MakerGear Forum

insta wrote:As far as I can tell, this produces a mixed blend of hydrogen and oxygen. You CAN compress it, just not within any space you wish to continue inhabiting as a contiguous human being as opposed to a mile-wide cloud of person-vapor.

Actually it keeps the hydrogen and oxygen separated and outputs each gas from two different ports. This is what distinguishes this HHO cell from all the common ones you see people hooking up to their cars. There is still about 5% oxygen getting into the hydrogen currently, but that is not enough to create the extreme static sensitivity you get with the 2:1 mixture. I can fill a milk jug with the hydrogen and spark a grill igniter inside of it and it won't explode. If I mix the two outputs together and fill a jug with that, the grill igniter easily sets it off every time. Which reminds me, the 4th is coming up and I need to wash out a bunch of milk jugs

Slipshine wrote:I have really enjoyed following this project. I would like to thank you for taking the time to share this incredible build.

I was wondering how much pressure can the system generate before its a problem .

Also is there an effective way to compress and store for later use.

Thanks.

I try to keep pressure to a minimum.. It's under about 8" of water currently. All connections are hose barbs and the cell itself is plastic laminations-- just not designed for high pressure. Leaks would spring up all over the place if you pressurize it too much. To store the gas in compressed tanks you would have to have something like a scuba tank filler and then output the hydrogen to a large intermediate bag that the tank filler sucks the gas out of, since the hydrogen generator would not be able to produce the gas fast enough to keep up with a tank filling pump. I'll be filling blimps directly from the generator, so no need for compressed storage.

I was just thinking about a way to compress the hydrogen so you could inflate on site somewhere.

I used to fly satdium blimps baloons and even a steamship. Was just curious if you always fly at home.

Thanks again for the project. Make sure to be extra careful with the milk jugs. You have had quite the rund of bad luck lately.

Slipshine wrote:I was just thinking about a way to compress the hydrogen so you could inflate on site somewhere.

I used to fly satdium blimps baloons and even a steamship. Was just curious if you always fly at home.

Thanks again for the project. Make sure to be extra careful with the milk jugs. You have had quite the rund of bad luck lately.

I just fly them for fun at home, but don't want to spend big bucks on helium to do it. I decided to spend big bucks and hundreds of hours designing and building a personal hydrogen generator instead Actually I was originally just going to buy commercial hydrogen since it is about 1/5 the cost of helium, but the supplier was giving me a hard time about buying it. They wanted to know what I was going to use it for and have a guy come out and inspect my place (yet I can go buy a tank of propane or acetylene no questions asked). I just didn't feel like dealing with their hydrogen phobia and decided to make it myself. I probably spent at least $1500 developing this generator, but it was a pretty fun project that sort of turned into a hobby within itself. I have a more detailed thread on the whole history of the project on the blimp forums at rcgroups.com if you want to read about the failures that led up to the final 3D printed solution: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2537905

BTW regarding my bad luck, I ran the final finished machine this morning for two hours straight and everything was going great, then the pump hose came off and was squirting sodium hydroxide everywhere. It lost half a gallon before I could even get it shut off. It's not a super strong solution so it doesn't burn when it gets on you unless you don't wipe it off right way. But it burns if you get it in a cut, and I cut myself on the radiator fins while trying to remove it during cleanup. And of course a radiator cut is several parallel cuts in a row. So yeah, my bad luck is not just limited to 3D printing. Although this wasn't bad luck, it was negligence-- I didn't install the hose clamp on the hose that came off, even though I had bought one specifically for that connection and had it in the room. Doh!

Video of the final working unit: https://youtu.be/LXAO4EbhGdQ

I could not help noticing the milk jugs in the background.

I wonder what those are used for?

Slipshine wrote:I could not help noticing the milk jugs in the background.

I wonder what those are used for?

Actually those particular ones are used for storing the electrolyte when it is not in the system. There's a whole pile of them in the recycle bin elsewhere that get "recycled" into plastic shards though

pyronaught wrote:Which reminds me, the 4th is coming up and I need to wash out a bunch of milk jugs

Wash out, or turn into confetti?

insta wrote:

pyronaught wrote:Which reminds me, the 4th is coming up and I need to wash out a bunch of milk jugs

Wash out, or turn into confetti?

I wash them out prior to turning them into confetti, since they have sour milk rotting in the bottom of them. 2 liter bottles turn into rockets rather than blowing up, so I use those too.