Water Power
Run your car or bakkie on water with a HHO or HHOO generator.
You may e-mail me at
john@hydroxypower.co.za with questions, suggestions or if you
can help in any way.
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Water Power
Run your car or bakkie on water with a HHO or HHOO generator.
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How to build a basic hydrogen-on-demand wet cell. Keep it green with organic Septic Tank and Pit Latrine Treatments
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4 January 2012 It is a long time since my last update as I haven't done that much due to a lack of finances and no functional PWM controller. I have continued, however, to run one of my wet cell designs almost continuously since the last update. I have also done a few trips to Pietermaritzburg and Durban and because I had to find a balance so that the electrolyser would not run too hot at the end of a journey, I had to keep the start-up amperage relatively low. In the past month the start-up amperage has steadily been creeping up until it was about 12A. However at this amperage the output was barely 300ml per minute. I decided to open the electrolyser yesterday and give it a clean out. The electrolyte was a dark brown and the accumulated sludge in the bottom was almost the consistency of putty! This showed what a pain in the gat 304 grade stainless steel can be. I didn't feel like scrubbing the insides and the plates down so I had another look at dry cell that I built a while ago with 316 grade stainless steel. After the last assembly I had stripped it and cleaned it (thankfully!) and so I had to re-assemble it from scratch. I decided to keep the HHOO configuration. The 13 plates are configured +nnnnn-nnnnn+. I fastened a cpu fan, still attached to the cooling fins, on the side of the cell so that the breeze will blow over the edges of the plates sticking out past the insulating separators. Hopefully this will prolong the period before the temperature increases to unhealthy levels. I want to try build my own PWM controller to deal with this. I have received a quote for the components from an electronics firm in Durban for a bit over R100. When I get some extra money I want to go through and buy what I need. The last reservoir that I built for this system did not do the job, so I decided to build another one. I used a piece of 110mm tubing from a previous project with a total capacity of about 2,5 liters. I built a new wood frame to hold the reservoir and the dry cell in place, with the reservoir above the cell so that any electrolyte which is pushed up to the reservoir with the HHOO can flow back to the cell. I don't have a working camera at the moment so unfortunately I can't take any photo's to show the setup. I managed to squeeze it in the boot of the car, although I had to jam it in at a slight slant to make it fit. Here's the interesting part: with the bench test using my trusty computer power supply, the electrolyser was pulling 5A and pushed out 300ml HHOO per minute. When I hooked the setup to the car with the same electrolyte, the system pulled 14A and pushed out 1L per minute! I disconnected the battery for half an hour to try reset the memory in the brain box. I decided to advance the MAP sensor controller to its maximum setting and run the car from there. I will monitor the engine's reaction and tweak the controller as time goes on. Business is bad at the moment and so I cannot afford to fill the tank on every occasion. I have unfortunately had to run the tank mostly on almost empty for some time due to lack of money and as a result some gunk from the tank (I suspect) has buggered the injectors around. I think this is the case as the car often battles to start, as if it has no petrol. Then when it runs it sometimes won't idle properly and it runs rough. When I drive for 10 minutes straight, or more, then it evens out and runs okay. I need to find the money for a good service, but my priority at the moment is to first find the money for my wife's operation. 5 January 2012 I made a round trip to Shelly Beach today (perhaps 15km in total). The start-up amperage fluctuates between 11 and 13 amps and pushes out 800ml per minute. The fluctuation is due to the fact that as the gas squeezes up between the plates there are times when there is less electrolyte covering the plates. I was pleasantly surprised on my return that the electrolyser was barely warm. Even more so when I discovered that one of the wires to the cpu fan had broken off so the system didn't have the benefit of any cooling! The car is still running very rough because (I think) of the dirty injectors. I so wish for a simple carbureted engine! Because the engine is performing badly it is going to be difficult to set it up to the point where the HHOO is proving positive gains. I think what is also complicating matters is that the MAP sensor is not playing along and that massive amounts of petrol is being thrown at the engine. It smells as if the engine is flooded while trying to start and then for a long while it runs at high revs. I have sprayed carb cleaner into the inlet manifold (as per advice from a mechanic) to clean the doodab wire thingy which senses what-have-you. Ja, damned fuel injection complications! Although I previously achieved 20km/l in town on 300ml HHOO per minute, I want to see how long the electrolyser can run at low temperatures before that starts to ramp up. Ideally I want to find the setting on the MAP sensor enhancer which will give the full benefit of the electrolyser pumping out this amount of gas. |
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The information presented on this website is for you to look at, learn from, laugh at, or whatever. But if you try anything that you see here it is at your own risk. I will not take responsibility for your stupidity should something go wrong. |
