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Complete Hydrogen Boost System Versus Hydrogen
Generator Alone
Ever
since I started developing Hydrogen Boost in the summer of 2000, I have
said that the use of an on-board hydrogen generator (Brown’s gas electrolyzer)
alone would not increase mileage by a measurable amount. For six years now I have been
repeating myself ad nauseam. We
have had customers who have believed the claims of other web sites and
have tried a hydrogen generator alone on their vehicle in an attempt to
improve their gas mileage, but to no avail. I would like to reinforce my
convictions about this subject with the research of another company and
explain why I hold this conviction.
First let me quote from our November 2001 newsletter:
Effects of each component of the Hydrogen-Boost
System will vary with the vehicle upon which it is installed.
Some components have an independent effect and some components work
together to have an accumulative effect that is greater than the effects
of each of the individual components combined. The accumulative
effect will be greater than the mathematical sum of the individual
effects of the components. For instance the fuel heater, the
vaporization circuit and canister, and the hydrogen generator (I should
have included the Electronic Control Circuit) work together to produce
an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects.
An illustration will help you understand this
concept. Let’s look at a farmer, a plow and an ox. The ox
will not do much plowing by itself and neither will the plow, likewise
neither will the farmer. Even the ox and the farmer will do
little together without the plow, and neither will the farmer and the
plow without the ox, and so forth. But if you put all three
together you’ll be able to plow a whole field in a day. Likewise
with the hydrogen generator and the fuel heater and the vaporizer.
This
week I have run across a few web sites that have confirmation of our
assertion. Let’s look at a few
statements made by these sites.
At www.all4engineers.com
this article appeared:
Hydrogen-Enhanced Combustion
A Promising Concept
for Ultra-lean Homogeneous Combustion
Ultra-lean-burn combustion
is viewed by many as a necessary next significant step in the evolution
of the gasoline engine. However, emission constraints require that
these engines operate under stoichiometric conditions to avoid costly
emissions control solutions. The addition of small amounts of hydrogen
to the cylinder charge can allow these types of engines to operate much
leaner than they otherwise could, eliminating the need to treat NOx
emissions altogether. While this is not a new idea, it is
Arvin-Meritor's development of a compact and fast-response fuel
reformer that is bringing this concept much closer to reality.
I want you to understand
the concept here. To improve
mileage beyond the normal combustion conditions mandated by the
government for emissions control (stoichiometric), an “Ultra-lean-burn
combustion” is considered necessary.
The purpose of our electronic control circuit is to lean out the
air/fuel mixture from 14.7:1 to a mixture that is lean enough to
prevent unacceptable amounts of NOx emissions (typically above
18:1) Now let’s look at another
article.
At
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/11/hydrogenenhance.html
we see:
Hydrogen-Enhanced Combustion Engine
Could Improve Gasoline Fuel Economy by 20% to 30%
5 November 2005
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An HECE test engine
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Work being done by ArvinMeritor, IAV
(Ingenieursgesellshaft für Auto und Verkehr) and MIT on enhancing
gasoline combustion with a small hydrogen gas stream is pointing toward
a potential estimated improvement in gasoline fuel economy of 20% to
30%, depending upon the baseline engine.
Writing in the October issue of MTZ (Motortechnische Zeitschrift),
Utz-Jens Beister from IAV and Rudy Smaling from ArvinMeritor describe
their progress with the Hydrogen-Enhanced Combustion Engine (HECE)
concept, as applied to an SUV-class 3.2-liter V6 test engine.
The premise of HECE, on which the
research collaborative has been working for a number of years, is that
the addition of a small amount of hydrogen to the cylinder charge can
allow homogeneous charge ultra-lean-burn combustion engines to operate
much leaner than otherwise possible.
http://auto.consumerguide.com
had this article:
The Hydrogen-Boosted Gasoline Engine
03.30.2006
By Bob Brooks
Faced
with the ever increasing cost of gasoline, automakers worldwide are
working overtime to cost-effectively improve vehicle fuel economy,
while still meeting today's strict emissions requirements.
One
promising way to boost fuel economy is to add hydrogen to the fuel/air
mixture in a conventional gas engine. It's called a hydrogen-boosted
gas engine. However, since hydrogen isn't readily available at your
local filling station, selling a hydrogen-boosted gas engine hasn't
been on the short list at many automakers. That is until now.
