I find it hard to believe that in a properly tuned car expels 15%+ of its fuel through the exhaust. In a 10 gallon tank (that's small) that would mean you are spitting more that 1.5 gallons of fuel out of the tail pipe. A catalytic converter would have a fit if that much unburned fuel was dumped through it on a regular basis. There is a reason that cars are now equipped with an army of sensors. They are constantly analyzing the amount of unburned fuel in the exhaust and adjusting fuel/air ratios to keep it near a 14.7:1 stoichiometric ratio. Is 100% of the fuel burned at all times? No. However, the amount is quite small, mostly due to NOx formation. NOx formation decreases the amount of Oxygen available to oxidize HC, so introducing another combustible material into the mix wont help since there is already an Oxygen deficit.
I also find it hard to believe that a cars 100 or so AMP alternator, assuming you used ALL of it for electrolysis (impossible), could produce enough H2 to be of any real benefit. 100 amps will create about 73 liters of "Browns Gas" per hour (again impractical in a car). A 4 liter truck engine, operating at a constant 2000 RPM will consume about 2000 liters of fuel and air per minute (i think i have that right) or 120,000 liters per hour. The total gas H2 AND O2 produced in that hour would be about .0006% of the total FA used by the vehicle.
I'm just crunching numbers here. It seems like an "interesting" idea, but the claims are just so outrageous that i am skeptical.
YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND automotive engine combustion to understand that. CO is carbon monoxide. this is produced when the air/fuel mixture is not burned completley. HC is hydrocarbons. these are basically raw fuel dumped out your exhaust. CO happens when there is too much fuel in the mixture to allow complete combustion, or in other words, an overly rich mixture. HC happens when there isn't enough air in the mixture, and combustion cannot happen effeciently, thus dumping raw, unburned fuel out the exhaust.
the job of the catalytic converter is to convert these HC, and CO gases into something less harmful.....CO2, or carbon dioxide. different cats accomplish this in different ways. some store O2, on one cycle, then release it on the next, allowing the cat to convert it.
basically, though, that's exactly what your cat does....it "burns" the unburned A/F mixture comming out of your engine.
if you want to try an interesting experiment, and have access to an emissions analyzer, take a tailpipe reading. now remove the upstream o2 sensor, and take a reading from there. you'll most likely be very very surprised at just how dirty your engine really runs.
i don;t fully understand how these hydrogen units work, but lynx had a perfect explanation of what i believe they're doing.
assume it takes 500ms for the combustion process. this doesn't give it time to burn completley. now add something to the air to make the mixture ignite more easily, and then burn more quickly. so now, it only takes 250ms, to burn. in that time, the process comes much more close to burning everything in the mixture.
as for the amp draw, most systems use a max of 20 amps. this allows 2 litres/hour, which when drawn into the engine along with the normal air charge, mixes with the air....and since it is oxygen AND hydrogen, it also addresses the oxygen deficit.
NOX is only generally fomred if the combustion temp is allowd to rise above 2500F, although some is still produced at lower temps.
with your figuring on quantities needed/used, you seem to be assuming that we're trying to replace something. this is not the case. we're supplementing what's already there, thus we don't need as much brown gas as you figured.
i think it was hornet that installed one on his truck. i'll be getting 'round to installing one on my 85E350, with a carb, to see how it acts on non-ecu controlled engines.
