HHO into an engine

It's been awhile since I polled YouTube for new HHO Gas content.  I came across this video which was put together by an HHO hacker.  I clicked on some of his other videos...very interesting indeed. 

HHO Gas Generator Conspiracy?

If HHO gas generators can increase fuel efficiency by 10-40%, fuel tax revenue would decrease by 10-40%.  This is something I guess I had considered briefly but brushed off because I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories.  But if you let your mind wander a bit, like Caleb over at HydrogenRetrofit,  you might just wonder why a technology such as this whose claims are so easy to test and validate or test and repudiate is not of more interest to our multi-billion dollar Dept of Energy and EPA.  I had a conversation tonite with Caleb. He's a pretty enthusiastic supporter of hho gas technologies and he walked me through his thinking on this topic which I found to be very well thought out. Thanks Caleb.  In general, I think new technologies like this just take time to gain acceptance and understanding.  For those who want to work with an emerging alternative fuel technology, I recommend starting with this publication. 

Alternative Fuel and HHO Gas Investors

As interest in HHO gas starts to truly spike as a result of increased validation, its more than natural that persons will start wondering what investment opportunities exist in the space. There are a few publicly traded companies out there pursuing HHO gas generator and water fuel cell technologies. It's interesting to compare these various attempts with the software companies of yesterday. In this article, I make the claim that the more an alternative energy company mirrors a traditional software company, the more interesting it is as a possible investment.

News from National Hydrogen Association

HHO Gas fans, there is some updated news from the National Hydrogen Association on what they call Hydrogen Fuel Injection Systems which we call hho gas generators or running your car on water. It's on the water hybrids page. I interviewed Patrick Searfass this week about this technology and he gave me alot of confidence that this industry is truly rising up out of nowhere and could become pervasive rapidly. It is very exciting.

Also, I put together a little post on pros/cons of do it yourself vs complete kits. Think of it as meta data based on all the ebooks and kits reviewed on the site. Of course, we're still waiting for the Aquygen folks to make some announcements about their product plans but as mentioned previously, it appears they will focus on the trucking industry first.

I'm hearing that alot of mechanics and folks who work with trucking fleets are starting to really get their hands dirty with this whole concept of water fuel cells.  To test this, I asked a couple friends who work in this field if they had heard of it and what they thought about it. Both were gung ho to test it out as quickly as possible.  The opportunity they see here is to become proficient at installing these kits so they can sell the units and installation services. 

Your USA Federal Government and HHO GAS

I spent part of my morning looking into your federal government's involvement in validating and promoting of hho gas or technologies based on it.  If you're a cynic, then you won't be shocked.  Essentially, to date, no manufacturer has approached the EPA with regard to testing a hydrogen fuel injection or hyrdogen on demand system, although the folks I spoke to are personally familiar with the offerings on the market. Unfortunately, the EPA is not mandated to find technologies to test but rather to work with any vendor who wishes their claims to be tested.  So far no hho gas device manufacturers have stepped up although the manufacturers I spoke to this morning have said they will do this testing eventually.  

MARKET ALERT: If you are a manufacturer of an HHO gas device and you are seeking to separate yourself from the pack, then you should seriously consider taking the EPA test at one of these qualified labs. 

For now, I believe--perhaps naively--that there is a research project here that could win Dept of Energy Funding.   Essentially, the project would have two parts:  1) validate the claims and establish proof of hho gas injection systems and 2) test various later stage kits offered by the top companies in the space.   Such testing would need to occur at an EPA approved lab following the regular battery of tests on a dynamometer.  Essentially, they test a vehicle prior to the installation of a device, after installation and then again after removal.  They can modify the test partially if for example the vendor claims that the system needs 30 days of road use for best results. 

If you are disappointed like me that the Dept of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency havent done more to promote, test and validate HHO GAS and technologies like water fuel cells or hydrogen on demand systems, you should contact your congressman like I intend to do. 

3rd Party Validation

One of my preoccupations with this blog lately has been to round up all the 3rd party validation testing that's been performed on hho gas based hybrids. It hasnt been easy because companies marketing these solutions seem to be growing rapidly just based on field tests of prospective customers who eventually become customers proper. 

Today, there was a news story done where the news station crew itself installed a unit on their news truck and ran a before/after test on a DYNAMOMETER.  They found their Dodge SUV increased MPG from 9mpg to 23mpg.  That's a 60% increase in mpg.  

I added the story to the Water Hybrids Review Page. Check it out!

Reviews

I did a little browsing of the web over the weekend and the explosion of websites, products and interest in hho gas is becoming mind boggling. In the coming days, we will start investigating more commercial entities targeting industry and fleets. And additionally, we may begin adding more products to the Water Hybrid Systems Review page. For now it's a good starting point if you are looking for information about some of the ebooks (like Water4Gas) and kits (like Hydrogen Boost) on the market.

