Hydrogen usage for a boat

this is my standard reply when I read carburetor and hydrogen in the same paragraph. It doesn't directly apply as its more about the NUMEROUS hydrogen scams out there. (also known as HHO and brown gas etc.)

here we go:


all scams.
I could write an essay here but I would have to re-write it every week (gets asked a lot). They all prey on the fact that people don't have too god of a grasp oh physics.

roughly 2 alternate and sometimes overlapping claims

1. hydrogen improves combustion - they point out that internal combustion engine only burns 30% of the fuel and hydrogen helps heat up the burning and makes it more complete. Claim is totally false - modern engines burn almost every molecule of the fuel. They are only 25-30% efficient but it is NOT because of unburned fuel. The car's engine burns all fuel - the low efficiency is result of friction, mechanical losses, heat etc.

2. With waste current from your alternator you can create enough hydrogen to produce substantial amount of fuel for the car to burn. This is bogus on two levels. a) there is no "waste" energy from the alternator. Car's alternator creates electricity "on demand" ie. it will resist the motor more the more you have electric demand. Ever given a jump to another car with flat battery? Your car is running and you hook the cables to the car with flat batt. the idle often drops as the running car starts charging the flat battery The load on the alternator went up and the motor works harder.
Now this electricity is supposed to split water to oxygen and hydrogen and then burn in the engine to be joined back into water. That is the claim and it can be done - however it will take multitude of more energy to split the hydrogen than you can ever recover from the joining (let alone with crappy combustion engine).

That sort of sums it up.

There are many obvious flaws in the systems:
- really small currents are supposedly creating enough hydrogen to run the engine - not gonna happen unless there are higher forces and perpetual motion at play.
- the gas doesn't need any kind of advanced metering - you just pipe it into your intake. If the amount of gas actually amounted to something substantial it could totally mess your fuel/oxygen ratios and cause serious engine damage. Also the explosion risk would be rather huge as they have hydrogen and oxygen traveling in same pipe.
- none can really explain how this system really works - ie. what is the reason why it breaks the most fundamental physics laws of thermodynamics.

Add to that that these systems have been around since 80s, many high profile promoters have been sued for fraud, no real manufacturer has ever adopted any of them, you can build it in your garage from stainless steel...

Sure you can make a bubbler but it will not amount to anything.

 

There are a few cool things that hydrogen can do, such as changing the flame front.
I think it might be possible to employ hydrogen to increase fuel economy, but it would take a lot more than 50$ plans bought over the internet.
If I wanted to start tinkering, water injection seems a lot more simple and promising.
Heck a 6 stroke engine would be awesome.

 

The idea that there are simple, affordable ways to improve engine performance that have somehow evaded the multi-billion dollar research effort of the automotive industry, seems quite improbable.

 

If any such mystery patent exists, you can find it here:
http://www.epo.org/searching/free/espacenet.html?hp=stages

Propulsion units without any external parts, superconducting cables at room temperature, engines fueled by water, it is all there
If the patent office required proof of operation, that website would have maybe 1% of the size it has now. But they are addicted to money, so accept any weird idea that has not been already submitted.

 

I couldn't find this described. How does it work? What happens during 6 strokes?

 

Picture a normal 4 stroke engine, but when the engine warms up, it has the capability to substitute every 2nd fuel injection for water, so it basically uses some of the waste heat to make power by means of steam.

Should work wonders on a boat, as the engine is always loaded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-stroke_engine

 

its a material thing, the biggest jump in efficiency would be an adiabatic engine, they have built them but the materials just dont yet exist to make it a production item.