Gas On Demand Systems

[arcturian]

Hello,

What is the problem with bubblers?

Has anyone seen considered/tried or had any success with any of the many advertised kits/plans etc.

for example only, the solenoid set up at

http://www.futurehorizons.net/fuel.htm

Any comments would be welcome.

Cheers
Nick

 

[peebee]

Could you clarify your question? What do you mean, "what is the problem with bubblers?". I don't have any problem with them. Sounds like maybe you do? In some specific appliation? Or regarding some specific claim about what they are supposed to be capable of?

Regarding your referenced site, their claims about creating "free" energy from water are misleading at best. I do have a problem with the claims made on that site, and would think twice about buying anything posted there.

 

[moltenmetal]

From what I've seen on that website, the problem is a lack of understanding of thermodynamics on the part of the person who wrote the web text describing the device. Either that, or they know thermodynamics perfectly well but hope that you don't and that they can part you from your money as a result of your ignorance.

Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen isn't a "free" process, regardless how you accomplish it. The products have a higher net internal energy than the starting material (water), and that energy has to come from somewhere. Think about it: that's why you get (heat) energy back when you re-combine hydrogen and oxygen to make water- it's why hydrogen is useful as a "fuel". The energy to split water can be provided in the form of light (i.e. for photocatalytic hydrolysis), heat (i.e. for thermal/catalytic water decomposition in solar furnaces), chemical internal energy (i.e. by adding sodium metal to water to produce hydrogen and sodium hydroxide), electricity (i.e. electrolysis), but it must come from somewhere.

If you use electrolysis, the source of the energy is electricity, which is basically "work on tap"- it can be readily converted directly to work, and hence is "high-grade" expensive energy. It's an easy process to accomplish physically if you don't care about efficiency: simply throw a 9V battery into some sodium bicarbonate solution and you'll start to make hydrogen- but it's not "free" hydrogen by any stretch of the imagination. Using electricity to produce a chemical product (hydrogen/oxygen) whose energy can only be indirectly re-converted back to work via an intermediate process is far from sensible unless the electricity in question is essentially "free".

 

[cryotechnic]

I agree with "moltenmetal" and "peebee", it's not free energy. It's a clean energy, that's for sure. (Well, cleaner than fossilfuels)

I didn't take a very close look at the site "arcturian" mentioned, but what I saw scared me.
It looked very amateur. The design is truly dangerous.
In our company we have a few electrolysers to produce H2, and the electrolysers are packed with safety features, and switches etc. All to eleminated the risk that the produced H2 and O2 gas will mix to an explosive mixture.

The mix of H2 and O2 is much more dangerous then H2 and O2 on they're own.

My advice, don't play with this stuff, and let the produce of these gasses be done by the experts.

Cryotechnic

"Math is the ruler of your potential succes...."