[NewCandle] BG and electrolysis

[Jones Beene]

Keith

> That was also my first experience trying to measure
> gas output.

Any measurement of a very mobile and compressible gas is going to 
be extremely difficult - but one of the better solutions for 
measurement is to have the cell hooked up in "hydrobooster mode" 
to an ICE.

I don't think that BG is all that special in itself - except than 
in an ICE the added mobility of H2, and the order of magnitude 
faster burn rate (flame speed) assures that the 6-10% of unburned 
fuel in any auto engine - plus the monoxide (CO) gets completely 
burned.

That is more significant when you do the final ratio and final 
accounting in terms of the burned fuel not carrying any additional 
losses (compressive and volumetric efficiency) - which have 
already been figured into the original Carnot efficiency ! - IOW 
it is all gravy, so that even a minimum 6% extra fuel available to 
be burned can look more like an 18% increase in Carnot.

OK there are other considerations, this is not apples to apples - 
but this factor alone (added "free fuel" and added Carnot 
efficiency) will give you a net 20% gain over normal combustion. 
Proof of this is in Ford's hydrogen fueled engine.

Plus there could be this possibility, which is not talked about 
that much even by Wiseman and his crew:  BG seems to produce a 
short-lived oxidizer off of the neutral plates - probably various 
short-lived peroxide compounds.

It would be really helpful to be able to run gas from the BG 
neutral plates (alone)directly and immediately into a mass-spec to 
see what is there. These compounds have a short lifetime.

They will NOT add anything much to the heat content of the H2 in 
BG : that which is released off the cathode - if and when the BG 
is just burned as produced. That is why many folks can be negative 
about it. And I think it is the basis of Nick's objections. There 
is NO extra heat from BG alone.

But the presence of that oxidizer is why BG will melt W in the 
famous demo, whereas a oxy-acetylene will not, and is preferred by 
many welders.

- PLUS -

....when there is other fuel available ... aha ... there is the 
rub!  it can be shown that gasoline will burn with about 35% 
hotter flame in peroxide than in air. Peroxide is actually a 
better oxidizer than either O2 or chlorine - only ozone is more 
potent as an oxidizer and BG could be making some of that too on 
the neutral plates.

Bottom line - in an ICE you get the 20% boost from a complete burn 
and then maybe an 10-20 % boost from the hotter combustion of some 
of the gasoline using the metastable peroxides.

Otherwise no one would risk adding a hydrobooster onto a $100,000 
semi - but this is being done now and they are getting bona fide 
gains of 30% on diesels which are already more efficient than auto 
engines.

IMHO "pretreated water" serves to increases the amount of gas 
available and that is its advantage in a BG-type electrolyser over 
normal water.

But this is just a guess - and I would like to hear contrary 
opinions, especially since both Keith and Nick have experimented 
with BG ...

Jones