Quote:
Originally Posted by smchristin
I know there are probably some other posts about this topic and I have already looked at a few. Some of them go way off topic and others just don't answer my question, so I'm asking it here. Do the "HHO" mods really give your car added MPG and/or power? I'm looking for "tried-and-died" or "tried-and-true" stories. I am also worried about damaging the engine.
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Hi smchristin,
The current theory, which would be easy to test but is not demonstrated in any real engine, is as follows.
First, the amount of hydrogen needed is substantial, like a few thousand watts of electrical power to hydrolyze water. In theory, the added hydrogen allows an extremely lean mixture of gasoline to burn. The normal air to fuel ratio for gasoline is 14.7:1 But if you could get a mixture of 200:1 to burn the cylinder would have 12 times as much air in it for the same amount of fuel. The thermodynamic efficiency of the engine is determined by the high temperature during combustion. If the cylinder has more air in it then there will be higher pre-combustion pressure and when the fuel is burned there will be a higher combustion temperature. So the efficiency will be higher.
The effect should be to get the engine to have the nearly the same efficiency at low power levels that it has at it's most efficient operating point. Maximum engine efficiency for modern cars is about 25% and at low power, as low as 10%
Consider a car that has an engine that can produce 250 HP and is 25% efficient there , but only needs 15 HP (6% of its maximum) to cruise at 55 MPH but is only 10% efficient at that power. It will get about 18 MPG at 55. If the efficiency at 15 HP could be raised from 10% to 20% then the fuel economy goes up to 36 MPG. If the hydrogen generator needs less than about 5 HP you are ahead. You might need to carry a lot of water.
-mort