http://www.mysanantonio.com/multimed...tid=1564557037
Gas alone -14 mpg
With the hydrogen generator - 19 mpg
By tweaking the computer - 26 mpg
I-Team: Hydrogen generator that increases gas mileage being tested in S.A.
Web Posted: 05/20/2008 11:35 PM CDT
Barry Davis
KENS 5 Eyewitness News
The national average for unleaded gasoline is more than $3.75 per gallon and is expected to go higher.
Unless you're driving a hybrid vehicle, you are likely spending almost twice as much on gas as you were just two years ago.
But what if there was a way to cut gas expenses by as much as 50 percent by doing something as simple as turning on your kitchen faucet?
Scientists in San Antonio are testing a hydrogen generator that could dramatically raise your fuel efficiency. Some scientists, however, say it just doesn't wash.
"You can't get something for nothing. And starting with water is a very difficult way to get energy," said Dr. Charlie Roberts, with the Southwest Research Ins ute.
The technology to produce hydrogen gas is actually about 100 years old. Through electrolysis, two molecules of hydrogen are separated from the one molecule of oxygen in H20 (water). The relatively new use is burning the elements separately to supplement gasoline.
It seems almost futuristic to take water from your faucet and put it into a generator under your vehicle's hood and drive away.
"We tested several vehicles in New Jersey last month and the numbers were like fiction, you know — 80 miles per gallon with a 4-cylinder Honda, 80 miles per gallon with a 4-cylinder Ford Focus," said professional mechanic Steve Gerhlein. "This system doesn't do anything more than help stretch the gasoline dollar by converting water with a chemical, which is potassium hydroxide mixed up in a special proportion. And then it makes hydrogen and oxygen that the engine then uses as a fuel."
Gerhlein, a professional mechanic for more than 30 years, was so intrigued by what he read about hydrogen generators that he put one on his wife's Lexus.
Without the hydrogen generator, Gerhlein said the Lexus, running on super unleaded, got about 14 miles per gallon. With the hydrogen generator the vehicle gets about 19 miles per gallon. By tweaking the computer to accept the extra fuel, Gerhlein says the truck now gets 26 miles per gallon.
"We know it works on my wife's truck for about a 40 percent increase in gas mileage without the computerization," Gerhlein said. "The work that I do is concentrating on hydrogen used in more traditional engines, like we drive every day," Roberst said.
Roberts has worked on making hydrogen a fuel source for years. He says while hydrogen by itself is too expensive, when used with gasoline it does have promise.
"If you use a small amount of hydrogen there's a chance, and I think this is what many of us are looking for toward the future,” Roberts said.
Gerhlein believes this new technology is literally days away.
"All your liability is you have to clean out this canister probably once every six months, and you may have to clean the actual electrolysis producing cell out maybe once a year," Gerhlein said.
Drivers also have to add very inexpensive chemicals with the water to create the hydrogen gas.
There are plans for hydrogen generators all over the Internet. However, Gerhlein says 98 percent of them won't produce enough hydrogen to help much.
None of them come with a computer to help today's car read and understand the additional source of fuel except the one he is researching. Gerhlein's hydrogen generator costs $1,500 to have installed in your vehicle.
"But if you're driving from Pipe Creek to San Antonio every day, and you can make it run at double the gas mileage for $1,500, our research says that after 11,000 miles, the system’s paid for itself. And the system runs an indefinite period of time," Gerhlein said.
There could be a couple of other benefits, too. According to Gerhlein, burning hydrogen also cleans out the engine, has less toxic emissions and would pass Environmental Protection Agency standards.
Roberts says that is possible, but it is also possible that the hydrogen generator could burn worse.
"Today, just putting a device onto the engine, without changing the engine in a more drastic way, about 5 percent fuel economy improvement is the best I would expect," Roberts said.
The Southwest Research Ins ute is testing the hydrogen generator, and Gerhlein says if researchers tell him it's for real, maybe it won't be long before you can have one under your hood.
"Americans won World War II with people who invented things when they needed them, at that time. We've been to the moon. We've been the space race leaders for years. Our aircraft are the best there is because Americans will find a way around a bad situation, and there's a lot of folks working on this right now. And somebody's going to pop the right unit out into the populace to do exactly what we're talking about today," Gerhlein said.
For more information, e-mail Gerhlein at [email protected].
