The Water Fuel Cell

[glenn_aircooled]

Name : Glenn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Country : Australia.... . . . . . .
virtues :Patient,Determined,Love new technology. I have at my disposal
a fair bit of experimenting " Junk", Water (demineralised), access to Lathe
and some other machines. The Plumber helps me.
Skills:Good with hands,Communicating-to find out how.Electrical,very
basic electronics,
Contact:through this forum.

The HydroBooster cell.
It is as big as I could fit in the back of my car. PVC tubing 15
inches high, 4 inches diameter.
8 plates > makes 7 cells.
I wish to get my car running partly on Hydr/Oxy to save fuel costs.
Then I would hope to improve through pulsing / High voltage spikes / Bedini
etc to reduce Petrol usage more - maybe to 40% Petrol only.

Measurements and clearances: 83mm x 165mm x 14 Effective area.
3mm Gaps between plates.
Electrical schematics: 13.4 V across outside plates only.

It is a series open topped electrolyzer.
Cell Voltage: approx 1.9 V per cell.
Amperage: at this stage only 3 A on bench, hope to get it up to about
10 A in car.
Temperature: Stays cool thus far.
Gas Production Per minute: More details to follow.
Electrolyte: Sodium Hydroxide....Caustic Soda....concentration - approx18%
Cell surface area: approx 15" x 3.6" x 14 sides.
Electrode material: stainless sheet,approx 0.8 mm, probably 403.
Power source: Battery charger - through car 12V batt.

Engine details:
1.9 L ,4 cylinder. Stainless valves, Alloy heads, Forged alloy pistons,
compression 7.6:1, very low overlap cam timing. Dyno tuned last month
at 66 BHP at rear wheels @ 4800 RPM.

Future Developments: Will definately Pulse..etc

Different areas to explore: Safety - re Bubbler, and Blow Off fittings.

[glenn_aircooled]

Construction:
I made bottom cap so that the floor of the cell is flat and has no steps.
I glued with PVC cement, the top thread sleeve.(I actually made a small
mistake - I should have made ends flush but left step)
The top is clear perspex & I machined on the Lathe the recess for the
"O-ring" on the outside edge - this should have been a larger diameter
to keep the o-ring in place easier - so assembly is very difficult now.

To keep the plates the same width, I cut two Tangent pieces PVC
Approx 26mm x 360mm x 3mm that seal the edges.
The dividers are 3mm thick perspex (I think- not sure of material) x 6mm.
I wanted to go narrower than 6mm to get more surface area but decided
that the plates needed more stability - being so thin.

The end plates Over Lap the tangent pieces - so they are 6mm wider than
the floating plates. The top ends of the end plates are longer & bent over to
allow easy bolt connections.
All plates were cut on (plumbers) guillotine. Main reason they are so thin - so
that they would cut easy on guillotine. Other reason is to keep weight down.

One problem with this High Tubular design is the large Wasted space of electrolyte
next to each end plate. This adds Lots of weight (total electrolyte volume
is 2.5 L so thats approx 2.5 Kg of Electrolyte).
It does give a decent quanitity of reserve but I can set up excellent re-filling
system so this is not needed.
Bolts are 316 Stainless 1/4 by approx 1 1/4 inch. Spring washers cut into
the end plate connections.
Roofing Silastic is used is used to seal the top and between the plates -
I fear that this is not a long lasting solution!

[glenn_aircooled]

Above: is the side with battery in background. Gee I'm glad this is a
fibreglass bench top, that batt acid spill would have been real annoying
otherwise!

[glenn_aircooled]

Now I had hoped that the tight fit of the plates would be adequate to seal
the stray currents in my cell.
It wasnt .! ( I know this because the voltages were not close enough to
the same between the different plates...varied from 2.1 V to 1.4 V.)
So now I have sealed the plates...I hope that Roofing silastic is adequate.
I am expecting more contamination now and will probably have to clean
it all out. Bob Boyce says " lower the concentration of electrolyte and run it
for a long period, Clean it all out and dont touch plates with fingers,sand"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is it with clear top, O-ringed and will be clamped down with screw end.
Just waiting for the silastic to fully cure.

[glenn_aircooled]

Still got teething problems.... Cant get it going well yet but did practice
measurement run.
My latest findings(not good for
me either). I cant get the current up. Only got up to 3.3 A (and ran out of
Caustic- i guess thats the trouble wih 2.5 L of Water - lots of electrolyte needed.)
I seem to have failed with my sealing efforts " thus far" although that may be
why the current went down and I cant get it to go higher again without a tonne of Caustic.
Problem is the cells are still not reacting equally.
I ran a Volume test any way just to compare against as I get it to work
better. So at Only 3.3 A (about 12.4 V) I measured a Massive 200ml of Hydroxy in 2.6 min. What you might call "Unusable" results.

