Quote:
Originally Posted by SVOboy
HHO is controversial enough without us arguing in circles with no personal experience or data to go on.  |
From a top level view, HHO gas certainly should burn, and if your engine is tuned to take advantage of it, it should be "stoking the fires of combustion".
Fuel in = energy out
More fuel in = more energy out
Here's the rub: It takes electricy to make that 'brown's gas'. The systems I have seen being sold or plans for the DIY'er all use electrical current generated by your engine turning the alternator. Without some external source of 'free' electricy or 'free' hydrogen, it can't work. An electric car doesn't keep charging itself if you add a generator driven by the electric motor, ok, it won't charge itself enough to sustain battery charge
I want it to work too, but let's check the math on this... it takes work to generate electricity, electricity to make 'Brown's gas' from water. Agreed? Agreed.
That's not free electricity mind you, your engine just worked that much harder to produce those flowing electrons to run the HHO generator, right? Right. It took hp away from driving the wheels. If your alternator wasn't asked to do more work, run the HHO generator, it would just coast along for the ride. Take that 'fuel' and add it to the gasoline. Fuel + Fuel = more work out than just <one> fuel alone. Sadly, my physics instructor is right ONCE AGAIN (dam him)... physical science allows no free lunch.
So...
Fuel (gasoline)= Work (wheels go round and round)
AND
Fuel + a little more fuel = Work + a little more work
take your pick.
Unless you believe in free energy, understand that the energy it takes to produce Brown's gas is equal to or greater than the power adding boost it could possibly give at the rear wheels.
It gets worse, ICE's are only 25% efficient, so at best you could only net a fraction of that added power, to the rear wheels. Either that or physical science is completely full of $hit, and someone invented a perpetual motion device. My money is on science and my crusty old physic prof.
Oh, I almost forgot... on a side note, the guys selling these systems are working too. They market, purchase parts and assemble the kits, box and ship, paperwork and taxes to pay. No free lunch for them, either. Dam!
There's another rub: Like any business for profit model, Car companies and oil companies historically buy up the competition to enhance their own market share, and why wouldn't they? My dad worked on a clutch system that lasted 3x longer than current (1959) clutches of the day. The Trolley systems in 1920's California were bought up by BF Goodrich and promtly dismantled, for instance, so consumers would buy more cars and needs tires. That clutch project was killed by the spare parts arm of the company. HOWEVER... That doesn't mean their has ever been a working 200mpg Poge carburator <http://www.snopes.com/autos/business/carburetor.asp>, or perpetual motion machine.
Facts mixed with marketing confuse us all, sometimes enough to make a convincing story with an interesting subplot. Throw in a few black hat wearing villians and you have the stuff legends are made from.