hydrogen powered marine engine

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Bryan Campbell, Feb 24, 2006.

  1. Brent Swain
    Joined: Mar 2002
    Posts: 951
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    Location: British Columbia

    Brent Swain Member

    In my hometown, a couple of high school teachers tried to run an engine off hydrogen and oxygen from electrolysis of water. It went off like it was full of dinamite. Shrapnel flew everywhere . Luckily no one was hurt. Hydrogen and oxygen is like trying to run an engine on nitroglycerine. If they had used air instead of pure oxygen the nitrogen would have acted as a cushion, and it may have worked oK.
    Brent.
     
  2. Towboat Ed
    Joined: Apr 2009
    Posts: 16
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    Location: Harkers Island , NC

    Towboat Ed Junior Member

    I do know there are probably hundreds of systems that do work. I attended the HHO Games & Exposition in Bradenton Fl in Nov. & again in Feb.of this year. Check out the links below. The promoter of these shows was told a number of times that this should not be called "games", because there were some very serious inventors present. There were also some "snake oil salesmen" with Junk that did not work.Many were dissappointed at the results when their unit was tested on "The Bench"...There were also some amazing units that produced large amounts of HHO. The test Bench belongs to the builder of the unit that is now on my boat. As a matter-of-fact, with the exception of the Flow Tubes, the unit on my boat is, electronically identical to the bench used at the show.....You can see The Bench in operation at the other link posted below. I am in some of the pics on both sites, I am the good-looking one. I have working relationships with several of these inventor/builders, and am working with the IHHOI to grow the industry...til later, Capt.Ed www.water4fuel4boats.com
    www.hhogames.com
    http://energyshowandtell.wetpaint.co...eageSeekersHHO
     
  3. kerosene
    Joined: Jul 2006
    Posts: 1,285
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    Location: finland

    kerosene Senior Member

    funny

    on that link of yours there is a link to:
    http://www.utas.edu.au/prue/Media Releases/2005/0715HydroDiesel_Engine.pdf
    (mind you 2005 - article to a diesel engine running with just spoonful of diesel)

    Same school in 2007
    http://eprints.utas.edu.au/2781/

    Latter seems like somewhat real summary of a real experiment.

    It also raises a valid point for these home made hydrogen to the intake systems.
    4-stroke engines tend to detonate (fuel air mixture explodes under compression pressure uncontrollably - typically fighting against the piston still going up). Detonation occurs when fuel mixture is squeezed enough in hot cylinder.
    Typically lean running engine suffers more of detonation as lean mixture burns much hotter and heats up easier. Detonation is very harmful for engines.

    You can fight this by
    1.
    lowering compression ratio (typical engine running unleaded fuel has max compression ratio of 10-11 with really well designed cylinder head)

    2.
    Higher octane fuel - like race cars. Thus race cars can run higher compression ratios (12 and over in some cases).

    3.
    By not having the fuel in the chamber during the compression. Like diesels or direct injection gasoline engines that can run much leaner mixtures.

    Now as latter article I linked to suggests - a regular high compression diesel can start detonating by letting burning gas into the cylinder. So not only will these HHO machines be humbug but they can even destroy your engine.


    edit: typos
     

  4. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    if something explodes it should work as a fuel
    you may need to design an engine specifically to burn it
    but if it goes bang
    it can make something move

    I saw a video of a guy running a small engine on hydrogen
    it ran
    but obviously was pinging and predetonating
    so I think there is a lot of validity to the above comment
    its going to wreck a typical engine
    specially one designed to run on high compression

    off the top of my head Id say a purely hydrogen engine would run on low compression high volume best
     
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