Posted on 12/06/2003 11:37:59 PM PST by ex-Texan
United Nuclear is currently in final testing, and will shortly be producing Hydrogen conversion systems / Hydrogen generators for most fuel injected, Gasoline powered vehicles.
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These new vehicles are very efficient, and in fact are more efficient than any internal combustion engine. The problem is that these new vehicles are years away from production, are very expensive, and converting to using Hydrogen fuel in this manner requires you to buy a new ( and expensive) vehicle. All Hydrogen/Fuel Cell systems currently under development by large manufacturers have you purchase Hydrogen as you would Gasoline.
Our system comes with its own "in-home" Hydrogen generator which allows you to manufacture fuel yourself at near zero cost.
Our Hydrogen conversion is an intermediate approach that simply converts your existing vehicle to burn Hydrogen or Gasoline. The Gasoline fuel system remains intact and is not modified. This allows you to switch between running on Gasoline or Hydrogen at any time. The engine itself is only slightly modified, the conversion makes substantial changes to the computer & electrical system, ignition and cooling systems. Since they never have to be removed, Hydrogen fuel storage (Hydride tanks) can be installed in virtually any available space within the vehicle.
The system consists of two parts, the Hydrogen fuel system in your vehicle, and a Hydrogen generating system that remains in your garage. The Hydrogen generator is either powered by solar panels on the roof of your house, a wind turbine set-up (both of which makes your Hydrogen fuel at virtually no cost) or with standard 110 volt AC power for rapid refueling.
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What's Real?
A lot has been written about converting vehicles to run hydrogen. Unfortunately, a lot of what you'll find on the internet is simply untrue.
ANY claim of fueling a car with water, and having the water converted to Hydrogen quickly enough to power a passenger vehicle is pure B.S. The bottom line is simple physics. It takes electrical energy to break the Hydrogen-Oxygen bond in water and release the free gases... and that takes time. The more energy applied to the water, the faster the gasses will evolve... up to a point.
It is not possible to create sufficient amounts Hydrogen gas from water (on board the vehicle) fast enough to idle the smallest passenger vehicle. If your towing a nuclear reactor behind the car, along with a motor home-sized Hydrogen generator, you might have sufficient power and volume to accomplish the task, but that kind of defeats the purpose behind the conversion.
You can produce your own Hydrogen from electricity using either common "household current" or directly from solar cells so your energy cost is zero. It does however take a substantial amount of time to produce sufficient Hydrogen to fill even a small tank.
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(Excerpt) Read more at unitednuclear.com ...
So, with the hood up, I started to start the car. Blam! The battery exploded, essentially blowing the top of the battery off.
There were no acid burns, and most of the electrolyte was missing. So much for "maintenance free" batteries.
Obviously, the lack of electolyte fluid left a lot of room for dangerous levels of H2 to accumulate, maybe even under some pressure.
C2C is mostly entertainment.
A couple of retirements ago, Art had a guy on that compiled "The Compleat Energy Book", priced at something like $200.
The author's conclusion on H2 was that it is expensive and impractical to store.
Dosa26 wrote:You do put your life in danger if you incorrectly hook up jumper cables to a dead battery.
Come on...The battery would have to be cracked to release the gas no? Otherwise we put our lives in danger every time we Jump a dead battery.
Most automotive batteries are vented (the exception is the "AGM" type batteries, many of those that look like a six pack of soda cans along with early Mazda Miata batteries). Hydrogen escapes from the vents during normal charging and operation.
It's very important when connecting jumper cables that the last connection you make is the ground cable, and that you connect that ground cable to a solid metal grounding point away from the battery. Connecting the final connection directly to the battery can result in an explosion.
Often, you might get away with it because hydrogen is lighter than air and often doesn't hang around in the compartment near the battery, but occasionally someone gets really unlucky and blows up their battery by doing this wrong.
From the article:Let's analyze this a bit. Especially that "virtually no cost" part.
a Hydrogen generating system that remains in your garage. The Hydrogen generator is either powered by solar panels on the roof of your house, a wind turbine set-up (both of which makes your Hydrogen fuel at virtually no cost) or with standard 110 volt AC power for rapid refueling.
I have no solar panels on the roof of my house, and I have no wind turbine. Actually, I've considered installing solar panels as an interesting project once before. I can assure you that purchasing and installing enough solar panels to generate the required amount of electricity will cost significant sum of money. I've never considered wind turbines, but I doubt that wind turbines have ever been known fall out of the sky and hook themselves up to your hydrogen generator. So there will be some significant expense involved in installing a wind turbine system as well.
That leaves us with the 110VAC alternative. Now, if you live with your parents and they pay all the electric bills, you might get "free" electricity to make fuel for your Corvette, but for most of us, 110V electricity costs money, and enough to produce enough fuel for our cars would cost a significant amount of money.
Then, there is the whole "emissions" thing. Using 110V electricity means that your total emissions will be the H20 that comes out the tailpipe of your Corvette, plus all of the CO2 (global warming!), SO2 (acid rain) and whatever other wastes (mercury?) you want to worry about coming out of the power plant than generates the electricity to make your fuel. Using solar or wind doesn't result in any per unit emissions, but you also have to consider the waste emissions created to produce the solar cells or wind turbine.
Claims like the one in this thread are easy to find but difficult to prove. The record speaks for itself. Hydrogen fuel must be compressed into a sub-zero liquid and stored under pressure in order to remain in a liquid state. This takes far more energy to produce than is recovered as usable fuel.
I'm a bit skeptic of this. Gasoliine engines are made to operate on a fuel with a much higher energy density than hydrogen. To achieve an acceptable performance with hydrogen a converted engine would need to operate at a very high intake manifold pressure for sufficient a fuel air mixture to enter the combustion chamber (which would require internal rod, crank, etc. modification) To be effective, a hydrogen powered ICE would need to be originally designed to operate on hydrogen. I think, correct me if I'm wrong.
My 79 diesel Rabbit gets 50 mpg on the highway and 44 mpg in town. For all the reasons you mention except the 1000 lb. weight and very slow acceleration. Climbs 12,000 foot mountains fairly well too, but it does leave a bit to be desired at that altitude (no turbo).
It requires a special intake capable of handling such an extreme liquid. And while you are at it, read my previous post at #28.
This thread has so much natural methane byproduct from the BS that it alone could fuel our energy needs.
As far a this ridiculous claim that fuel injectors can easily adapt, I say again, BS!
Muriatic may not be quite as strong as a Lab grade of Hydrochloric, but don't treat it like it is a 'weak' acid. Particulary when mixing it with water. Remember the saying from back in HS chemistry: "Here lies Willy, bony and placid. He poured water into acid".
He also claimed the cost of running the units could be lowered by using sun panels, a simple charging device and other cost cutting methods. 700 miles per fill up for local city use means about two charges per car a month. Were are getting very esoteric with operating costs, but it seems reasonable to assume that he is correct.
Just guessing but I believe America would buy these units like hot cakes.
One fruit cake caller attacked President Bush as the selected President, and George Noory went right along with him!
Unless he has a Christian on as a guest. They're the only ones I've ever heard him argue with.
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