P
Paul E. Schoen
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
A friend just showed me an instruction package for a conversion kit to
allow a car engine to run on hydrogen and oxygen extracted from water. He
paid about $60 for the privilege of downloading and printing out over 100
pages of text and crude drawings and schematics. I looked through it, and
it appears to be a scam, but I was unable to find any serious discussion
on-line (nothing on snopes) to indicate that it cannot possibly work as it
claims. My arguments are as follows:
1. It should require at least as much energy to dissociate the hydrogen and
oxygen atoms from water as could be regained by combustion, so unless the
gases are generated from the power grid and then used in the vehicle, the
energy ultimately must come from the gasoline engine.
2. The instructions call for a carburetor conversion kit. My last vehicle
with a carburetor was a 1986 model. I do not see how the introduction of a
hydrogen/oxygen mixture to the manifold can work with a fuel-injected
system, especially when it is controlled by a computer as most vehicles
have had since about 1995.
3. The electronic circuits you are expected to build are designed with old
technology parts, such as a 555 timer, 2N3055 transistor, CD4069, LM741,
etc, and operate at frequencies from about 10 Hz to 350 kHz, with no
instruction on PCB layout. These circuits are basically variable frequency
PWM generators, with one set of pulses to electrodes in the water, and
another set that go to a toroidal transformer.
4. The toroidal transformer has a ferrite core and is to be hand wound with
about 2000 turns of special teflon-coated magnet wire. Its purpose, as I
understand it, is to somehow use magnetism to align the water molecules and
dissociate the hydrogen and oxygen.
5. There is also some reference to a "water capacitor", whatever that is,
and somehow this 12 VDC circuit generates thousands of volts.
6. The instructions are so extensive and complicated, and the illustrations
are so poor, that I cannot imagine anyone actually going through all the
steps and completing the project successfully. That is also a convenient
way to make it always possible to tell someone they disn't follow the
instructions exactly, if the thing doesn't work.
7. As far as I can tell, there is no way to regulate the pressure of the
H-O mixture (also known as Browns Gas), or to maintain a sufficient reserve
for long-term power, and I cannot imagine a small generator like this being
capable of providing enough gas continuously for automotive use. If it
could, and the source of the power for hydrogen generation is the battery,
I'm sure it would be overloaded or quickly discharged.
I thought I saw a post about this sometime back, but all I found was an
"ad" in SEB.
My friend is going to try to get his money back through his credit card
company. I doubt if he will have any success at that. He would probably
have to first invest the time and materials to actually build the device,
and then (if he could prove he did everything exactly right), maybe he
could have a case. But he paid for an instruction manual, and he got one.
Paul
allow a car engine to run on hydrogen and oxygen extracted from water. He
paid about $60 for the privilege of downloading and printing out over 100
pages of text and crude drawings and schematics. I looked through it, and
it appears to be a scam, but I was unable to find any serious discussion
on-line (nothing on snopes) to indicate that it cannot possibly work as it
claims. My arguments are as follows:
1. It should require at least as much energy to dissociate the hydrogen and
oxygen atoms from water as could be regained by combustion, so unless the
gases are generated from the power grid and then used in the vehicle, the
energy ultimately must come from the gasoline engine.
2. The instructions call for a carburetor conversion kit. My last vehicle
with a carburetor was a 1986 model. I do not see how the introduction of a
hydrogen/oxygen mixture to the manifold can work with a fuel-injected
system, especially when it is controlled by a computer as most vehicles
have had since about 1995.
3. The electronic circuits you are expected to build are designed with old
technology parts, such as a 555 timer, 2N3055 transistor, CD4069, LM741,
etc, and operate at frequencies from about 10 Hz to 350 kHz, with no
instruction on PCB layout. These circuits are basically variable frequency
PWM generators, with one set of pulses to electrodes in the water, and
another set that go to a toroidal transformer.
4. The toroidal transformer has a ferrite core and is to be hand wound with
about 2000 turns of special teflon-coated magnet wire. Its purpose, as I
understand it, is to somehow use magnetism to align the water molecules and
dissociate the hydrogen and oxygen.
5. There is also some reference to a "water capacitor", whatever that is,
and somehow this 12 VDC circuit generates thousands of volts.
6. The instructions are so extensive and complicated, and the illustrations
are so poor, that I cannot imagine anyone actually going through all the
steps and completing the project successfully. That is also a convenient
way to make it always possible to tell someone they disn't follow the
instructions exactly, if the thing doesn't work.
7. As far as I can tell, there is no way to regulate the pressure of the
H-O mixture (also known as Browns Gas), or to maintain a sufficient reserve
for long-term power, and I cannot imagine a small generator like this being
capable of providing enough gas continuously for automotive use. If it
could, and the source of the power for hydrogen generation is the battery,
I'm sure it would be overloaded or quickly discharged.
I thought I saw a post about this sometime back, but all I found was an
"ad" in SEB.
My friend is going to try to get his money back through his credit card
company. I doubt if he will have any success at that. He would probably
have to first invest the time and materials to actually build the device,
and then (if he could prove he did everything exactly right), maybe he
could have a case. But he paid for an instruction manual, and he got one.
Paul
