When using gasoline, we’re ‘consuming’ > 2 BTU per power stroke. (Assuming a 140 ci engine, running 500 rpm at idle and consuming 0.3 US gal per hour.)(Assuming gasoline at 114,000 BTU/gal).(500*60)/2 = 15,000 power strokes per hour. (114,000 * 0.3) / 15,000 = 2.28 BTU per power stroke.
Is it practical to use water for fuel when hydrogen has very little BTU per volume? Assuming we were using BG (HHO) as a fuel (instead of a catalyst), how much BG would we need to use to get the same power?
Note: Read this blog, about the 14.7:1 air:fuel mixture LIE to understand that you do not need 2+ BTU of gasoline per power stroke to power the engine (even at idle).
As for hydrogen, I personally idled a 140 ci engine (in my 1974 Vega) at 500 rpm using an electrolyzer capable of 3000 liters per hour of Brown’s Gas (see my Brown’s Gas video 2). It idled beautifully!
The Math:
Givens:Hydrogen has about 9.54 BTU per US-STP liter.http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_btu_in_one_litre_of_hydrogen0.08988 grams per literhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hydrogen(= 0.000198 lb)http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/grams-to-pounds.htm
In an hour the engine would have pumped 850 cubic feet of air = 68.65 lbs.
BG contains 2 atoms of hydrogen for every atom of oxygen, so 3000 liters of BG is 2000 liters of hydrogen. Hydrogen weighs 0.000198 lb per liter so 2000 liters weighs 0.396 lbs.
Thus, (assuming I was using the full 3000 L/hr) my ACTUAL air:hydrogen fuel ratio was 173.36:1 and I only needed 50 liters per minute to idle the engine.
Using hydrogen BTU as a ‘guide’, Brown’s Gas contains at least = 280 BTU/F3 = ~ 10 BTU/liter.50 liters/minute * 10 BTU/liter = 500 BTU/minute 500 rpm means 250 power strokes; so I was using (500 / 250) 2 BTU of BG per power stroke.
When I do the experiment again I will:1. Measure the actual BG going into the engine. I’m not sure (at this time) if I was using the full 3000 L/hr.
2. Eliminate the throttle plate. The throttle is only needed when trying to burn a fluid (gasoline) that must be turned into a vapor to burn. The vacuum created by the throttle plate helps vaporize the gasoline. Hydrogen fuel doesn’t need a throttle plate.I have run engines at full power on gasoline vapors with NO throttle plate. The energy required to make the vacuum (even to idle) is the same as the energy needed to move the vehicle about 35 mph on a level road. Eliminating the throttle plate would allow me to use LESS fuel.
3. Adjust the ignition timing. Hydrogen burns really fast. I did not think to adjust the ignition timing during my experiments shown in Brown’s Gas Video 2 and thus I think that the engine was actually losing power because the combustion was happening too soon (spark too far advanced). The combustion would have been building too much pressure before top dead center and actually fighting the upward movement of the piston on the compression stroke. Retarding the timing would have allowed me to use LESS fuel.
In spite of the items above, the engine ran extremely smooth on BG. I work with fuel systems everyday and have seldom seen a smoother idling engine. I did not look at the flame in a colortune.
Stoichiometric air/fuel (A/F) ratio for hydrogen and air (based on mass) is calculated:= mass of air/mass of fuel = 137.33 g / 4 g = 34.33:1
Rich to lean air:fuel ratio burn limits for EXTERNAL combustion of hydrogen is 4:1 – 70:1
For INTERNAL combustion, you can run LEANER mixtures than external combustion, due to the combustion constituents being compressed closer together…
even the government allows that hydrogen can burn at 180:1 air:fuel mixture as per… http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/tech_validation/pdfs/fcm03r0.pdfThey state: “Because of hydrogen’s wide range of flammability, hydrogen engines can run on A/F ratios of anywhere from 34:1 (stoichiometric) to 180:1.”
All that said… Your question was
“with numbers by BTU ratings I’m not sure there is ANYONE who can produce the 700 liter per min requirement needed to run an engine off straight water please straighten me out on this am i right or wrong ???”
My answer is:
1. Yes, it is possible to run an engine on ‘straight’ Brown’s Gas (aka HHO or BG) and thus ‘run on water’. Anyone can do it, like Denny Klien did (video)… Note: FOX recants original story using mechanics talking bull$hit.
BUT to ‘run an engine on water’ in a practical way, getting the gas volume isn’t enough… Denny Klien did it by using A LOT of electricity from batteries in the trunk, it made enough BG to run the engine BUT you can’t go very far per battery (about 20% of what you could do if you used the batteries to power an electric motor).
That’s why he mainly ran the engine as a ‘hybrid’…Here is proof that BG assists carbon-fuel combustion, and that the FOX mechanics were either ignorant of the facts or just plain acting (lying) for money. (download proof PDF here)
The KEY to REALLY running on water is to make the hydrogen using VERY LITTLE electricity. Then you could use the engine’s alternator to make enough BG to run the engine.I’ve had experiments spontaneously give extremely high volumes of BG with little electricity (I call it Hyper-Gas) so I believe it is possible, but I don’t know if anyone is doing it reliably or consistently. I’m 99.9% certain that, over the last 50 years, several people have done itand been suppressed. For one example, google ” Paul Zigouras suppression “