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Hydrogen Production for running gas engines

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LAN_403

Vaxian

Fri Apr 13 2007, 03:14PM

Registered Member #635 Joined: Tue Apr 10 2007, 01:56AM
Location:
Posts: 85

To make an amount equivalent in energy to a gallon of gasoline would require only 30 gallons of muriatic acid and 23lbs of aluminum though, but good luck getting that to fit on your lawnmower.

You are crushing my dream of an aluminum powered car.
The reason for my experiments was always conceptual.

Guess I will go to the welding shop again if I want to keep experimenting and use the home brew methods for balloons.

Bored Chemist

Sat Apr 14 2007, 12:46PM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

"So you've tried it then? The patents talked about using the reaction chamber
as a capacitor in a resonant circuit, so a coil is also involved.
Is this what you used?!
Of course I didn't try it; I have better things to do. The physics and spectroscopy of water are well know and there simply isn't anything there that could resonate at those frequencies. The patent office doesn't check that things work. There is no guarantee that, just because something is in a patent, you should believe it works.
In this case, if it worked as indicated, it would be a "free energy" machine. Sush topics are banned here because they are a waste of time and bandwidth.

Producing Hydrogen from aluminium and lye certainly won't produce any acid vapours- the lye would neutralise the acid. The spray of sodim hydroxide/ sodium aluminate solution would screw up the engine.
The whole idea of using aluminium to make hydrogen is bound to be less efficient than electrolysis because electrolysis (with all it's inefficiencies) is used to make the aluminium in the first place.

Electroholic

Sat Apr 14 2007, 01:46PM

Registered Member #191 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 02:01AM
Location: Esbjerg Denmark
Posts: 720

Bored Chemist wrote ...

The whole idea of using aluminium to make hydrogen is bound to be less efficient than electrolysis because electrolysis (with all it's inefficiencies) is used to make the aluminium in the first place.

hahaha, that is so true.

Vaxian

Sun Apr 15 2007, 06:37AM

Registered Member #635 Joined: Tue Apr 10 2007, 01:56AM
Location:
Posts: 85

Finally found a Stainless Steel pressure cooker today at a yard sale fer 2 bucks!

Been looking for one for years to do the aluminum/lye reaction for blowing up balloons.

I'm surprised someone hasn't brought up the hindenburgh!
Here's an interesting bit - The hydrogen burned up in the air in moments, the diesel fuel that ran the engines burned on the ground for hours afterwards, which was more dangerous?

Bjørn

Sun Apr 15 2007, 07:47AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

They are dangerous in completely different ways. Getting diesel to explode is hard even if you try to, hydrogen tend to cause explosions at every opportunity. A pressure cooker is pretty close to a bomb when you have hydrogen in it. You should take great care that air does not enter it and make sure that if it explodes it does not do any harm.

Vaxian

Sun Apr 15 2007, 06:12PM

Registered Member #635 Joined: Tue Apr 10 2007, 01:56AM
Location:
Posts: 85

A pressure cooker is pretty close to a bomb when you have hydrogen in it. You should take great care that air does not enter it and make sure that if it explodes it does not do any harm.

I will of course add an overpressure release valve of around 10-15 psi, don't need an extra piece of hydrogen propelled stainless steel taking my eye out.

Chris

Sun Apr 15 2007, 07:35PM

Registered Member #8 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214

A pressure relief valve won't help if there is a hydrogen/air explosion inside. It will burn VERY fast and probably just explode anyway. I would purge it with argon or something before starting.

Vaxian

Sun Apr 15 2007, 11:51PM

Registered Member #635 Joined: Tue Apr 10 2007, 01:56AM
Location:
Posts: 85

A pressure relief valve won't help if there is a hydrogen/air explosion inside. It will burn VERY fast and probably just explode anyway. I would purge it with argon or something before starting.

Good call!
Food for thought, maybe put dry ingredients in first, pump out all air to create a vacuum, then let the water be sucked in, then collect the hydrogen?

I am glad you are all so concerned about my welfare, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Seriously, this is why I posted, to get others wisdom before jumping back into hydrogen experiments again.

Dr. Shark

Wed May 02 2007, 12:39PM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

Hang on! Did you say you powered a B&S Lawnmower four-stroke with hydrogen? That is quite an achivement, and frankly, you must be very brave! The biggest problem I see with this is reliablility, gasoline is supposed to burn slowly (read 1ms ballbark) and not supposed to explode instantly. I'd expect an engine designed for gasoline to fail quickly and spectacularly if run on hydrogen for a prolonged time under full load.
Can you comment on this?

sparky

Mon May 28 2007, 02:14PM

Registered Member #530 Joined: Sat Feb 17 2007, 07:56AM
Location: Victoria BC, Canada
Posts: 178

Hydrogen powered engine aren't new - but getting to work is quite an achievement. Vancouver has a ballard fuel cell powered vehicle in its fleet of buses. For the 2010 winter Olympics we are using a pure Hydrogen powered bus - its already in service. Practicality sake - pure hydrogen burning in a vehicle isn't practical - but mixing the gas with oxygen would be pretty high powered stuff. I'd hate to see a fire and the fuel station!!

Damn.

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