Linnard?s hydrogen on demand system without electricity !

[ResinRat2]

Hi all,

In keeping with the spirit of research, I am posting my latest failure so you don't repeat it.

I was attempting to make a unit that was less expensive to build, so I tried to build it out of Mason Glass Canning Jars.

The design I chose was two jars connected with what we call in chemistry a "salt bridge". It is used when designing electrolytic cells to bridge the gap between the anode and the cathode when the two are in separate containers. It is simply there so electrolytes (salts) can pass between the two containers freely. Here mine was a plastic tube that was filled with a cloth strip that was wet with electrolyte solution and allowed the electrolytes to pass freely through the cloth between chambers. Theoretically it should have worked. I believe the distance between the electrode chambers (tungsten/carbide and zinc) was too far for the reaction to occur at a good rate. Also the passage of electrolytes was probably slowed greatly by having to travel through the cloth.

Live and learn, this unit did not work. My next unit will use a gallon mason jar and ALL the electrodes will be in that jar. I will try and separate the hydrogen and oxygen by using a one micron nylon mesh around the zinc electrodes to keep the hydrogen and oxygen separate. This mesh worked in the big reactor so I hope it will work in the new design.

Thanks very much for your interest.

[Chaoticside]

Hey guys,

Been a while since I last checked in but looks like you're still at it!  Keep up the good work!

I don't know how feasible this is for the backyard scientist but I was thinking about the connection problem between the tungsten electrodes.  Having them resting together while being in contact seemed to work alright but what about a more permanent solution once you figure out what the final reactor design will be?  I was reading about tungsten out of curiosity and stumbled onto a method to melt it in what is called an "Arc Furnace".  Maybe it'd be possible to melt down some tungsten rods and pour the molten metal into a form around the base of the other rods, forming a sort of comb-looking thing (if any of that makes sense).  That would give you a permanent connection for the tungsten rods, extra tungsten surface area and you wouldn't have to worry about the corrosion associated with other materials like the silver solder.  But again I doubt that'd be very feasible for anyone not used to working with molten metal and it could be very dangerous due to the extremely high heat associated with melting tungsten (6,000F+).  Perhaps once you decide on the final reactor it might be worthwhile to find someone that can do this kind of thing, if it would even result in a performance increase.  Seems that a more solid connection would result in better overall performance in the reactor but these are just guesses on my part.

http://www.theodoregray.com/periodicTable/PopularScience/2004/05/1/index.html - link to the Arc Furnace write up.  The main page has some interesting info on tungsten and other elements in the periodic table.

Keep on experimenting!
ChaoticSide

[ResinRat2]

Actually, at innovativecarbide.com you can order just about any shape you need. I actually thought about getting this as a flat panel shape to put on the bottom of a reactor and rest the electrodes on, but it would probably be expensive. Other shapes could be custom designed and ordered, probably very, very expensive.

Personally, I can't even imagine what 6000 degrees F is like.

My latest design was waiting for parts that arrived on Monday. It should be up and running in a few days.

[hartiberlin]

Hi Dave,
great work you are doing !
Keep it up.

Surely the salt bridge was a bit too long.

Maybe you can shorten it and just use a paper towel or
something simular and maybe with a bigger diameter and
only about 3 inches long or less...

Maybe if you used plastic jars,
just cut out  a hole in each at the side,
put the 2 jars together side by side and use inside the hole
there a cotton towel as the membrane to allow ions to pass
from one jar to the other...

Good luck.

Regards, Stefan.

[ResinRat2]

Hi All,

Here are a few shots of the reactor in assembly.

It will all fit into a 2 liter jar. Tungsten/carbide rods will be affixed around the center cylinder of PVC that has holes all around it. Inside the PVC cylinder will be the Zinc rods. Top has the two ports for the gases. There will be two small diameter thoriated tungsten electrodes for regenerating the zinc rods. All insides should fit neatly into the jar.

I just need for the glue to dry properly.