Linnard?s hydrogen on demand system without electricity !

[ResinRat2]

Hi Chris,

My three-electrode cell has been running about 10 hours. Voltage is at 0.224 for the regeneration and I am beginning to see evidence of zincates. This tells me I will need to up the regeneration voltage for the next experiment. I will see if I can get a good picture, but the best way to describe it is that it is very irregular and blobbish. It also is a slightly different shade of grey. In contrast, the zinc replating gives a smoother appearance.

If zincates form it will eventually cover the entire zinc electrode and kill the reaction. So even if you are not sure about the zincates, they will make themselves known when the reaction stops. LOL.  I have a couple of zincated electrodes from previous experiments; I will see if I can get a good picture of them as well.

I think I will mix up fresh solution and try this again at a voltage of about 0.5, this should be a good middle ground between 0.22 and 0.85. From there I will see which direction to go.

I want to concentrate on this direction first because it is the most promising for the simplest electronic control running off a fuel cell.

Good job, Chris!

[ResinRat2]

OK, over the last couple of hours I have been slowly ramping up the regeneration voltage. At the present time I am at 0.830 volts, and I plan on leaving it at this setting and letting it run. The zincates just fell off the zinc rod and a new coating seems to be forming. Not sure what it is yet. The hydrogen gas is pouring off the tungsten/carbide electrode, but I don't see any zinc plating on it so far. Hard to tell because there are so many hydrogen bubbles coming off that it is hard to see the surface of the electrode. I am hoping oxygen is coming freely off the zinc rod, but it is very hard to tell.

At this point I don't want to go any higher in voltage so I will see what happens now.

I will keep you posted.

Oh, my camera battery died, it needs a couple of hours to recharge; then I will post pics.

[Tacmatricx]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for giving the configuration a try! I was about to try the lower voltages but have had a few cells in the 0.83 to 0.84 range without success. Usually the zinc ends up totally eroded. I think there is a current in the electrolyte flowing from the positive regen tungsten to the generation tungsten because it is a less resistive path than the zinc? May need to add a few ohms of resistance to the connection between the zinc and the generation electrode to make it prefer the zinc path and force zinc plating on zinc?

One other idea I had was to pulse the regeneration voltage to allow strong erosion and replating at intervals while producing H2 the whole time? you could switch the regeneration tungsten between a positive source and a direct connection to the zinc to allow it to be used for both generation and regeneration. May also allow any zinc plating on the regen electrode to react off?

Let me know what you find!

Chris

[ResinRat2]

Hi Chris,

This cell at 0.83 volts is running fine but I think there is evidence of zinc starting to plate on the tungsten-carbide electrode.

I am going to drop the voltage to around 0.7 volts and see what happens.

I will keep you posted.

[Tacmatricx]

Hi Dave,

Through my charging and discharging experiments with different cells, it was acting like a battery but when discharging and charging it would hang for the longest time at 0.640V

Could be the sweet spot to keep it trickle charged? You may have to either stabilize it there or go to slightly below 0.7V

Chris