I'm hearing a lot of buzz about this being a fast and cheap way to increase fuel efficiency by around 25%. Anyone know anything about this?

The basic concept is to generate Hydrogen in the car using power from the alternator to power an electrolysis system, which will use a water source (reservoir, or condensation from the AC) to generate oxygen and hydrogen gas. The gas is then mixed with your intake.

More reading: http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directo...ogen_Injection
A kit for $200: http://www.zeropointunlimited.com
edit: another good link giving the concept some backing: http://www.hydrogen-boost.com/hydrogeninjection.html

 

I think some evos here on evom are starting to do that..? Sounds interesting! This should be on the "hypermilling" thread!

 

It's a scam and one that's been getting far too much attention.

Basic law of physics - takes more energy to break the water into hyd/oxy than you can get out of it.

If it were as simple as running a few volts through a jar of water, then the auto industry wouldn't be having such a hard time with hydrogen powered cars.

 

Yeah. Saw a huge ad going into downtown from I85.

Kinda pissed, but what can you do? Just try to educate people that bring the subject up, I guess.

 

the idiot that lives upstairs from me bought a kit for like 1000$, has a piggy back and everything made for his car... has yet to come in the mail, I told him some dipshiet in another country is 1000$ richer right now.

 

I'm not sold on it, hence why I'm asking for feedback.... but comparing it to hydrogen powered cars is not quite accurate. The claimed benefits are from introducing small amounts of hydrogen to the intake, not running purely off of hydrogen. But yea, I'm skeptical as to much much hydrogren/air would be needed vs what electrolysis could realistically provide when powered off a typical alternator.

Some of the claims would seem nice if true (85% less fuel usage). But the average (15%-20%) could easily be due to changing your driving habits. One thing I noticed is most of the people selling the kits also include some literature on how to drive differently, overinflated tires, etc to save fuel. Given that, I wonder if the 'reports' about this working is because of it actually working, or because they read the docs that came with it =/

 

^Placebo effect?

 

What I meant by that comment was that if it's so easy to make hydrogen, we'd all be driving hydrogen powered cars right now, because it'd be incredibly easy/cheap to install a hydrogen "generator" in every home. You'd just have to shove one end of bare wires into a wall outlet, and the other into a jar of water, and voila! Solution to our oil dependancy!

You're exactly right. Stuff like this works in the same way as fuel magnets and miracle additives - it works because people want it to work, and they change all their driving habits when they install crap like this, and assume the increase is due to the money they spent.

 

A friend of mine installed one of these on his dakota and swore up and down that he got an increase of 5 mpg on his truck. You should of seen this thing, I wish I had a camera. There were wires and hoses all over the place in the engine bay. The cylinder where the electrolysis takes place was just floating around, it was held in place by the wires and hose running to it.

I tried explaining the basic physics principles, energy can't be created, it can only be changed from one form to another. But I was running the risk of being the engi-'nerd' at the party so I dropped it.

I guess people will try anything to save a buck.

 

wouldnt it be a mission with homeland secruity to get your hydrogen refilled? might as well do you lik a propane or nos hook up ?

 

You don't get it refilled, you actually 'make' it. If you ever did one of those science experiments in high school where you put two electrodes in an upside down beaker of water and hook up to a dc source, it's that basic concept.

 

ohh i never tried that all this talk about fuel increase might as well max your tires out thats like 30% increase in mpg

 

I'm actually filling my car with several heavy duty high pressure helium balloons. Shave off a few hundred pounds and watch my mpg's go up. Works great at the drag strip as well. Think I could scam some people into buying this?

 

I'm thinking there is some validity to the "Browns Gas" portion of it (the water broken into Hydrogen and Oxygen)

The scam is in the production, I just don't believe that enough of the gas can be produced by a device hooked up to an automotive electrical system to have any really beneficial effect. Plus the amount of load it might put on the electrical system in generating the small amount of gas it would, probably would counteract any gains. (Kinda like the Electric supercharger or electric turbo scam)

I've heard a few people who were "sold" on the concept swear up and down that introducing the gas has a huge impact on combustion at cruise and therefore releases more energy... But I think the net gain is negligable after the generation process.

In other words, the only places I've seen any "Proof" is on those counterculture and conspiracy theory websites.. Hardly somewhere I'd consider reputable enough to make investigation worthwhile.

 

there is a guy in the barracks using a home made brown gas system in his truck and swears by it. It may be a sound idea to use it on a POS truck but i dont think the techs at the track will approve