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I looked at that so-called paper and it is meaningless gibberish. Ichneumon, in post 132, did a good job of showing the scientific idiocy of this nonsensical text. To back up what he wrote, I'll describe the bogus spectra he shows.

THe author claims to show the infrared spectra of H2, O2 and his magical HHO gases. Infrared spectroscopy involves the absorption of infrared light by a molecule. The frequency of the light involved needs to match a transition state in the molcule for absorption to occurr. For molecules, infrared energy corresponds to vibrational energy. Single atoms don't have vibrational modes so infrared doesn't apply to them. But there is another requirement. The molecular vibration must have a transition dipole moment. In other words, the molecular vibration, in its simplest terms, can be represented by a stretching vibration between to atoms in the molecule. It's like two balls connected by a spring. If the frequency of the light matches the frequency of the stretching oscillation, then the light can be absorbed.

There is another requirement, however. There must be a charge difference between the two atoms. This is called a dipole. If there is no dipole, no charge difference between the atoms, there is no vibrational absorption. There are more rules than this, but it would be too much to get into symmetry arguments here. Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide each have strong transition dipole moments so they are very good at absorbing infrared light. And that is the origin on CO2 being a 'greenhouse' gas. But oxygen and hydrogen gases, O2 and H2, do not have transition dipole moments so they do not absorb infrared light at all. It doesn't happen. They are also highly symmetric molecules and highly symmetric vibrations in highly symmetric nonpolar molecules have vibrational modes that are infrared inactive. They may be Raman active (another type of vibrational spectroscopy which is complimentary to infrared) but it has polarizability rules regarding observation of vibrational bands. I've seen nitrogen in Raman spectroscopy, but I don't know about O2 or H2. I do vibrational spectroscopy for a living and those two gases are undetectable by the infrared technique.

Also, since O2 and H2 are diatomic, these molecules can only have 1 vibrational mode. That's a simple stretching vibration. Each molecule would, in theory, have only 1 vibrational peak in the spectrum. The spectra shown in the paper have multiple bands. Therefore, they are not what he claims. They are a lie. Period. Secondly, no baseline is visible in the graphs. Whatever spectrum is shown, it is shifted above the 100%T line and we are only seeing the tips of the peaks in the graphs. This is a very, very deceptive way of showing spectra. Also, the spectra look like manipulated spectra of some organics species.

Threfore, I can state with authority that the spectra shown in that unpublished 'scientific' paper are bogus. Not a single chart is representative of anything meaningful. I do this type of work for a living and I would be fired if I produced data like that. It's an embarassment to spectroscopists everywhere.

I also went back to the website and but the paper doesn't seem available anymore. I wanted to see what lab did this work. The name didn't sound familiar to me and I know most of the places local to this guy. I'm in the same county. Someone should ask him for an MSDS, if the material is available, and see what it says. That should also be worth a few laughs.

Here’s my take on this mess. After nearly 20 years of trying to invent efficient power apparatuses of nearly every persuasion bordering on perpetual motion, and the imminent explosions, frost burns, fires and wrecked up contraptions that followed, I decided to go back to college at 40, for a mech engineering degree. At only midway thru year 2, and with some basics in real science, Chem/Physics, the Skunkwurks (my flamed out shell of a garage) has seen far less destruction, and I feel safe in screaming B.S. on this HHO “miracle of atomic or diatomic (more like diabolic) structure". Enter the real mad scientist to set this one straight.

1. Burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine. Been there, done that, have 3 of 8 pistons with quarter sized holes in the domes as proof of concept. Premature detonation. The concept was: Modern engines have fuel management in the form of injectors and a computer that controls the pulsewidth of the injection cycle based on NO2 or O2 post combustion, O2 sensors. Problem, injection of fuel takes place pre compression. Attempt, inject (stream via copper tube) hydrogen and the O2 sensor will see a rich condition and start shortening up the PW of the injector, hence burning less gas. This actually worked to a certain extent. With the laptop jammed all up in the 5.4L computer I could see a noticeable difference in PW and it was coming down. Never one to be satisfied with small success we cranked open the H2 micro valve and stabbed the throttle. Needless to say the 5.4 became a 4.8, then a 4.0, then a 3.3, before we could get the mangled rotational mass stopped. Conclusion, as levels of hydrogen increased the fuel mixture was loosing its octane. As the octane dropped detonation took over. Without some sort of direct injection like a diesel or possibly a gas turbine, which I feel has some real possibilities with H2, the H2 is just to volatile to be compressed rapidly without prematurely igniting. Small quantities of H2 did look promising before the “hold my beer, I’m flooring it” episode. Nuff said about that experiment.

2. H2 is just al little volatile. Although controllable, it is not for the inexperienced to be tinkering with. Example: Skunkwurks “Master” electrolysis machine consisting of a 12v 100 amp booster charger with the dwell time circuit disabled and set to full throttle. System also had the usual split KOH generator section with dual bubblers for O2 and H2 and containment using a modified acetylene tank to function like a metal halide containment system (don’t ask). We are partying in the Skunkwurks research facility when a friend fires up the BBQ in the lab to see if it has propane. We all herd the click of the igniter, and that was about it. My bug (CAR) was slammed up against the far bench and all of the neighbors in the lab were thrashing around on the floor, and spilling beer. Never even saw a flame to speak of. Fortunately I was able to pass it off as a “really close” lightning strike. It was stormy out, but obvious to me there might be a leak somewhere. Had the door been shut the lab would be gone, but on to the science. Unless these guys have a Tokamak built into their car to make the neat mangled picture of the non-dipole HHO, electrolysis results in 2 H’s being given off and 1O. The H’s pair up and the O’s pair up and rise thru the bubblers. Although I only got a B in GenChem1, we did not build on of these HHO’s with the stick and balls, most likely because it does not exist.

More on Skunkwurks projects to follow.

Scott