Aphasiac's 12HP Hydrogen Project

[Aphasiac]

Last week, I hooked my (10x) 3"x11" plates up to a 400watt 110v inverter... but fried the inverter.

This weekend I drained the water, added new distilled water with no electrolyte, and put 12v to the cell for 5 mins to warm it up. There was virtually no draw, sparse activity in the cell.

I replaced the 400watt deal with a 1kw, 115v AC inverter fused @ 20amps. Plugged-in the cell, and popped my fuse.

I decided to try hooking my unit up to the power mains, which produced absolutely no activity and blew a  20 amp fuse after 5 mins of runtime. I don't understand why I would get good activity in the cell @ 12v & 10a, and then nothing when I bump up to 115V! And why is there so much draw with absolutely no electrolyte?

So... I'm now planning to put this project on the back burner for a little bit, and get my hands on some new Stainless and set myself to work at reproducing IH's test cell. And I'll go from there. In spite of my 12v successes with this cell, I know it's not producing enough to run my 12HP engine.  It's time for me to join the rest of the class.

The good news is: my 12HP engine and gen head will be ready and waiting for me when I come out the other side. lol.

Cheers, Mark. 

[keithturtle]

Yo, Mark;
If ya cain't reduce the conductivity of yer water, try deionized water  if y'all can get some.   Better yet, go thru the cell and double yer spacing.    Conductivity is a function of gap times dielectric coefficient of water, or the reciprocal of that, I think.

D I water only in the cell, and slowly adding a one molar solution of KOH [ that's 56.1 grams divided by percentage purity = add this weight to 1 litre D I water] will get you there, as long as y'all mix thoroughly whenever ye add.   Stick an air hose in the bottom af cell and let the bubbles mix it fer ya.   Jes a little whisper of air.

Turtle

[Aphasiac]

Thanks, Turtle... but I still don't understand why there was absolutely no production @ 115v. Does this make any sense to you?

[chuukie]

Try adding a diode to change the ac to dc, not a rectifier...

[keithturtle]

@chuukie;
A single diode will allow half-wave ac to reach the cell, and the pulsing may indeed be beneficial.  The bridge rectifier is four diodes in a diamond configuration, and when properly arrayed, will provide constant full wave (albeit 120 Hz) DC  out.

@ Aphasiac;
Don't tell me yer sendin' AC to that thar monster... Say it ain't so, Martha!?!

AC won't git y'all where you wanna go.   Gots to be DC with each plate maintaining the same polarity all the time.   By pulsing, we refer to sending a pulse of DC current, then shutting it off fer a time, thenceforth applying said pulse once again, ad infinitum ad nauseum.   Not unlike the light bub in yer flashmight whenever ye turn the switch on and off in rapid succession.

AC reverses the polarity 60 times a second (or whatever yer system runs at) and there ain't no time for the electrolytic process to get underway before the current turns around and heads the other direction.

Yes, there are systems that use AC riding on a DC main... we ain't goin' there in this thread  (and I know next to nuthin' about that at this stage anyhow).

Mark, ol' buddy... y'all ain't lost it, have ye?  Say it ain't so!!!

Turtle