How can I make an On-demand Hydrogen Generator to allow my diesel powered vehicle to use water as fuel?

Question

I have seen several websites advertising products to do this with prices ranging from $60 US to more than $1,000. Some seem simple others more complex. Also their claims are as wide ranging as their prices.

Are such devices really practical?

Answer 1

First hydrogen is the most explosive gas in the world. The atom is so fine it leaks through most connectors and hoses. Hydrogen is a diesel will be very similar to gasoline in a diesel. The explosion is too fast and can damage the engine.

Answer 2

An on-demand H2 generator is easy to make,  the problem is a power source.  No matter what approach you use,  more fuel will be used to produce the hyrogen than you will save by not using conventional fuel in your vehicle in the first place.   Which is the fundamental problem with hydrogen as a fuel.  It occurs in nature only when chemically bound to other elements.  The energy to unbind it has to come from somewhere.  Unless you're using sunlight to generate electricity and then the electricity to disassociate water or another hydrocarbon,  you're going to use more fuel with H2 than without it.   Hydrogen is better thought of as an interesting alternative energy storage medium,  but it sure ain't a source of energy.

Answer 3

Instead of getting screwed by this try propane injection. It puts a very small amount of propane into your engine and will help your engine burn almost all of the diesel eliminating the "black smoke". Google propane injection for diesel engines and look for a kit that will work with your car/truck. You will increase mileage 2-5 MPG and one 25lb tank will last over a month!

Answer 4

Boi desiel is really the only practical fuel besides solar power. I recently heard from a fellow student in my environmental class that her father is getting 3000miles to the tank in his car which is supplemented with diesel as well though. i cannot verify this though.

Answer 5

Why not use the "World's Cleanest Car" instead?

"BBC News is reporting that a French company has developed a pollution-free car which runs on compressed air. India's Tata Motors has the car under production and it may be on sale in Europe and India by the end of the year.

The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000."

Answer 6

Here we go again, can’t and won’t work, all they are doing is taking electrical power from the alternator to break water in to hydrogen and oxygen.

Brown gas is a mix of hydrogen and oxygen, but I've seen it called HHO, or they claim to break down hydrogen-oxide, Dihydrogen monoxide or DHMO, hydroxic acid or hydroxylic acid, or as I like to call it water. You get less energy out then you put in. IT’S been TESTED and IT DOESN’T WORK! Every time this device is tested it fails badly.

The math stuff is at the end, but just think about this, even if you believe the auto manufacturing companies are in bed with big oil, why hasn’t say India put it on their cars, or Japan and country that imports ALL it’s oil jumped on this? Or did big oil get to them too? You mean to tell me big oil got to every country that makes cars and they all sold out, come on, if really helped you’d see them on cars right now, the car companies have to make the CAFÉ numbers.

This is just a con to part you from your money.

Here's the math

Assuming your engine is in perfect tune, you get about 20%-to 37% the energy you put into it back as work, you lose about 7% to friction and the rest is lost in the cooling system and exhaust. Now assuming your alternator is 55% efficient, and let do the math.

Gasoline has 18,000 BTUs per pound.

So now we have 18,000 BTU to play with, assuming we have a very efficient engine we start with 18,000 times your engine efficiency (18000 x .37) we now have 6660 BTU's to do all the work, this is drive the car turn the alternator etc.

Now, if we use ALL that power to drive the alternator and our alternator that is 55% efficient our 6660 now becomes 3663 BTU. (6660 X .55) So to break EVEN that 3663 BTU must produce 18,000 BTU of hydrogen, and to increase your fuel mileage it MUST make more.

I know they told you the alternator is wasting electricity, it isn’t, when you don’t need as much electricity your alternator doesn’t put it out and thus doesn’t use as much power from the engine. But there is NO way for 3663 BTUs to make 18000 BTU if it could you would be making more power then you use.

This scam has been around the block before back in the 1970's this and many other devices claimed to increase fuel mileage, they didn't work then and they don't work now.

If you really want to save fuel, make sure your tires are inflated, your car is in tune, and you air filters are clean.

Answer 7

No, there is no practical way to use water to power a motor vehicle.

When a fuel such as gasoline or diesel is burned in an engine, a chemical reaction occurs that relases energy. The carbon atoms in the fuel combine with oxygen from the air to make carbon dioxide, and the hydrogen atoms in the fuel combine with oxygen from the air to make water.  Separating water molecules back into hydrogen and oxygen requires an INPUT of energy.  That is why water does not burn.

At best, the products you found on the web use an expensive fuel (probably electricity) to create some kind of substitute for a cheap fuel (diesel).  More likely they are scams.  Don't waste your money.

Answer 8

There are designs out there for both hydrogen and nitrogen generators. The problem is that are too big to fit on a car, too expensive to build for a single car, and don't produce enough gas to blow up a baloon, much less run a car.pp

Answer 9

I've been studying the  Brown's gas (HHO) for several years now and purchased a machine to make it. I used it as a blow torch and it was quite amazing. I also stuck the nozzle down the venturi of my truck and it ran smoother immediately. Since the machine requires 220 power, it wouldn't work in my truck. I haven't  purchased one of the kits you referred to but plan to by the end of this week. I think I'll try this one: http://www.runyourcarwithwater.com

There is also www.water4gas.com/2books.htm

"I actually got the conversion kit from

http://www.runyourcarwithwater.com and it works great with my Toyota corolla. The kit shows you how to convert h20 to HHO and burn the hydrogen gas. I'm getting about 65 miles to the gallon. Whoohoo!"

Regarding "water burning" vehicles:

Correction for all those who think the claim is that the actual liquid water burns: no, it does not. The two highly combustible components, oxygen and hydrogen, burn very cleanly when separated by electrolysis, however. There are thousands of examples of this.

So, running cars with "water burning" engines is not an idiotic claim but a scientifically well substantiated fact well worth studying closely. They will be seen on the commercial market in our lifetime, I believe - depending on your current age, of course!