Newbie Theories - Building an Efficient Hydrogen Cell

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Newbie Theories - Building an Efficient Hydrogen Cell

Postby biggeorge » Tue May 23, 2006 6:19 pm

I've been lurking here for a while, reading all about hydrogen electrolysis generators for a while and I have several theories that need to be either shot down in flames or confirmed before I go spending money proving them.

Theory 1.
H20 is made up of 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen.
A typical electrolysis cell has + and - plates to separate these elements.
Hydrogen is attracted to the negative plate(s) and Oxygen is attracted to the positive plate(s)

The thing I can't get my head around is that there will be 2 hydrogen molecules produced for evey oxygen molecule.

So why aren't the cells designed with twice as many hydrogen plates as to oxygen plates?

Eg.

- + - | - + - | - + - |

- = negative hydrogen
+ = positive oxygen
| = blank plate or empty space


Theory 2.

Has anyone tried using s/steel ballbearings instead of plates?
The benefits I see are that there will be a much greater surface area involved, in a smaller area of space. The water will be able to easily penetrate the entire container and fill in the spaces between the ballbearings, making good contact with the entire surface of the balls.

So the container could possibly be a a round plastic cylinder, with a round plastic cylinder inside it.

Both cylinders will be full of s/s balls but the inner and outer cylinders will not be allowed to contact balls from either, preventing a direct short circuit. To allow water flow between them the inner cylinder could be made from plastic mesh or simply plastic pipe with small holes drilled in it.

It would then be a simply matter of shoving a s/steel probe down each chamber of balls and the probe allowed to contact the balls in each chamber to allow electricity flow.

In theory, you could easily separate each of the hydrogen or oxygen as it comes out of the each chamber.

-------

I have already built my 12v pulse width modulator, have a good supply of 316 stainless rod, nuts and washers. All I need to do now is build my electrolysis plates / ballbearing chamber but I am stuck at this point trying to decide which way to go.

I really like the ballbearing theory, I think it has a LOT of potential in making a very compact and efficient electrolysis device.

My sequence of testing and development for this project will be as follows.
1. Get the damn thing working.
2. Efficiently...
3. Install it on my 4 stroke lawnmower, get it running.
4. Build a bigger one if necessary, and install it on a small sturdy engined car such as a datsun, and get it running.
5. If it works... Spread the word so everyone can have cheap cars and lie low so the bad people don't come and get me.. :D

Thanks in advance for hearing my crazy theories. More to come later....
biggeorge
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Posts: 123
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 5:55 pm
Location: Australia

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