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Online at: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/ken....131e4416.html
Something needs to be done.
Umm, if the hybrid is using the same amount of gas it was two years ago, then yes hybrid drivers are also paying twice as much for gas as they were then. Duh.
I'm still paying half as much as I was last year. I went from a Ford F150 to a Honda Civic.
Hydrogen fueled cars give you a lot of energy compared to Propane powered cars, but the problem is your tank would be half of the car when using liquid hydrogen as the fuel source.
And gas is 4.09 over here.
One of the problems with a hydrogen car is the fact that you would have to store the hydrogen in combination with something else. Hydrogen is extremely flammable/explosive by itself. Much more so than gasoline. GM has given up on the concept of hydrogen cars and turned its resources towards developing electical cars.
BTW, Gehrlein is a ing crook. Dudes got a 3 million dollar weekend house at Medina Lake he paid for by ripping off his customers.
You're still cheaper than we are a few hours north. I had to fill up for $4.29 yesterday morning.
I take all my vehicles there and have been treated fantastic and everythings been fixed correctly.
Don't know where your pulling that out of your ass.
Did it ever occur to you that maybe not everyone has had the same great experience with Gehrlein as you have? Your story sounds like you could've pulled it out of your ass.
And probably several things that weren't even broken. He likes mechanically illiterate guys like you using daddy's credit card.
Steve's an alright guy, except he has this annoying habit of talking when he doesn't need to be (like when certain people are trying to sleep on the KTSA bus trip to TMS...me, specifically).
You're assuming he made all of his money in the mechanic biz. Dude cleared a sheckel or two in the real estate market. In fact, he used to own the acreage I currently live on in Wilson County.
That ing sucks, I would ride a bike, but I don't know how.
HHO gas : HHO gas hybrid car:
When talking about HHO we should start out talking about what it is and how it is made. How does the HHO system work? HHO gas is the done by having a container with a water solution, inside the container there are either metal plates or wire and an intake or out-gas tubes. The water has a charge put to it…the electricity goes through the plates or wire and causes electrolysis and the result is HHO that flows up the out-gas tube into the air intake manifold. The process is simple; the process of making HHO gas is also called Brown’s Gas. HHO is Hydrogen + Hydrogen + Oxygen. When the HHO systems splits water (H2O) into its components the h2o to HHO conversion takes place. HHO is also known as Green Gas, Hydroxy, Di-Hydroxy, and Water gas. The electrolysis of water produces a burnable Green Gas. HHO is a green gas that is the wave of the future. HHO auto conversion creates a hybrid car, which are now water powered cars using the technology of HHO. The HHO gas generator for cars is an environmentally friendly car modified with HHO technology, which allows users to increase their mileage, save money on gasoline, costs and drastically reduces car emissions. An HHO water hybrid car uses the HHO gas to assist combustion. So if you are asking the question, does HHO work in cars, the answer is yes, HHO technology for a waterpower car dramatically increases you miles per gallon. HHO as a fuel also reduces air pollution, decreases oil imports and fuel consumption, reduces the trade deficit and produce American jobs. If a mere 10% of automobiles nationwide were powered by an HHO gas fuel system, regulated air pollutants would be cut by one million tons per year and 60 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide would be eliminated. HHO is derived from a renewable source, water, thus the emissions will be nothing but water vapor. You can’t get more environmentally friendly than that. HHO is water gas. HHO Systems are known to help an engine run cleaner with less carbon buildup. A water-powered car improves emissions with an increase in horsepower, which equates to fewer trips to the gas station. With today’s gas prices, everyone is looking for alternative car fuel. You can build your own HHO converter and make your car a hybrid car. When you build your own HHO systems converter it will connect to the 12 Volts of your battery via the ignition switch. To build HHO generator could take 10 minutes or less to connect. HHO makes the engine run quieter and it stops knocking or “pinging”. The water changes the combustion cycle into a more even or “round” cycle. This happens immediately upon installation of the HHO converter kit, and from that moment on, your engine works in a new way. Using hydrogen in cars creates less noise, less vibration, resulting in reduced strain on the transmission (thus smoother gear shifts), cleaner pistons and valves, and generally better engine operation. The more you learn about all this HHO fuel cell stuff, the more you will see how beneficial it is not only to your cost for fuel, but also for the environment.
Thank you, Doctor StrangeSpam.
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