You may or may not have herd of devices you can make (buy in kit form) or buy outright to increase your MPG of your auto. I do not want to dis-respect HHO production because it does have valuable benefits to us all. But let’s not get carried away by misleading people to what it really can do for us. (here is a example website)
Most of them will make claims of increasing your MPG 30-100%.
While the devices normally will make HHO, you can not make enough quantity of gas to do much more than 2% (that’s probably a stretch) better if you did a good job putting it together and is a “very sizable unit”. Why?
First, let’s explain the whole thing from atom to auto.
HHO if commonly referred to as the gases produced by putting De-ionized water under a electrical charge. Thereby separating it into it’s native atomic partials. Water is H20, meaning you have 2 hydrogen atoms per oxygen atom. The process basically splits them apart into their native vapor form. You get twice as many hydrogen atoms as oxygen. Hydrogen takes up less than half the same space and is lighter than air.
We know hydrogen is highly flammable and oxygen is a burning enhancer. To burn anything, you need oxygen. And if you have enough oxygen, you can burn all the hydro/carbon structures in a efficient way.
So when you put the 2 vapors into a burning chamber, they will burn pretty good. But they do nothing to enhance the burning of the native fuel (no extra oxygen to burn). They do not have the BTU volume of gasoline or diesel. Those have hydrogen, carbon and oxygen directly in the fuel and more oxygen is used from the air to make most of it combust or burn.
When you burn HHO you are doing nothing more than re-combinding the hydrogen and oxygen to water. You really have not displaced any carbon structures and is why they consider it a “green technology” as long as you do not burn hydrocarbons to produce the HHO.
One of the determining factors of fuel efficiency is burning all of the available hydrocarbon structures. Manufactures have done many things to increase this over the years including atomizing the fuel so that it can receive that oxygen to burn more of the fuel.
The BTO component of gasoline is around 102,00 btu’s per gallon. No 2 diesel is around 135,000 btu’s per gallon. It becomes hard to calculate and compare that to a vapor where hydrogen’s bto content is measured at 300 btu’s per cubic foot. (notice that’s 300 not thousand). Many will use this inability to convert to confuse you. If I knew the evaporative volume of gasoline, I might be able to guide you more on it but I can say without a doubt that it’s not even close to the liquid versions of fuels. Some that remember those old white gas lamps know how long a “8oz of white gas” would last. “One gallon” of HHO produced from water would not get you that far.
Next we have a production volume problem. Meaning we can not make enough HHO from 2 of the very best “car kits” on the market to run a 4hp lawn mower without any gasoline. Someone will probably prove me wrong on this one day by producing some very large HHO generators you would need a pick-up truck to take it with you and with that extra weight, hindering your MPG in more ways than one.
So if and when they can show you that the unit will will produce enough HHO to run a 4hp lawn mower without any other fuel “for a hour even at idol speed”, there is enough volume to benefit your car slightly. That’s a easy and good test anyone can understand. Once someone has done that, I would say, show me that 4HP engine turn a alternator that will produce enough HHO to keep it running. Once that has been done, we have the “start” of something real !
To further explain why some do actually receive some benefit from the devices, you need to know what other alterations they are making to the control system. Most will tell you that you need to put a device that is nothing more than a resister on a sensor. What this does actually is spoof the vehicle computer out into burning a leaner mix. You will not have as much HP and may cause excessive wear to the engine along with producing extra heat is it is too lean.
Also one thing to hinder high volume production of HHO in a automobile is that if you could make a cell or cells large enough, you will be putting such a drag on the engine because of current draw from the alternator (electricity required), the benefit is lost. HP used vs HP gained is less than flat.
The other thing you need to know is that when you have some kind of endorsement of the product and they measure the fuel used for a round trip, it’s very inaccurate because you would need to have the car fill-up each time at the same pump with the car sitting exactly in the same spot because if the surface is not completely level, they always have a slop and it is not going to be correct for a realistic measurement.
For a real world test, just measure the gallons used, starting with a complete fill-up (knowing there is 1-2 gallons that do not registrar) and keep adding fuel you write in a log 1000 miles or more later at a dead empty tank. One other thing to add to the mess is when folks are watching their MPG’s, they tend to have a lighter foot to begin with. Most could save 3-5% just on driving habits alone.
It is my opinion, that a person would be far better off for cost and effort, to just add a compressed oxygen tank and feed it at a trickle directly into the intake. You would get real world results better than those claimed and probably not spend as much.
But as I said at the beginning, HHO is going to be a alternative in the future, so I celibate those making strides in improving it’s production efficiency.
It should be said, that if you can find a way to safely compress it to a tank and take it with you and making a production facility at home large enough from solar panels, that is a very viable option if you can do it for a reasonable cost. Home production of HHO offers fuel cell technology a completely viable option for electric cars for those that have the space at home to produce it. If the price of gasoline ever pops above $5 a gallon, you will see many things like fuel cells jump onto the market. Probably the only thing holding the price of gasoline down as there are few alternatives at the $3-$4 price.
In the 90’s, I do remember a guy who lived out west where he was more than 20 miles from the power grid. Having a lot of sun, he more than doubled his production requirement needs for electricity in solar panels (very big bucks back then). He used the extra to produce HHO where he made a simple and safe storage system that did take up some very available space. Yes it was very large storage system, but it was safe. He used the HHO gas to cook with and run a back-up generator when sun production was low for long periods. A very high cost for it but it worked for his needs. He is a true Midnight Engineer.
As a late addition to this page I did find a somewhat viable video on YouTube that at least runs a Geo Metro at idol off of HHO a (1.0 liter/1000 cc engine). As I had stated above, the current draw is by their admission 100 amps. Now picture that volume times six to be able to run down the highway. The excessive weight to have 5 or more of these with water to tote around and the 200-400 amp alternator to generate that plus the resistance on the engine from pushing something that big. The average luxury car has a 100 amp alternator for all the hungry gadgets they have like headed mirror/windows,air conditioning,power seats, headlights and extra electronics. But this guy is really further along than most I have seen. He is not trying to “BAMBOOZLE” anyone.
I’m not sure how many HP the car originally was, probably around 55. But after the 300-400 amp alternator(s) needed and the weight for 3-4 cells to actually be able to drive it places. He will likely have but 25 HP or less to make it move. And the added weight and size to keep those cells cool. It could be possible someone will at least make one of these things work within a few years. But will there be room for a driver?
Those rough calculations made by myself above are just a realistic opinion. Making the engine run and driving it are tremendously different.
While idling, the car may be running at 800rpm. But to go down the highway, it would be running at 3000rpm. 3.5 times the amount of air through the system. At least 3 times the HHO generation consumed. because of its low BTU content, it takes much more of it to give the same power the gasoline would have provided.
I am glad to see some “PROGRESS” with this but it’s still a long way from what’s required.
I hope I may have better served your interest before you spend money on this stuff. But if you do, please keep a experimentation mindset. You could be the one that solves some of it’s many problems.