Hi Everyone,

I have been getting messages on how the scale-up reactor is coming. I know I indicated that the reactor would be made of glass, but after doing some research I've come to the conclusion that drilling a hole in glass is a very difficult and tricky thing to do; therefore I am going to make the reactor with a combination of glass/Plexiglas. The reason for this is that I need to drill six holes in the reactor, and Plexiglas is much easier to work with.

The shape of the reactor will be a large rectangle, approximately 20 inches or so wide and approximately 18 inches high. It will only be about three to four inches wide, as I am going to line the t/c electrodes in a straight line and spot weld each one to the next. This accommodates my 5 inch long tungsten carbide electrodes, with headspace to add platinum mesh on the top of the reactor if I desire. There will be gas ports on the top of the reactor that I can use to go to a different container with platinum mesh, or to fuel cells for electricity production if I wish, or I can close them off and try experimenting with the platinum mesh directly inside the chamber and sealed.

So my vision is a rectangular box with the top, bottom. and sides made of Plexiglas with the holes in it, and the sides will be two 20" x 18" glass plates. These will allow the heat transfer to take place with the environment easily. I will also need to design a stand for the unit to rest in because of its odd shape and center of gravity. This unit will be very heavy, 9-10 lbs per gallon of liquid, plus the electrodes. I think wherever I build it, it will be staying there once I fill it. Very heavy.

It took a bit of research to get to this point. I calculated around 5 gallons or so of volume (approx) based off the space of the separating Plexiglas between the chambers.

I will post a drawing in the near future, once I get it out of my head and onto paper.

Thanks everyone for your interest.

oh jeez that's alot of weight.  However, the batteries he uses must weigh more than that!  So I'd say it would be about the same weight either way.  By the way, nice outfit Dave!  Haha real scary.  Is your work that dangerous?

Hi Brian,

Almost all the chemicals I work with have some toxicity to them, so yes it is a dangerous job, but I love it. When I go to work I feel like I am playing all day in the lab, and that is the truth.

In April/may 2007 issue of fuel cell I found this article concerning on board
hydrogen.
' How do the capacity targets translate to vehicle parameter? As a simplified example, consider a 20mpg vehicle with a 20 gall on gas tank. Ideally a full tank would permit a driving rang of up to 400 miles. The gas tank system filled with 20 gallons of gas weighs about 75 kg (a typical value). With an assumed efficiency increase of 2.5X (50mpg), an equivalent range fuel cell would need a storage capacity of 8 kg of hydrogen and the fuel system, based on 2010 targets, would weigh about 130 kg.'

later in the article, they placed 1 kg of hydrogen ~ 1 gallon of gasoline energy equivalent'
FYI

later in the article, they placed 1 kg of hydrogen ~ 1 gallon of gasoline energy equivalent

1 kg. Hydrogen gas     x  0.018 kg. of Water         x  Gallon of Water    =    2.38 gal. water   
1 gallon of Gasoline      0.002 kg. Hydrogen gas      3.785 kg. of Water        gal. Gasoline

If you need machined parts and would be convenient for you, let me know.  I live in Eau Claire WI.
Alex

Hi Alex,
I appreciate the offer. I looked at my navigator and Eau Claire, WI is an easy (lol) 6 hours away, so it is a bit far.

The problem is that as it is being built I notice problems and little details that I would not have noticed otherwise if I am not right there. This is what would be missing if it is done at a distance away. Then, more wasted time, money, and materials.

Sorry, I guess if I had someone close by and we could collaberate and build it together then it would be more of an ideal situation. That is not going to happen, so I am doing the best I can right now. My patience has seen me through so far, what is left of it will get me the rest of the way.

Hi Motofox,

The first link you listed does not work.

The second link is a bit vague, I am not sure what is happening or exactly what they are proposing.
Does anybody know what the "secret" catalyst is?

Thanks for trying though.

Ah yes, I copied and pasted it in reverse and was able to get the link to work.

This is not the same as what I am doing but it is very interesting. I think it may even tie into what I am working on in an interesting way. The electrolyte in the water is sodium carbonate, but this might work with sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide as well. From clues in the Linnard Griffin Patent and on his company's website (airgencorp.com) it is hinted that the zinc can be THERMALLY regenerated. What this means exactly I do not know, but I suspect that if the temperature of the reaction solution could be increased that it would help to speed the part of the half-reactions that regenerate the zinc. So my line of thinking leads me to the direction of research that would add this to the cell. Instead of trying to regenerate the zinc directly, perhaps I should split the power source so that the amount that would otherwise be going to regenerate the zinc would go to this type of setup inside the cell. This would raise the temperature of the electrolyte solution, and speed the reaction naturally. If I do this on the zinc side of the reactor, this would allow the zinc regeneration to occur at a faster rate, perhaps balancing the zinc regeneration speed with the hydrogen generation. So the cooler side of the reactor (hydrogen generation side) would run at a bit slower rate than the warmed side of the reactor (zinc regeneration / oxygen generation side.) That is my hypothesis anyway. It just needs to be tested.

Thank you very much motofox and joemumu. I don't know if it is possible to add this to my reactor setup because the zinc would plate on the negative electrode, but if I think about it for a while I might see  how this could tie in with the whole setup. This might even be what is happening inside my cell anyway. It is just that instead of a platinum electrode I am using a zinc electrode. I am not sure.

Wow, another direction to investigate. I really need a lab and some technicians. LOL!

Thanks for not giving up on me and throwing out those suggestions. I appreciate it.