Has anybody considered or tried this. Several companies on line are selling kits / devices that will separate Hydrogen from water and add this into the intake. I have been doing a lot of research; but, still believe the upstream O2 sensors will see the additional oxygen and adjust fuel accordingly. The result is to nullify any fuel savings. I am real interested in thoughts on this.

Here is a link:

http://www.brownsgas.com/easysubpage0083.html

 

My thoughts:

Ha Ha Haaaaa Haaaaa Hee Haa Haaa Ho Ho Hee Ha Ha Haa Ha <Cough> Ha Haa Ha Hee Hee Ha <Gasp!>

Ouch, my side hurts.


My favorite part of the website:

"Inventor Scott Mitchell's dream has come true"

Which I take to mean he has finally found a way to separate money from fools.

 

Thinking back to high school chemistry and physics....

You crack water into hydrogen and oxygen by running electric current through it. Odds are this "reactor" is just a bucket with a cathode and anode through which it runs a bunch of the power from your alternator. The hydrogen and oxygen collect around the two different poles (if the container is properly designed to keep both gases from just collecting together at the top). You then suck the hydrogen off and burn it in your engine? What do you do with the oxygen? Vent it? Run it back through the motor, too?

In the long run, you're taking power you've generated by burning gasoline in your engine to turn the alternator to crack the water into oxygen and hydrogen to burn in your engine...

You're in for a net loss of energy because no system is going to be 100% efficient, you have energy losses wherever there is mechanical friction or electrical resistance that generates heat instead of passing the energy along.

 

Bwahahahahaha.... what a crock.

Just some nut job trying to cash in on they buzzword "hydrogen".

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which is the technology you've been hearing about in the news for years now, doesn't work that way. It's used in a reaction to create electricity to run an electric motor in those vehicles... it does not burn the hydrogen in typical internal combustion engine style.

Last time I checked, FoMoCo didn't list the F150 as being compatible with running hydrogen through it.

 

Seeing all these wonderful snake oil endeavors I sometimes feel regretful that I never went over to the dark side.
Years of hard work, long hours and stress to get an education and then to make a living.
And yet if you just write some creative copy and put up a website that entices folks to part from their money willingly, you can get rich and retire young.

Heck, I could never even get anyone to buy the Brooklyn Bridge, a real commodity, but these guys can sell vaporware for the big bucks.
Chris

 

Not yet anyways. There was a thread around here recently that maybe 2008.
F150 Hybrid coming in 08?

Just the fact that the website looks like an 8th grader did it in his IT class makes me not want to go anywhere near it. I didn't even bother reading it.

 

Actually, hydrogen is used in internal combustion engines also. Many automakers are experimenting with a hydrogen ICE coupled with an electric motor (hybrid), including Ford. Many will run on either/or or both in combination. I think it's a stepping stone to a hydrogen fuel cell/electric motor only. Here's a link I found. BMW article says their working on an ICE that can use gasoline or hydrogen.

http://www.hydrogenhighway.ca.gov/vehicles/ice.htm

As far as that Brownsgas invention......I doubt very much that it creates a volume of hydrogen enough to make a dent........if it did.........I think it would totally screw up the A/F ratios.

 

I'll bet that when used in conjunction with the turbonator you see MPG improvements upwards of 200%!

 

Hahahaha, nice. Spek added for that.

 

I don't know about the product being considered, but in 1990, I competed in a solar vehicle race at the phoenix international raceway as part of my Master's thesis (our entry was Western Michigan University)

anyway......, there was also exhibition cars on display. I personally watched a beautiful 1969 Mustang with a severly sophisticated injection system (obviously) run 140mph on the track with Hydrogen as it's fuel. the exhaust was 100% water.........

not sure what adding hydrogen to gas vapor does with conventional compression though.

Ramb

 

I posted this question as a serious post. So far, the majority of the responses have not been serious. It was not completely unexpected since I have even seen posts that mock the modifications many on this site have made or will make to their trucks.

Clearly, Hydrogen as fuel has been around for a long time. The lack of efficiency in fuel utilization for our trucks is amazingly low. We burn as much in our cats where we receive no benefit as we do in the combustion chambers. Yes. The single biggest challenge with using Hydrogen is the energy required to split the Hydrogen out of the water.

Oh well. I will continue the research.

 

I don't think your question was serious. If this sort of 'technology' was not pure snake oil, it would be utilized world wide. The idiots with their conspiracy theories about how oil companies, etc. suppress technology always conveniently forget that there are upwards of 175 countries in the world, most of whom are desperate for new energy sources, better/cheaper ways to fuel cars/homes. If cold fusion, 100 mpg carburetors, water burning pills, free energy from pyramids, free power from magnets, magic inserts in the intake, etc. etc. etc. worked, they would be very common in countries where gas exceeds 5.00 bucks a gallon and the average hourly pay is 50 cents or less.

Do you think Japan, Russia, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, North or South Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, India, Turkey, Greece, etc. are somehow all conspiring to suppress these wondrous ‘new’ miracle technologies (most of which have been touted since the 30's)?
A breakthrough like that would give any of these countries a huge edge in the world market. A ten percent decrease in fuel consumption would be tremendous. A 50% decrease could make any country rich.

Hydrogen is not even close to useful in direct vehicle fuel technology. A proper hydrogen burning engine would not resemble the standard IC engine.

It takes more energy to separate hydrogen from water than hydrogen makes. The way it is used in industry is to use cheap electricity to extract it.
Electricity is cheaper in industrial quantities than gasoline.
This does not apply if you are using gasoline to produce the electricity to extract the hydrogen. Do the math.
Chris

 

You seem to understand the fundimental issue. The problem is that it takes much more energy to split the water than you get back by burning it. In this system, the energy to split the water is provided by the engine. Putting this on your truck is the equivelent of tying an anchor to the bumper. It costs you energy.

I wouldn't spend too much time on the research. All the bolt-on miracle hardware is junk. The best they can do is to keep you aware that you are trying to conserve fuel, which psychologically helps keeps you off the go pedal. This generally works short term, and results in the testimonials that get touted. The only bolt on I could recommend in this vein is a big manifold vacuum gage that is mounted clearly in your field of view.

Real change to mileage by swapping hardware comes from more expensive changes: Smaller displacement engine (less friction losses); aluminum body panels (reduced weight); swapping to diesel (more efficient combustion cycle); manual transmission (reduced transmission losses); or an automatic transmission with more gears (keeps the engine RPM lower, lowering engine friction losses.) It's possible to change some other things (ignition timing, mixture, stripping catalytic converters, other low restriction losses) that might help mileage, but result in other compromises like illegal emissions under some operating conditions, or loud exhaust. Some people like a loud exhaust, so I recommend a low restriction muffler if you're into that kind of thing.

 

Say what???? What makes you think that?