Environment & Energy
In reply to the discussion: Make your own Hydrogen gas generator using a mason jar, steel wool pot scrubbers and a sock [View all]trustworthy
(4 posts)I am an older scientist:
No. the steel does not burn it lasts years. The energy comes from electricity, direct current. Electric energy forces the water atoms to divide into hydrogen and oxygen (remember H2O) The oxygen and hydrogen will join again and the energy will be released, just like Oxygen and Gasoline combine O2 + O2 +CH3* = CO2* + H2O +O-. All require ignition to set it off, like any fire. No metal is involved: it is only a conductor. Its the water that is consumed and must be refilled like gasoline. This little miracle might make us respect water more...it is not free, any more than steel or gasoline. It comes to us by solar power. Water is life itself.
Making electricity from Hydrogen gas is complex chemistry requiring a catalyst. It is not efficient and it's political, ie invented by the oil industry to combat hydrogen. The logic of using hydrogen and oxygen in the car is: the alternator of the car produces lots of unused electricity, which can be connected to the conductors in water to create the flammable gas combination. No carburetor or fuel injector is needed since the gas amounts are already matched to go back together. The motor runs better, spark is not retarded with hydrogen/oxygen gas, so no electronics.
Why this is a new concept I dont know. but it is getting popular and it should. it would have helped the auto industry from day one. However, consider that the petroleum industry would have lost billion$$$... of dollars if the cars had harnessed the alternator, and then you can see a motive(no, they never would, you say). Everyone remembers the Hindenburg and guess why. The oil industry pushed the newsreel: it was run more than any film clip in history. The public wanted hydrogen in the 1920s because so many gasoline trucks blew up in neighborhoods. The oil industry made their case against hydrogen by reeling the Hindenburg incident. You can see by studying the film,however, that the Hindenburg DID NOT explode. I leave that to you. Hydrogen is less dangerous than gasoline.