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Georgia
Genset Test
On
April 7, 2009 I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia to do some testing of
Hydrogen Boost on a Caterpillar Turbo-Diesel 280 kVa
Genset powered by a Model 3300 Caterpillar
turbo-Diesel engine with mechanical fuel injection.
 
To insure a constant load we hired the Caterpillar
distributor to send out their maintenance tech equipped to perform an
annual load maintenance procedure.
A bank of electrical resistance heaters provided the electrical
load for the test and we tested at 100 kilovolts and 200 kilovolts. For fuel flow determination we rigged
up a plastic five gallon fuel container at the main tank, routing both
the fuel supply line and the fuel return line into the container and
filling it to overflowing. Then we
prepared some one gallon containers full of fuel ready to pour into the
makeshift tank as the engine used the fuel. We timed the amount of time it took the
engine to use up one gallon of fuel as we replaced that fuel with fuel
from our one gallon containers, keeping the tank at or near overflowing
and insuring that when we emptied the one gallon containers the tank was
totally full to overflowing.
 
Below are the descriptions of the test runs, equipment
installed, hydrogen gas production rates (indicated as amps drawn by the
hydrogen generator) and the run times per gallon for each test
segment. The recorded data is as
follows:
100 KW Baseline no XCEL PLUS, no Hydrogen 7:00 Improvement
200 KW Baseline no XCEL PLUS, no Hydrogen 4:05
100 KW w/ XCEL PLUS and 37 amps Hydrogen 7:31
100 KW w/ XCEL PLUS and 28 amps Hydrogen 7:34 Ave. 7:28.33 = +6.75%
100 KW w/ XCEL PLUS and 15 amps Hydrogen 7:20
200 KW w/ XCEL PLUS no Hydrogen 4:00
4:08
4:02 Ave. 4:04 = +3.4%
4:06
200 KW w/ XCEL PLUS and 40 amps Hydrogen 4:19
4:20
4:03 Ave. 4:12.75
= +3.6%
4:09
100 KW w/ XCEL PLUS no Hydrogen 7:11
7:17
7:12 Ave. 7:14.25 = +3.4%
7:17
100 KW w/ XCEL PLUS and 35 amps Hydrogen 7:43
38 7:28 Ave. 7:31.25 = + 7.4%
39 7:24
40 7:30
The percent figures on the right are the calculated
increase in run time with the XCEL PLUS engine treatment and/or Hydrogen
added. The underlined % figures
are the increase in run time with both XCEL PLUS and Hydrogen added based
on the first baseline figure at the top of the data chart.
After
testing was completed we noticed that the plastic gas can container that
we used as our makeshift fuel tank looked different that it did
before. The sides of the container
were bulged out slightly because of the weight of the fuel and the heat
of the returning diesel fuel softening the plastic composition of the
container. We took the fuel in the
container and poured it into one of the identical but cool containers we
carried the fuel in. We have 9
ounces of fuel left over after that container was full. So the tests run hydrogen assist were
actually shortened because the one gallon of fuel we added during the
test was falling into an enlarged container. What this means is that our improvement
was actually more that we calculated.
If we know that the 100 KW test ran for at least 7 minutes per gallon
or 420 seconds for 128 ounces of fuel, then our 9 ounces of fuel left over
would account for about 30 seconds more of run time. So our improvements could have been
double or triple what we have calculated above.
Conclusions:
The 100 KW tests showed the most improvement averaging about
7%. The 200 KW tests shows
somewhat less improvement averaging about 3.5% and this may indicate that
at the higher power production setting more hydrogen may have been needed
to get the optimum increased run time.
If we had more gas production I would expect that our increase run
time could have achieved the typical 5% that we expect with this type of
engine and application. Since most
gensets are designed to run continuously at
about one half their peak output capability,
then the normal operation of this genset would
likely achieve the typical 5% or more improvement that we expect with
this application.
If we
calculate the savings of fuel for one year of continuous use with
Hydrogen Boost installed on this genset
operating at 100 KW, we would take 525,600 minutes in one year at an
average of about 4 minutes per gallon, gioving
us 131,400 gallons of typical use.
7% of that would be 9198 gallons.
At today’s price of diesel fuel of around $250 per gallon we would
expect a savings of $22,995 per year in fuel. If we add the benefits of fewer oil
changes and cleaner emissions, we truly see the benefits of installing a
$3000 Hydrogen Boost system on this application. Expected payback period would be under
two months.
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