There's
a new technology that utilizes a fast-response on-board reformer to
generate a small amount of hydrogen from gasoline. This hydrogen is
added to the engine's normal air/fuel mixture. Engines designed to run
on a mix of hydrogen/gasoline can see a fuel-economy gain of 20 to 30
percent with no requirement for control of harmful NOx emissions,
oxides of nitrogen.
A small amount of hydrogen made on-board by
the reformer is added to the normal intake air and gasoline mixture.
This greatly improves overall combustion quality by allowing nearly
twice as much air for a given amount of fuel introduced into the
combustion chamber. This is more energy efficient because it saves
energy by reducing the amount of engine pumping needed.
An
industry-accepted virtual vehicle analysis based on engine test data
indicated the potential for a 20 percent to 30 percent improvement in
fuel economy for a turbocharged downsized version of the
hydrogen-boosted engine when compared with conventional gasoline
engines.
Lack of Emissions
A major cost and environmental advantage of the hydrogen-boosted lean
system engine are low amounts of NOx emissions gasses, hence, complete
elimination of the need for external NOx emissions control. Currently,
NOx emissions control is a major cost problem for diesels which use
expensive traps to meet emissions standards. Diesel particulate
emissions must also be collected by a filter that must be periodically
regenerated.
Hydrogen-boosted
gasoline engines require neither NOx or particulate control and require
only a low cost oxidation catalyst to control small amounts of exhaust
(unburned hydrocarbons) formed mostly during engine start-up and early
warm up. Additional cuts in emissions control requirements stem from
the engine's ability to use only the clean hydrogen enriched charge
during the cold start phase when 90% of emissions are generated in the
emissions test.
Now it should be noted
that the above articles are reports on the efforts of the German
company Arvin-Meritor to further develop the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology’s plasmatron device than actually reforms a super rich
air/gasoline mixture in the presence of a miniature lightning storm,
into a mixture of gases including carbon monoxide and more importantly
hydrogen. This device uses more
electrical energy than our electrolyzer and it uses a small amount of
gasoline but it also produces more hydrogen. It also should be noted that the
above reports state the potential mileage increases due to the addition
of hydrogen alone with the ultra-lean air/fuel mixture is 20-30%, which
just so happens to be in the range of documented mileage increases
attained by the Hydrogen Boost system.
Now let me explain the differences and
similarities between these hydrogen boost systems. Our Hydrogen Boost system involves
more than just addition of hydrogen and leaning of the fuel ratio. Though this may be all that’s
required by their hydrogen boost system to get the 20-30% mileage
increases, they are indeed producing more hydrogen than we can with
only a 30 amp electrolyzer.
To make up for the
smaller quantity of hydrogen used in our system we have to prepare the
fuel (gasoline) for combustion with another method to get it to ignite
properly. This is the purpose of
our fuel heater and vaporizing system.
If we can get more of the fuel vaporized before the hydrogen
enhance flame front gets to the air/fuel mix in the combustion chamber,
we will not need as much hydrogen to get it to ignite faster. Another consideration in our system
is that we are not injecting only stable diatomic hydrogen, but Brown’s
gas, which contains other less stable forms of hydrogen and oxygen and
combinations thereof. And for
those Hydrogen Boost System users that choose to inject their Brown’s gas
after the vehicle’s air filter (contrary to the instructions in the
manual), there is the mist of electrolyte cloud that also enters the
combustion chamber and possibly begins to tear down the gasoline
molecules during the compression stroke of the engine, thereby further
preparing the fuel for combustion.
Besides all that happens
in the combustion chamber the Hydrogen Boost system also enjoys the
benefits of the XCEL PLUS engine treatment and increased tire pressure,
both of which have been proven experimentally by independent labs to
increase mileage. Even though we
produce less hydrogen that the plasmatron device being further
developed by Arvin-Meritor we can and have achieved their calculated
potential mileage increase of 20-30%, though we only promote a 15-25%
mileage increase without driving tips.
So to say it one more time, “The use of an
on-board electrolyzer ALONE will not give big increases in
mileage.” Now what does that
tell you about the dozen or so competitors out there promoting their hydrogen generators (electrolyzers)
that cost from $250 to $15,000 and some produce 1/6 to 1/3 the quantity
of hydrogen as our electrolyzer, claiming big increases in mileage with
their electrolyzer ALONE?
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