Hoax or what? Hydrogen fuel injection?
Greetings all,
I prescribe to the adage that if something sounds too good to be true, it
probably is, and by implication the person trying to sell it to you is a
crook and also has a bridge and some prime beach front property he needs
to
dispose of at below-market prices.
A colleague of mine has bought an amazing hydrogen-making device that is
supposed to improve the fuel economy of his vehicle's petrol burning
engine.
Links to wikipedia follow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofmann_voltameter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=195
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_Fuel_Injection
Now the salesperson is adament that his device is not an eletrolysis
perputal motion machine. It just helps you get more energy out of each
drop
of petrol that your engine burns.
My Hoax-sense is screaming.
Petrol engine engineers are adament that they are already getting 99% of
all
the energy out of their creations, if for no other reason than modern
pollution control laws are somewhat harsh on people who pour hot,
partially
combusted hydrocarbons into the atmosphere that other people have to
breath.
How does adding a little luke-warm hydrogen help?
It 'steals' O2 from the O2+ CxHy reaction. That makes the O2+ CxHy
reaction
run leaner. How does that help? You have to pump in MORE O2 to get optimal
efficiency out of the burn.
Or it could 'steal' carbon or hydrogen from the hydrocarbons and cause the
break down of the hydrocarbon molecule. But why would luke warm H2 do
that?
It is already in a stabl-ish molecule. If it was extremely hot (like 900
degrees Kelvin) you could imagine it doing some serious hydrocarbon
molecule
demolishing but this stuff is apparently cool to the touch.
If this (breaking down CxHy) is what occurs I can see it making a slight
difference. If the large hydrocarbon chain is broken down during the
fuel-air mixing phase of the sequence then the oxygen in the mix will have
slightly less work to do when it comes to ripping the hydrocarbons apart
and
turning them into CO2 and H2O.
Question is, of cause, does it make enough of a difference to justify a
small electrolysis unit making the hydrogen in the first place.
This brings me to the second part of the apparent hoax: the hydrogen
generator. It is described as a single plastic container containing two
thin
stainless steel plates, some distilled water and some 'magic powder'. Well
the salesperson didn't say it was 'magic powder, he just wouldn't say what
the powder was at all.
My colleage has discovered (online from people who have used similiar
gadgets) that this powder is alledgedly bicarbonate of soda
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate),
chemically NaHCO3.
Now apparently the hydrogen generator uses electricity from the vehicle's
battery to generate the hydrogen.
How does NaHCO3 + H20, possibly with stainless steel make hydrogen?
What does this group think? Hoax or help? My thoughts are fairly firmly in
the Hoax block.
Any (useful) advice, comments, help, pointers, etc, welcome.
Thanks and regards
Frank Scrooby
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