Hydrogen Power Engine

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I know this may sound a litttle odd, but I am trying to convert a small three horsepower two cycle weed wacker to run off of hydrogen. 2H^2O^2 to be more exact. The purpose of this is that 2H^2o^2 is what you get after electrolysis (seperating oxygen and hydrogen using electricty). I am a little bit lost, but I assume that I would need to modify the carb in some. Perhaps more air less gas? I think that a small device could be built into the fuel line going to the carb that combined the gas with air (hopefully adjustible amounts). I assume that this would be similar to converting an engine to run on propane, which as I understand it is a bit more common. I know that there are kits available to convert engines to propean, but I would like to aviod this for two reasons; they are very expensive and this is a project to use up my free time. I do have some money to spend on this for tubing and any other small things which I may need, but would like to keep it to a minimum. Please leave any input (other than bashing my stupid idea) from a basic idea to schematics (I wish) to a web site with information, but please don't leave links to kits.

-- Evan Sangaline (Navarchy@yahoo.com), September 08, 2001

Answers

I could be wrong but I think that weed wackers are 2 stroke engines and need a oil and gas mixture to lubricate the internal parts of the engine. Without the oil in the fuel mixture it will blow the engine.

-- Mike in WNY (jake@2ki.net), September 08, 2001.

most weed wackers are 2 cycles,, if your isnt,, then your still in business. First,, you'll need a tank of hydrogen,, which is VERY cost prohibitive. It would be easier to convert the propane conversion to hydrogen ( I beleive) Should be a simple matter of nozzle size at that point. I knew a guy that ran out of gas,, and hooked up a tube from a propane tank, straight into the carb,, took 2 people,, one to regulate the tank of to regulate the air, (gas pedal). Beyond that,,

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), September 08, 2001.

Evan, hydrogen looks great until you get close to it. Hydrogen fuel in a conventional piston engine will have severe pre-ignition, intake backfire and detonation ("pinking").

So the first thing is the irregular combustion and with a 2-stroke I think they would be a real risk of explosions in the crankcase.

I don't pretend it can't be done in fact Mercedes-Benz and BMW are both well down the path using techniques like not introducing the hydrogen until the time of intended ignition and other techniques including water injection to moderate the rate of burn. An interesting aside is that the rotary engines as per Mazda RX7 are potentially more attractive than conventional petrol engines.

It sounds like an interesting project, good luck and keep us all imformed when you make the big break through.

John

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), September 08, 2001.


Good luck. Sounds like you will have an excellent chance to join the Dead and/or Mangled Inventors Club.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), September 09, 2001.

It's really funny all the dead headed answers we can get when the question of hydrogen comes up. Suddenly the great thinkers become dumb asses instead of smart asses like they usually are. Look at the web site xogen.com and see what can be possible with hydrogen when applied with thought in a new direction.

-- Steve Humphries (st13hun@people.com), January 16, 2002.


I think using hydrogen in combustion engines is a great idea, too bad the oil 'Cartels' and the automotive industry have designed engines for petrol only. Funny enough the original Diesel engine made by a man of the same name designed it to run on peanut oil!. Sorry digressing abit, problem with H2 gas is that it burns far hotter than petroleum, has a quick explosive/flame front which means- premature detonation due to the combustion chamber over heating. Natually with an engine like this some form of coolent is necessary to chill hot spots or at least stop the engine from over heating. However a more reasonable gas to use is a mixture of carbon monoxide and H2 known on the net as 'Aquafuel'-similar combustion properties to propane. Which also means you can possibly use propane gas kits (IMPCO) for cars with this new gas (I have not tried this but it seems logical). When two carbon electrodes are touching tip to tip and connected underwater with each electrode fixed to the (-) & (+) terminals of a car or truck battery, the intense arc/heat splits H2O into H2 and CO gas quite combustible. But be sure if using any type of gas, you must fit some kinda one way 'Blowback' arrestor similar to one found on oxy/acetyl plants-too stop a spark or flame front travelling through your gas line into the H2 resevoir-BOOM!

-- Steven Bishop (ship_who_sang@hotmail.com), February 22, 2002.

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