[glenn_aircooled]

Dismantled the cell, Cross Hatch sanded with rough paper over all reacting
surfaces. Sealed much better . When finally got it going, worked a lot better.
All cells Except one ! are working Great. So I checked the voltages across
the individual cells, mostly 1.8 V except the one not working was 0.4 V.
So there must be some leaking current around this one cell.
Any way did the test just to see improvement.
My voltage supply is getting a bit depleted... so just 11.72 V 4 A which gave
200 mL in 75 Secs. So still not Great but an improvement.
Its starting to look good with the Foam spreading right across the top of the
Reactor...I have photo .
Let me Repeat that the Clear top is much more fun than not being able to see
whats going on inside.
It is observed that the Foam is really counter-productive, as the reactor starts up it produces far more Gas but as the foam starts to push up there is
a noticeable drop in production.
I hope to try Clean Potassium Hydroxide which I am hoping will not Foam
up as much.
-- Foam 1 is the initial small bubbles ,
-- then foam 2 as the bubbles start to blend.

[glenn_aircooled]

I re-sealed the plates and Success - very even voltage drop 1.88 v
across each(some 0.02 V difference).

Re mixed the electrolyte to 35 % (Too much I later found out, thanks Bob).

More Tests.....(calcs courtesy of figures from Tero - thankyou.)
Tero says "a low efficiency one cell unit may produce 3.5 LPH " that makes
me feel better.
Tero - Faraday : 1 cell, 1 A, 0.627 LPH litres per hour.
- Power Efficiency : watts for 1 LPH ...good one 2.5 - 3.0 w/LPH.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.4 A, 13.1 V, 135 sec, 200ml hydroxy. 5.33 LPH,,, 3.4 w/LPH......

1.5 A, 13.08 V, 125 sec, 200 ml . 5.76 LPH,,, 3.4 w/LPH......

1.7 A, 12.8 V, 101 sec, 200ml . 7.1 LPH,,, 3.0 w/LPH.......
-
seems like its getting better with more running. The electrolyte looks
awefully thick.! But the current doesn't want to go higher, the battery
with charger attached seems to be losing Voltage as current goes up
so will build better charger.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
7-6-06 with new power supply direct (no battery).
Now I can pump some current.! can go up to 4 A but this is not too
good because of excessive foaming - reduces output Gas.
So first run with little foaming over top of cells . . . . . . . .

3.4 A, 13.2 V, 73 sec, 200ml frothing.. 9.8 LPH,,, 4.5 w/LPH.....
-
So we see that the efficiency goes down when frothing shorts over
top of the open cells.
The design of TALL open series cells appears to exagerate this problem,
as the bubbles rising have less space to spread and tend to push up
the electrolyte.
-
I need to reduce % of caustic(NaOH) to 10 % and condition the plates.
Then run approx 20 % with lower Height to see improvement - thanks
Bob Boyce and Site Admin for suggestions and encouragement.

[glenn_aircooled]

So I reduced sodium hydroxide level to what I think is 10 % , and what a
difference. I ran the reactor for 7 Hours at approx 2.2 A.
Then did Test run , had very small amount of electrolyte over two cells:

13.1 V, 2.3 A, 73 sec, 200ml , , , , 9.8 LPH , , , 3.07 w/ LPH.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now also made bubblers, they are both on the small side.
The first had another problem which I will explain " Beneath ".
- the second is reasonable but still probably too small.
I would like to think that it would save my cell.
One Feature of my bubblers and cell is that the top is able to blow off.
So allowing some margin of venting.
You will se that there os a second piece on top of each which is a push fit.

[glenn_aircooled]

You see the Electrical test bench in the background.
The pay at this job is not Great , But the conditions / equipment are First
Rate. I am able to stay back and progress my cell any day I like.

[glenn_aircooled]

Now the voltages across each individual cell, starting from the Positive
side : 1.91 V, 1.88 V, 1.87 V, 1.87 V, 1.87 V, 1.87 V Ending on the 0 Volts side.
So I am thinking that more " conditioning " will be needed.
The differences in Voltage are so small that it is probably surface area
efficiency that is making the difference. We will see.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Problem with the really small Bubbler is that in my blow off top design,
I failed to realize that the tube from the cell would be drawn out of the water
as the explosion occurred above the water.... so it may then continue down
the pipe to the cell.
- the second small bubbler has only one pipe through the blow off top
and has the other pipe angling in the neck.
Note these are only test units as I am not sure if the electrolyte will deteriorate
this plastic. I had a similar plastic disintegrate after prolonged contact with 60 % solution.

