Linnard?s hydrogen on demand system without electricity !

[ResinRat2]

Hi Trackdude,

I must say, I am impressed son. I was in advanced chemistry (independent study) in high school, but not at the college level. You have a great potential, I hope you stick it out.

The patent is a good place to go for your 'laundry list". Dr. Griffin's patent gives detailed experiments. All my work has been with experiment#13 which is base-catalyzed, but I believe the experiments with acid/aluminum will give you the best rates. Specifically, look at experiment #22, which uses the acids/aluminum/zinc combination with zinc sulfate heptahydrate and the silver/magnesium colloids. I believe this will give the best rate out of those listed on the patent. I just avoided using the acids because I am doing this work at home.

Most of all, please wear your safety equipment and don't do anything careless. These chemicals can burn or blind you or damage your lungs, so use safety precautions first. Discuss this with your instructor(s) please! A safety hood with good ventilation is a must for you. Please don't hurt yourself son. I have over 20 years experience working with hazardous chemicals. You need to talk to your instructor and make sure someone experienced is watching what you do. 

Due to your work in advanced chemistry, you should be able to get access to the chemicals you need through the lab staff at your school. The colloids can all be bought at health food stores. Tungsten-carbide is the only ingrediant I have not been able to readily obtain so far. Thoriated tungsten is not as productive but it is available through welding supply outlets. It's not cheap either. Zinc anodes can be obtained online from boatzincs.com.

If you want to make this as your final, then be sure to discuss this with your instructor and show him the patent. I was able to get a small unit going rather quickly by just following the ingrediants and amounts of experiment #13.  Somewhere in this thread all the components are listed and the patent is linked near the beginning.

As far as increasing the rate, you can accelerate the reaction with electrical energy. This will cause plating so by switching the connections periodically you can keep the reaction going by first producing one gas (say hydrogen) then the other (say oxygen).  You can increase the surface area of the cathode (tungsten) and this will increase your hydrogen rate. You can also raise the temperature of the electrolyte solution, this will also increase your rate. Putting it outside on a hot day should also increase your rate.

I plan on packing my small reactor with as much tungsten or nickel as I can. This should give me a good rate of hydrogen production. Everything else I have posted, and I will continue to post as I go. I want anyone to be able to learn from my failures as well.

I bet as soon as you get your first working cell you will get excited. It is a fascinating experience to see this reaction working on its own. You will be looking straight into the future of power generation, and the technology that will cut the strangle-hold that oil has on us right now.

Thank you for your interest.

[IronHead]

Hey Resin Rat ,have you checked your local welding supply shop for Tungsten-carbide
It comes in powder and rod form.

Also if you do anything more with Acrylic , check you loacal sign shop they have tons of large piece scrap.

[ResinRat2]

Thanks IronHead.

[trackdude410]

Hey its me again i drew up a diagram of what i think the cell should look like. I did definetley adapt your idea of keeping the gases seperate but allowing for the concentrations to be constant. However I was curious if you needed the cell to be open to get more O2 to the fuel cell i dont know the consumption rate but you would run out unless the consumption rate is exactly equall to the rate of the O2 being given off which is probable, however what about the initial time and the time to get the O2 from the reaction vessel to the fuel cell? Also I am going to be attempting to build a 3D model on a cad program and unfortunately i need dimensions of the materials in order to do so, if you have time could you give me what your using and ill try and build the model and get a picture ASAP? Also for the reproduction aspect on my end for the replating of zn what is most effective for you so far? Is it still the Al, if so do you start it with the copper wire to the Al or first on the Zn until the aqueous concentration of the Zn2+ builds up? Also as a thought in order to get something practical and i realize this may be a long way out, we could adapt a similar to a car battery layout with multiple cells and an intricate wiring system involving resistors which would allow us to efficiently charge a battery that would be useful ie. maybe power more than you were thinking before. Anyway i will attempt to get my cell up and going asap, but it will take time to get the materials as it did for you. Also as to the safety concern, I will use caution but you honestly neednt worry because ive dealt with conc naoh(1.1Lnaoh/1Lh20) and conc sulfuric acid, but rest assured ill not be arrogant and make a stupid mistake, ill be running it under a hood and everything,
Thanks guys and any info i can get from you to help me replicate would be greatly appreciated,
Trackdude.

[ResinRat2]

Hi Trackdude,

Very nice sketch. It's great to read your enthusiasm and questions. You also seem to understand the concept and system. Excellent.

I was going to start with the reactor sealed with only the hydrogen tube going to a fuel cell that was outside the reactor. This way I wouldn't have to worry about the oxygen rate just yet. One step (problem, variable) at a time for me. I was going to put a rubber stopper in the top of the zinc side of the vessel so I could remove it and add water as I needed for now.

Dimensions: Mine is 3" X 3" X 6" right now. I am using 1/4 " thick plexiglass. I am considering going to 4" width X 3" height X 6" Length. I have changed my design and am putting the divider in lengthwise. This means that the electrodes can be side by side and closer in the reactor.

   

                --------------------------------
                *                                          *
                *       Tungsten/Carbide            *
                 -------------------------------
                *         Zinc                           *
                *                                          *
                --------------------------------

                            Top View.

I think you can understand what I mean. I will do a drawing later, I am at work right now.

I plan to start with two zinc electrodes close together but not touching, both threaded but with the zinc rod in only one, and the tungsten connected to the other with a copper wire. My previous posts indicate that it seems that the aluminum rod slows down the reaction when connected to the tungsten. So I plan on switching the copper and aluminum connections. So copper is attached to one zinc, and aluminum is in the other. Then these are switched once a day. That's why there are two zinc electrodes. Only one is attached to the tungsten/carbide at a time.

These materials can cost a bit of money, so I hope you understand that. I think this will limit you.

I'll post more thoughts later.