Posted on 09/18/2008 10:24:42 AM PDT by Red Badger
It runs on water -- Jeff Falk demonstrates his hydrogen powered generator. It uses an electrolyzer to break the water down into hydrogen and oxygen, then burns the hydrogen for fuel. It produces zero carbon emissions and is "very safe." Falk's goal is to get off the grid completely. Photo By Don Lee
EUREKA SPRINGS -- Are the high prices of fuel getting to you? Do you cringe whenever you pull up to the pumps, or when the electric bill arrives in the mail?
If the answer is yes, it's a safe bet most Americans share your concern.
But Jeff Falk has a different way of dealing with the current economic meltdown.
The generator in his shop runs on tap water.
"This is a technology that goes against the grain of world economics, from the point of view of the oil companies," said Falk, whose has designed and built everything from race cars to aircraft to speed boats. "Anybody who really thinks the government is going to embrace this is probably wrong. They'd probably lock you up first."
Nonetheless, Falk has done it. Starting five years ago after he read about it, he has built an electricity producing generator that runs on hydrogen rather than fossil fuels.
Hydrogen safer than you think
"There is a lot of propaganda about how dangerous hydrogen is," Falk said. "Not true. You can't approach it like fossil fuels, there are different rules. Unlike fossil fuels, which are heavier than air and pool, creating potential explosive hazards, hydrogen is the lightest element there is. It disperses. It will go right through the ceiling if you don't contain it."
Falk points out another vital distinction between hydrogen and fossil fuels.
"Burning hydrogen produces no radiant heat," he said. "It's the hydrocarbon emissions from burning gasoline, for instance, that burn you if you get in its way. The hydrocarbon emissions are also the source of its pollution."
Falk uses high-frequency DC/AC hybrid pulsed electrolyzers to separate the hydrogen and oxygen from ordinary tap water.
An electrolyzer runs a current through the water, splitting the H2O molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Anyone can electrolyze
Many will remember the familiar high school science experiment where wires are attached to any two-poled battery, then into two water-filled containers. As the current splits the molecules, one bottle will fill with oxygen, the other with hydrogen.
This is a little more complex.
Falk's electrolyzers do the same thing, using a small current, high frequency and high voltages to initiate the process.
Once the electrolyzer begins producing hydrogen, the generator produces enough power to fuel itself and more.
Because hydrogen burns so quickly, steam is channeled to slow down the burn.
"You couldn't run appliances off this generator at this point," Falk said. "The amperage is too low. But I'm refining it. My goal it to have the power company come out and remove their pole and then go away, because I won't need them anymore."
For every .75 amps going into the generator, 22 come out.
Falk said ideally two generators would be needed, so that one could be serviced from time to time.
Dinosaur snot unattractive fuel source
"Why do we want to keep pumping dinosaur snot out of the ground and burning it?" Falk asked. "How primitive can you get? Why don't we just leave the rest of it in the ground until we can find something better to do with it than that?"
Falk speculated units sufficient to power home use could be mass produced for about $7,500 each.
"Look at this," Falk said, holding a temperature sensor near the generator's exhaust. "Right now the exhaust is 228 degrees. If this were a gasoline generator, the temperature would be more like 800 degrees."
Falk said the his model generator uses about a pint of water an hour to produce 7,500 watts of electricity.
DIY possible
"Most of this equipment I got off the Internet, the parts and the info on how to do it," Falk said. "Eventually I can get off the grid without having to live by candlelight, and save money too."
In addition to the water-powered generator, Falk is working on an improved, highly efficient solar panel design which he expects to have up and running shortly.
Video on Falk's generator and other projects can be seen on-line on YouTube at www.youtube.com/SolgenLLC.
LOLOLOLOL!
Fairness doesn't have any thing to do with it. The reported hydogen generation efficiency of the ultra-short-pulse power supply was better than the DC power supply at only one point in that report, and still only 40%.
Hey!
Wait a minute - I DO know my shirt size!
Does that mean I’m not a physicist any more despite the rest of that being true?
“If the frame that shows up in the pic is that of a typical 7.5KW gasoline generator then it has a side draft carburetor that has no way to meter hydrogen.”
Oops, that could be a problem! lol
My mistake - Poor choice of words.
I meant to say:
Hydrogen is an energy storage medium. There are no hydrogen mines. It must be manufactured at a net energy loss.
Recently, water electrolysis has been reconsidered as a
promising method for hydrogen generation since the
cost of electricity is decreasing, mainly as a result of
wind-generated power.
Where in the world has the cost of electricity gone down?
I LOLed
He’s been working on this for 5 years, is still on the grid, and can’t generate enough power to make toast?
Does the electrolyzer use gerbils to produce electricity?
Seriously, I hope it works out for him.
It just means that you haven’t achieved maximum entropy yet.......
whoever wrote in an early post that this would be a fun thread was absolutely correct ...
BZZZZZZZZZZT!
Nice try, but wrong answer. Thank you for playing.
The author was referencing the use of wind power or other alternatives to the grid; still it takes nothing from the piece.
The true importance would lie in the speed with which electrolysis could be achieved rather than the achievement power consumption.
With their design, the voltage can be increased using more input of course, thereby producing greater volumes of gas while conventional devices limit the voltage to low values and must allow for the time of diffusion.
You must read it all.
Pulsed power is always more efficient than DC (i.e. linear) power. That is why your lap top's power supply is a "switch mode" supply vs. the old fashioned "linear" supply.
Heat loss and high temperatures are the enemy.
Perhaps he can get the Federal Reserve to give him a loan for research....oops, never mind.
Dinosaur phlegm..........
Efficiency of hydrogen generation 50% at best.
Efficiency of 7500 W hydrogen powered electric generator is 30% at best.
0.4 x 0.5 x 0.3 = dumb idea
It's easy to manufacture hydrogen. Just take one electron and one proton, put them together and poof! Hydrogen!...................
Net energy loss.
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