[glenn_aircooled]

Ran the unit for the second day then did test.
So still with 10% NaOH....
13-06-06.
13.28 V, . 3.9 A, . 44 Sec for 200ml hydroxy, . . 16.3 LPH . . . 3.17 w/ LPH.
also room temp 18 Deg C......Cell 27 Deg C.....after running all day at 2.8 A.
So the conditioning is definitely working.
This test Yielded nearly double amount of previous and still at reasonable
efficiency.
Adjusting the height of the electrolyte Lower will allow even more current.
--------------------------------------------
Next item is the level maintenance system. As I'm always keen to try things
the easy way, I started working out a Gravity Feed system.
First lesson with gravity feed is that the Pipe must be in a downward
only run. No levelled out sections.
The diameter of the pipe needs to be at least 6mm ID. this appears to be because of the meniscus interfering with bubble flow. You must have a tap or valve to shut off the Pipe when topping up reserve tank.

I am really excited about recent discussions of S. Meyer techniques.
Very keen to try some 20 000 V floating electrodes.
The consensus seems to be using cylindrical electrodes, so that will be
my next project.

[glenn_aircooled]

The simple Gravity Feed method; Has some " issues ".
1) the pressure in the cell tends to influence the feed effectiveness.
2) Large tube required means large hole in top of cell, I tried to step
it down to enable getting past connection Plate and this caused some
interference with the " Bubbles " . (note ; bubbles have to come up to allow
Distilled water from flowing down.
3) some stray hydrogen / Oxygen bubbles rose up the tube - dispelling
water - it wasnt much , but this could cause problems if got worse.
-
Of course topping up tank is Problem cause needs tap to isolate supply
when you break the seal. I only found tap with small hole in it - this would
not work due to Stopping Bubbles rising.

[glenn_aircooled]

What you would call a " Productive Day ".
Installed the HydroBooster into the Car.
A bit fiddly & I havent refined the install yet.
- One major hickUp is a leak at top of the cell. Will fix that tomorrow.
- the bracket for the Bubbler did not work as expected.
- the pipe at top fouled on engine lid.
_________________________________________________________
Features:
1. Power to Switch1 from Ignition switched 12 V.
2. Switch1 to turn off Unit. ( 10 A , on dash board)
3. LED light to indicate " on ". ( red LED with 330 Ohm resistor on anode )
4. Relay for Power to cell. 15 A contacts , 12 V coil. ( in engine bay )
5. water injection - only vacuum draw in, right into venturi.
6. Bubbler isolates Hydrogen/Oxygen in case of backfire.
7. delivery pipe ends within Carburetor only 30mm above Butterfly.
8. Main 14.1 V supply is fed from regulator attached to Generator in
close proximity. fed through Relay.
9. Pipe out of Booster is large diameter and travels in upward path for
some distance. ( to separate out droplets ).
10. Stainless steel strap to mount unit engine compartment.
11. Rubber and foam mount underneath cylinder to avoid impact damage.
12. Booster is heated by engine compartment to increase conductivity.
13. Regulator cuts voltage down at low revs /Idle so very little current
flows and then boosts Voltage up to 14.1 V at higher revs for more
Gas production.

[glenn_aircooled]

RESULTS:
dont you just love to see results?
Well mine arent as good as I'd hoped " so do I give up ? NO.!

The previous Mileage;
29-5-06........23.8 MPG.........Petrol & water injection.
6-6-06..........22.0 MPG.........Petrol & water injection.
19-6-06........23.9 MPG..........Petrol & water injection. Driving Steady.
now;
23-6-06........24.96 MPG........Petrol, Hyd/Oxy, & water injection.

so; thats a 4.4 % increase in MPG. - unfortunately this could be done with
only change in driving habits, so not conclusive yet.


Things I noticed;
- smoother power.
- Did not Ping as much( has been pinging when using Low octane fuel.. 91
Octane ).
- apparent extra mid range torque.
- ? Does not decelerate ( or Engine Brake ) as used to. ?
- Idle is normal ( due to fact it ramps down to 0.8 A at idle ).
- At idle current 0.8 A . .
- at higher revs 7.9 A but then frothed over and jumped to 8.2 A
-------------------------------------------
So I estimate 0.55 L / min when in car - not a lot ,hopefully will still do job
-------------------------------------------
One issue is that withOUT Hydro it pings when trying to
drive at lower revs - the Hydro allows lower revs and No PINGING.
-----------------------------------------------
the lack of engine braking , I am hoping is due to the Hydro/ Oxy getting sucked in and making more combustion than previously and so not
loading against the momentum.
This happens because the Gas out put is tied to the engine revs.
-The engine is revving high as I try to decelerate & thus producing too
much gas - trying to Push the engine.

Changes; will Disconnect water & retest.
will Change to KOH which will increase Hyd/Oxy production.
Timing can be looked at.
Then would like to Lean off petrol mixture.
Am designing new electrolyser which will be greater output.

[glenn_aircooled]

Disconnected the water and now it is very slightly running on.
I may have to have water but less than before, would love to have some kind of mist injection.