While thinking about all that Hydrogen generation I’ve realized that we need to do better. Our current system can go on for ~40 minutes before starting ahem .. boiling. This is because our Hydrogen production is inefficient and during electrolysis, as we are doing it, about 30% of the electricity turns into heat.
Vlada’s demonstration of how it works follows 😀
Practically speaking, when we have 1600W current coming in, then we also need to deal with ~480W of heat. This heat needs to dissipate somewhere. But hold on! We need to dissipate this heat, while our electrolysis is most efficient at between 70 and 80C. So cooling is ok, but just a bit. Well, I came up with a plan!
First was another visit to Gumtree, where I bought a “Brand New, Self Priming, 12V Water Pump 6 l/min” for $58 from Peter in WA. It came in a perfect shape and pretty fast.
I let the boys unpack it to share my excitement.
Sebi tested it practically instantly with his 9V battery and it went on beautifully.
That inner basin needed something that clould exchange heat with greater efficiency than a plastic Sistema container. I’ve discussed this with Serge and he came with an idea to use something that is already available. After a bit of Googling, we agreed on a second – a new stainless container (Vogue St/St Gastro Tray 200mm height) from Nisbets ($18.59).
We also paid a visit to Bunnings and JayCar to stock up on Thermostat 70C On, Circuit Breaker 10A, Create Heavy Duty storage 54L and Tube clear vinil.
I updated the Shopping list – it is not too funny anymore. Thermostat and the 10A circuit breaker on a picture below.
Oli helped with putting it all together, cutting and sanding where needed.
Giving it a test go we’ve realised that that stainless tray came greased heavily with detergent. But it was too late to admit a mistake as 6l of electrolyte was all in & contaminated. So we’ve put together a “bubbler”. Later on it made itself pretty worth nicely demonstrating how much Hydrogen we are actually producing.
Next stage was a cooler. I did my best, but it still looks silly. I can just hope that it will do its job.
Altogether it looks like this now.
Plus adding how Hydrogen looks like when it goes on 100% (80C and 1600W). Note that pretty cool grey line coming from the exhaust.
I also have several videos on how it is really going, but my current WordPress subscription (free) doesn’t allow me to add those in the post. I’ll add those later.
