has anyone here played with a hydrogen generator?

[audilvr]

i've made a couple but have never put one on a car. wondering if there's any experience here?

[745 turbogreasel]

Yup, ruined a perfectly good spoon generating hydrogen from milk.

[libbydiesel]

i've made a couple but have never put one on a car. wondering if there's any experience here?

To what end?  To make a cool bubbler or to increase engine efficiency.  If the former, then have all the fun with it that money can buy.  If the latter, then you are SOL pure and simple. 

Looking at it objectively, first you have diesel fuel in your tank.  Sunlight, stored as BTUs in that fuel, is converted into motion by the engine with an efficiency of 30%ish in the conversion.  Next that motion is converted into electricity by the alternator with an energy conversion efficiency of less than 60%.  Then that electricity is used to break the bond of the hydrogen and oxygen in water.  That conversion is relatively efficient at 80-94% efficiency.  You will then return the hydrogen to the combustion chambers and turn it back into motion at about 30% efficiency.  That cycle of crank power to electricity to HHO to crank power results in more than an 80% LOSS of energy.  The only reason people don't see a BIG hit in fuel economy is because they are converting very little of the engine's power.  If they increased HHO production they'd see bigger and bigger losses.  You'd be much better off installing magnets on your fuel lines.  At least those do nothing except add a small amount of weight to your vehicle.

[vanbcguy]

I think we had a big discussion about this a few years ago...

The long and the short of it?  At cruise (around 2000 RPM) a 1.6TD is consuming around 100 cubic feet of air per minute.  You are going to have to generate a hell of a lot of hydrogen - one cubic foot of hydrogen gas per minute would still only be 1% of the total air going in to the engine. 

Some quick estimating from a few sites I've found online:

1 gallon water
    = 3785 mL
    = 3785 g water
    = 210.3 mole of water
    yields 210.3 mole of hydrogen
    requires 59,320 kJ of energy
    requires 16.5 kwatt-hours of energy

210.3 mole hydrogen
    occupies 4710 L at STP
    occupies 1245 gallons at STP
    occupies 4.7 m^3

So one gallon of water perfectly and completely reacted would produce 4.7 cubic meters of air, which is about 165 cubic feet.  If you wanted hydrogen to make up 10% of your air at cruise that 165 cubic feet of hydrogen would be consumed in 16 1/2 minutes.  That would mean a 3 hour drive on the highway would need nearly 11 gallons of water on board, plus we haven't even gotten in to how you are going to generate 16.5 kW/h of electricity every 16 1/2 minutes - a 68HP 1.6TD translates to about 50kW at peak power.  You need 60kW/h just to generate the hydrogen to make up enough volume for 10% of your air at cruise, so you're basically going to need another whole separate engine that is more powerful than a 1.6TD just to generate the electricity needed.  Not very practical.

Now, wanna generate some hydrogen, fill up some balloons and see things go BANG?  That sounds like a great idea!!

[ORCoaster]

Years back I toyed with this idea along with the CNG concept.  I dropped both and went with the WVO as it was less hassle and "proven" by my sons car for about 5 years.  Mainly I didn't care to get into a new alternator, the generator, having to work the water stuff and still be consuming diesel. 

These "replacement" fuels are more like add ons.  You really can't totally get off the diesel, only back it down a bit as you substitute some of the diesel fuel input for the fuel in the air of the input.  It's not NOS injection either. 

I needed cheaper transportation and at 2 bucks for a gallon of WVO and about 700 in the conversion I decided to bag the HOH and continue to burn oil.  Even if it was just surrounding a piece of Popeye chicken earlier in the week. 

My take on this.   

[RabbitJockey]

I'm still very skeptical I'd be willing to try one tho.  My aunt actually invested into someone who was building them ad even sent my dad one for Christmas one year but he never tried it since I do not even know how well it would work on a diesel with no vacuum.  Now that I have my aba mk3 I'd be willing to give it a try

[ORCoaster]

For the diesel you mix the gas in with the intake air.  A small hose plugged into the snorkel on the air box will do.  It creates a venturi effect and pulls the gas into the main mix.  You might also have luck tapping into the hose off the valve cover although that may not run enough flow through it.

[ORCoaster]

You could always send me the outfit and I could figure out how to make it work and evaluate it for you then send it back.