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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars
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I was scanning all the updates on subject of hydrogen and see that many are also interested in this energy alternative. I have been using onboard hydrogen generation unit for a few years now, and I know it enhances fuel economy while reducing emissions, so no doubt, this is the direction which needs more development.
The sad part is the manufacturers have a stacked deck against these technologies and actually set up their ECU units to defeat the improvements which makes it even more difficult to convert vehicles. Perhaps they are finally wising up now that so many are pushing hydrogen these days. Like most here, you probably submitted a request for the BMW offer, but look who got cars, Leno, like he couldn't afford one. lol
-mike
-mike
We're all ears! Enlighten us! Please describe to us how this works.
Water Hybrids
Don't even bother with the people now and in days to come who bring that stuff here.
Separating water into hydrogen and oxygen consumes the exact (for discussion purposes) same amount of energy that burning the hydrogen (combining it back into water) produces. And, since no system or cycle runs at 100% efficiency, you actually get back *less* energy.
Picture a long rod with two heavy, equally weighted balls on the two ends. It is on a spindle in the center, so it can rotate. If you give it a spin, it will spin for a while, slowing down, and eventually stop. Friction losses.
NOW, here's my pitch: I'm going to tell you that the energy produced by the falling ball on this same setup is somehow enough to raise the ball on the other end of the rod. AND turn a generator to provide my home with free electricity, AND overcome all the friction losses. All I have to do is give this baby one spin, walk away, and it will forever provide my home with a few kilowatts of free power, using nothing but gravity! "Power your home for FREE using a force as old as Newton -- GRAVITY!!! Tell the electric company to hit the road!!!!" (Sounds good! Maybe I should be a shyster too. lol)
As ridiculous as that sounds, it's no different that someone telling you that you can use a car engine to generate electricity, which will be used to generate hydrogen from water, which will be burned back into water in that engine, producing yet more electricity, to make yet more hydrogen, etc, etc, etc...AND move your car down the road in the process.
And where does your battery get its energy? The car's motor - no free lunch here, except for people that sell these things!
...and so now, once again, we all are dying to know how it is set up and how it works! Can you provide a picture of YOUR system and describe how to set it up? I'll bet you can't (because these items don't work - I've read the "documentation" and it sounds great, but it's essentially the same as cold fusion...non-existant)
If I see it in action, I'll change my mind and buy one for everyone I know.
-mike
I thought any excess electricity can be sold back to the utility company...or does that only apply for things like homes and windmills that generate electricity?
I'd love to see a pic or two of this device on his vehicle. If it works as well as he claims I might even buy one for my bicycle. Oh wait, I already get better fuel efficiency with it than any gas powered vehicle in the world. Perhaps I wouldn't even have to turn the pedals. Coolness. :shades:
Sorry, this is the lie all these HHO folks use to get their foot in the door. You can test this for yourself on most cars. Sit in park at idle, turn on the fan high and the highbeams, and it'll usually drop rpms. There is NO excess electricity available for free from the alternator. The alternator can supply additional electricity to a larger load, but that takes power directly from the engine. If the alternator was putting out all this extra electircal power, there would have to be some big electrical device soaking it up.
My truck for instance on the stock alternator, powers an inverter that is strong enough to run a microwave oven, several computers, monitors, battery chargers, heated seats, etc. etc. The milage changed by maybe 1mpg when powering all this equipment off the stock alternator. Obviously it had excess power to spare.
-mike
Nope, just means your alternator could put out sufficient additional electricity (from using the engine power) to handle these load. Car engines are very powerful. Just 1 horsepower is equal to 748 watts, so you can power a lot of electrical load from an engine. None of this power, however, is 'free'. It all comes directly from burning gasoline. You'd have a perpetual motion machine otherwise (more power out than fuel in). It's like an electrical power plants - they match their output to the load, they're not just sitting there burning coal/gas/whatever.
I actually work for the power utility, so I'm pretty familiar with syncing to the grid
-mike
There is no excess electricity - why do you think there is? And to make matters worse, the 1 hp the HHO thing uses to produce hydrogen and oxygen, which, when burned, yield much less than half a horsepower. The thermal efficiency of a gas engine is about 20%, so only 20% of the energy used to create the hydrogen ends up being available to power the car. Honest (Google "Internal combustion engine efficiency" if you're curious). I know I may not convince you, but I can't let this stuff pass unchallenged. And what facts do you have to back up the 10 mpg claim?
And your alternator does produce more electricity than you use, or else if you turned on one extra accessory the car would stall out!
-mike
The alternator CAN produce lots of electricity, up to whatever its rating. It DOES produce exactly the amount being used elsewhere in the car (lights, ignition, audio, fans, etc, etc) at any given time. If there's 'extra' electricity being produced at any given moment, where is it going?
