being the car guy that married in to a non-car family, i get asked a lot of interesting questions. this was one of them.

my father-in-law asked me to reveiw a website( http://www.savefuel.ca/hydrogen/ ) and give my opinion. there are several other websites also that appear to sell the same technology.

now i see a lot of gimmicks that are supposed to give you better mileage, but this appears to might actually work. i figured i would run it by the real professionals and get their opinion.

zedpapa

_________________
1970 dodge dart w/225 /6 bored .040" over, holley 390cfm w/vac. sec., compcams 252s, clifford shorty headers w/2.5" exhaust w/flowmaster, f-body 11" front discs, aluminum A-833OD, 8 1/4 w/3.21 SG
soon to have 5 gears!!!

Arrrgh. Not againnnn...

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

so you have heard of supplemental hydrogen injection? is there another thread i should read?

zedpapa

_________________
1970 dodge dart w/225 /6 bored .040" over, holley 390cfm w/vac. sec., compcams 252s, clifford shorty headers w/2.5" exhaust w/flowmaster, f-body 11" front discs, aluminum A-833OD, 8 1/4 w/3.21 SG
soon to have 5 gears!!!

I've certainly heard of baseless scams, conspiracy theories and con artists, if that's what you mean. Please do a search on this board for the word "hydrogen".

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

You're using electrolysis to breakdown water into H2 and O2.

Then you burn this mix in the engine.


The electricity comes from the engine (thru the alternator) so there's no net gain. (at best you'll break even)


Now there is a possibility of better mileage if the electricity didn't come from the engine.....

1. Solar cells produce the electricity to do the electrolysis
2. Extra batteries do the electrolysis (which you charge at home, but your home electric bill goes up)
3. Extra batteries charged with some sort of regenerative braking scheme (normal alternator would work if it only kicks in when slowing down)

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

The big hit is the volume of Hydrogen you'd need to make a difference.

Hydrogen used to operate an engine is under extremely high pressure. The volume necessary to actually run the engine, not that the metallurgy of our particular engines can withstand the stuff, is quite large.
The numbers that the marketers like to use are based on mass. Keep in mind that Hydrogen isn't very heavy, so to have equivalent mass, you need a tremendous volume of the stuff.
The energy density of Hydrogen at atmospheric pressure is 270 btu/cu ft.
That is what your going to get out of Dr. Schmoe's patented bucket O' Hydrogen Boost. It is not, however, going to be pure.

Gasoline on the other hand is in a liquid state and commands an energy density of 836,000 btu/cu ft.

Now, if you start out with Liquid H2 your clear up to 227,000 btu/cu ft. All you need to do is get the hydrogen cooled down a little. Say -423° F.

Hopefully this will clarify just how much Hydrogen would be needed to actually run a reciprocating engine.

The big claim to fame for Burning Hydrogen in an engine is how clean it is. That's a bit misleading. To burn pure hydrogen in an engine, with pure oxygen, it would work. But that's not what air is made of. We still need to look at NOX and CO2. It comes with the combustion air.

So don't throw your Catalytic converter away just yet.

CJ

_________________
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Forgot to add that to save 1 gallon of gas you need 2.4 gallons of water..............


A gallon of water has about 47,000 BTUs (compared to 112,000 BTU's for gasoline) once it's been converted to Hydrogen.

So for every gallon of gas you save you need about 2.4 gallons of water.
(200 miles on 10 gallons for 20mpg to 200 miles on 9 gallons gas/2.4 gallons water for 22.22mpg)

It takes 13,700 Wh / gallon (Watthour / gallon)
http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Ca ... o=0&fpart=

or 32,880 Wh for the needed 2.4 gallons.

Not sure how to convert that to watts at the alternator or with solar cells........

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes