and engine stalled. So, I have to hand make a custom resistance arrangement based on 3 factors I mentioned above. A pain, but it works. I could also incorporate a default override to the whole board so when the unit is off, the MAP sensor has no added resistance.

[Mike8913]

Do you have it wired into the main fusebox?

[zolar1]

I used a standard 30 (40) amp fog light relay available at every auto parts store. That was wired to the battery via a 20 amp inline circuit breaker. Signal wire came from whatever was hot in the fuse box when the engine was on.

[Mike8913]

could you post that file in a different format r tell me what program to open it with because it saves as a temporary file.

[zolar1]

OOPS! Sorry. Forgot to tell you that you need a free program called Open Office to open it.

Get it HERE

[Mike8913]

you have your generator positive running wight off the batteery terminal, not through the fuse box? Interesting, and then you run the negative to ground on the frame?

[zolar1]

Nope. The negative is to the engine block, the positive to a relay, and the relay through a fuse holder to the battery. The signal wire from the relay goes to the fuse box ignition source and the negative for the signal goes to the fuel cell's special ground terminal. Look at the attached above 'Low Water Light Schematic' and you can see how easy it is.

[Mike8913]

Are you using any sort of water injection to cool the combustion chambers down? Hydrogen, or HHO in actuality burns a lot hotter than petrol. The 02 sensor will automatically richen the mixture so that it can remove the excess heat. So, unless your compensating for the added heat with something like water injection (the only option that seems realistic to me) than your ECU is going to give you issues and diminish any gains you may have gotten. My best piece of advice is to become friends with a mechanic, they hook you up to a computer an read all the engines codes to tell you what the computer is communicating to the engine. That's been my best ally way for advice and I can't recommend anything better. Maybe become friends with Home Depot people too, specifically the tool rental department. I'm starting a blog soon to cover all my construction, I'll be sure to post it here when I get it up and going.

[zolar1]

I checked into HHO temperature in the process. Every where I looked, it said that HHO reduced combustion temperatures. This was evidenced by the fact that high combustion temperatures create oxides of nitrogen, but when using HHO, the NOx was almost non existent. And then they talked about Entropy. Or was it Enthalpy. Can't remember. But they did say that the wasted heat was being reclaimed into the system, that's why using HHO would give you better MPG. Or something to that effect. Sorry, not a physicist or chemist here. Perhaps that's why people like to use vacuum - it not only sucks in the HHO, but it sucks in water vapor as well?

[Mike8913]

Definitely not, I am a physicist (at least a student of physics) and hydrogen has a higher ratio of joules to mol. It definitely burns hotter. However, it burns more completely than petrol which is maybe where the confusion lies. Nitrogen is an off gas of petrol after its combustion. What causes the NOx to be non existent in the exhaust is the combustion of the HHO which in turns helps combustion, more completely, of the NOx. So, a lack of NOx does not mean that temperature has decreased, it just means that something happened to the NOx. Whatever anyone tells you, HHO does, in fact, burn hotter than petrol. As for vacuum lines. I run my water vapor line in a vacuum on the intake because otherwise I would get no action in my water aeration. However, I never run the HHO into a vacuumed line on the intake, I just run it into the air box. I do this because I'm afraid that the HHO may not be distributed evenly among the cylinders in a vacuum because it is such a light gas. The air box is perfect for that reason too, HHO is so light that it will be sucked in the intake with even the smallest suction.

[glorybe]

Hydrogen will burn hotter in a pure oxygen environment. But I'm not so sure that when mixed with atmosphere plus gasoline and additives that the combustion process is not altered in such a way as to give a different temperature result. If one wants a cold burn ethanol is hard to beat. Perhaps injecting alcohol with hydrogen might be a better trick. The other trick is to inject water into the exhaust manifold before the turbocharger as the Navy often has done. That way the steam effect spins the turbo a lot faster without subjecting the engine itself to the problems associated with water in a combustion chamber.

[Mike8913]

You're right that hydrogen burns hotter in a pure oxygen environment, but so does gasoline burn hotter than when in an atmospheric environment. When you have to variables acting in the same environment their properties can be translated. Hydrogen will always burn hotter than gasoline, not only because it has more energy per mol, but because it burns completely, as opposed to petrol which will only burn at about 30% efficiency. Covered the water injection already, though, we wouldnt put it in the exhaust manifold on a car engine, we'd put it in the combustion chamber as to lean out the fuel mix. The Navy has different requirements and desires than a civilian driver.

[glorybe]

The Navy uses water injection while at full throttle or very near full throttle. But with turbo charging in cars we usually are at near full throttle when we want even more power. Perhaps the real issue is that in the manifold injection method the Navy is spraying salt water which engines would not like. Secondly the Navy has access to a very large water supply. The manifold method can use more water than a car would be able to carry easily. But boy those PT boat turbos can spin big time! The Navy also has a big budget and replacing blown engines is easier with their huge wallets.

[sixminus4is5]

Hydrogen does burn hotter but not due to complete combustion. Because is burns hotter it LOWERS the octane rating of the fuel increasing the speed of the flame front. This can lead to detonation, otherwise known as pinging or spark knock, it can also cause dieseling. Additionally HHO is H20, H2 and 02 are produced during electrolysis of water NOT HHO!