Every load on an alternator is a load on the engine; just a very small one. Every added load on the alternator is an added load on the engine. Your cellphone charger is probably costing you 0.00001 mpg (again, as you say, examples). One of these mason-jar contraptions might cost 0.003 mpg worth of electricity, and might generate sufficient hydrogen to gain back 0.001mpg of that, so the net loss is only 0.002 mpg.
There is no free energy. I wish there were. The world would be an amazing place. Forget Kyoto -- forget reducing carbon emissions by a few percent -- we could cut carbon emissions to pre-industrial levels. Water-fueled power plants...just taking the 'extra' electricity from the generators, to split water, to make hydrogen, to burn in the turbines, to spin the generators, to power the grid, and using the 'extra' to split more water, etc...
www.hfactorfs.com
According to the site, you can get more than 20% of your energy back as long as you install a hydrogen tank to store the gas, and what does the EPA know? It seems all they do is sit back while Bush deregulates everything and help destroy the environment, and promote corn Ethanol!!!!
Stick to eBay. Spamming isn't permitted on here.
The bottom line is this - if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Also, if this amazing product which can help triple gas mileage can be yours for only $50, $150, or $299 (as I have seen advertised), why won't a dealer install this for you and charge you $500 for it? Or better yet, a manufacturer can install it and charge $1000! Who would argue for three times the mileage? The only reason can logically be that it does not work - at least, not yet.
:sick:
Sorry, no free lunch. Any power you take from the engine to make hydrogen can only be returned by burning the hydrogen. You aren't making the engine more efficient, you're just putting another load on it, and using that power to make hydrogen. When you burn the hydrogen in the engine, you only get 20% of the energy released as mechanical energy. The other 80% is lost as heat energy, either out the radiator or out the exhaust pipe. A scam, pure and simple.
I'd like to see hydrogen cars a reality, not just some PR stunt with city buses and taxis.
-mike
Now, to answer some of the questions, and statements generated on this forum let me start with the man who claims your alternator can't run a hydrogen cell. He is right, UNLESS you tune the engine. This involves tuning the fan not to run, and thus pulling the energy that the motor would use to run the fan to run the cell. It WILL NOT hurt your car, and anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they are talking about. So long as you have a functioning radiator this poses no threat.
Next, to the man who says anytime you cause your car to run better gas mileage improved let me assure you this is hardly the case. Again, it's te computer that determines gas mileage, not the cleanliness of your engine. The computer is set to run on a 14-1 air to gas particles. Now, the HHO gas helps substantially in vaporizing the fuel to make it more burnable, but the whole idea is to use LESS fuel. so if your fuel is super efficient but you're still burning 14-1, it's as though you've not done anything. This is why your homemade ghetto HHO cells will not work. You have to tell the computer to dump less fuel into the motor, and the only way to do tis is to tune every damn sensor on the vehicle, a very hard endeavor. There s only one company as of today that has the computer to go with the cell and it is called the Hyro-Assist Fuel Cell. It is also $2000 installed. If you ask me, worth every penny. They have Accords and Civics getting well into the 80+ mpg range, and lke I said V8's getting in the 30's. The installation is hard. but a $2000 investment that pays for itself in a year is the best investment I know of. Google it, the Hydro-Assist Fuel Cell. I'll let you know how mine goes when I get finished installing it on my '94 Nissan Pathfinder
Actually, putting hydrogen right into your intake will work, because the O2 sensors will pick up that some of the oxygen's been burned to make H2O, and it'll cut back on the amount of gasoline to the injectors, so the energy is not all lost. You only get about 20% of it back though, that's the efficiency of an internal combustion engine, sorry. As for "tuning the fan not to run", that's a riot. Goodbye warranty, goodbye engine! Even if you do this, it doesn't free up any energy, you're still pulling energy from the engine to split the water. As for "it's te computer that determines gas mileage, not the cleanliness of your engine." the computer optimizes the operation of the engine - if it was a simple matter to readjust the computer to improve mileage, the automakers would have flipped that switch when gas prices passed $2/gallon.
Good luck with your scam!
I'm so ashamed.
What''s the song by Queen..."Another One Bites the Dust".
p.s. - to summarize his, and all preceding posts selling this nonsense, I paraphrase Tom and Ray: "Complex engine modifications, unencumbered by science." :P
-mike
Ah, the good 'ole nitrous injection. A car thus equipped will pass anything on the road ... except a gas station!
http://www.hydrogenfuelreviews.wordpress.com
Kinda like those commercials for the real phone psychics :surprise:
Suffice it to say that there have always been folks trying to sell you something that's too good to be true.
And as a reminder, the forums cannot be used to buy, sell, or promote products. I know the line is fuzzy when it comes to discussing things that are out there, but endeavor to stay on this side of that line. Thanks!
If you want to discuss this kind of stuff live, just stop in to one of our weekly chats! Tonight is a chat night. just follow the link you'll find in the right sidebar--->
So, where do you draw the line - when this guy comes back on tomorrow and posts the name of his product and link to his website?
I wonder how many names he has created on here anyway?