Korean Government mandates HHO

I've been fortunate to be communicating with Kevin Kantola from Hydrogen Car & Vehicles about HHO and it's future. He is certainly one of the most knowledgeable sources of information for hydrogen generators for cars both fuel cells and hybrid plugins. He's a much accomplished and dedicated blogger.

Today he posted a great article on HHO generators and hydrogen on demand systems. Of note to me was the move by the South Korean Government to mandate HHO be installed on over 100,000 transport trucks in large part to cut down on emissions. Also of interest was a company called Hydrorunner which has 3rd party verification that their HHO on demand product is not a scam. There's alot of great information on Kevin's site.

1996 Cadillac from 19mpg to 53mpg

You really need to read about this guy in Alabama, Larry Thrasher, who has been experimenting with his own hydrogen on demand system for the past 18 months. He was recently covered by his local press for apparently creating a system that took his 1996 Cadillac from 19 to 53mpg. BTW, his wife's 1996 Toyota gets 71mpg. He uses a 14 gallon water tank.

He'll speak about his findings on Monday, May 19 at Calhoun Community College in Decatur, from 6-9pm. Thrasher has rented Calhoun's Aerospace Training Center for the lecture, and will charge $60.00 per person.

New Blog on Water Conversion Kits

I started a new page on the various Water Hybrid Conversion Systems that are popping up all over the place. If you googled hho gas and found this page, you may be interested in reading about these systems.

In a previous post, I pointed out that the Aquygen folks are focused on a solution for trucking fleets right now and will later turn their attention to a consumer version. In the meantime, you have a growing list of offerings in the marketplace all seeming to show the same thing: how to create your own water hybrid conversion kit using easily obtainable parts.

So, if you're interested in the various offerings out there, check out this page.

UPDATE:  In a previous post, I wondered when some high school students would test out these HHO Kits.  Looks like a couple kids in Kentucky did just that!  Look at their results:

s State-Journal.com - Tech students make hydrogen cells for their teacher's car

The US Department of Energy dips it's toe

When I started this blog 18 months ago, all I really hoped to accomplish was to learn more about blogging by tracking an interesting news thread related to a CNN story on Aquygen. I didnt start this as a cheerleading soap box for hydrogen fuel cells or Aquygen for that matter. It just seemed like an interesting story that captures the imagination of anyone who ponders it for more than a moment: a car that can run on water?  Which ever way the wind blows on that one seemed like a good place to be--either it gets debunked and you have a human interest story covering a modern day scam or it gets validated and a modern energy revolution ensues transforming modern day life in a way we couldnt imagine even 5 yrs ago.  Nice odds either way. 

What's interesting to me is when I tell people I have a blog on water/hydrogen fuel cells, almost no one ask me whether or not I believe in it. Instead, they ask about what it's like to blog and how much money I earn from adsense, etc.   I've never taken a public position on where I stand with regard to this technology.  I reason with myself that I'm not a scientist capable of disproving these claims and try to simply stick to reporting or sharing information I find on the topic.  But If you've read this blog over the last several months, I think you can tell that I am hopeful about water based fuel cells.  I dont spend alot of time looking for disproving information....but I can tell you there are alot of angry people out there who identify themselves as either scientists or very science minded and who dismiss this technology with a  sneer.   Here's an example of what I mean from an engineering forums website. 

One good thing came from that article in that it caused me to look into what our very own USA tax dollars are doing to examine this new set of energy efficiency claims. After all, what are we getting for our $25Bil/yr anyway? Actually, that's a much wider scope than I'd like to cover here obviously so I confined it to a simple, "is anyone looking at this technology at DOE?"

Well, I couldnt find any studies or funded research per se but that was via a 10minute scan of their website.   What I did find was a section of the DOE website devoted to Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data and more specifically a page on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Related Links. 

If you scour that list you may find more than I did but what I found was a listing of a company called Hy-Drive Technologies LTD.  It appears to be a publicly traded company in Canada.  And their main focus is hydrogen on demand systems for vehicles although they appear to be heavily focused on heavy machinery vehicles....naturally, right, since that's where the consumption and dollars are if this thing is ever going to get going. 

What's interesting about Hy-Drive is they have a section listing the science behind their capabilities. Take a look at this list of scientific research related to their hydrogen on demand hybrid system.  And if you are a potential investor, have a read of this: short sweet summary of their capabilities from a benefits/advantages point of view. 

I think it's interesting to see how organized and serious this company is about pursuing a business based on a hydrogen on demand system.  While it does not constitute scientific proof, I think the fact that a publicly traded company is pursuing this at least puts the venture on a footing of increased legal scrutiny that is significant. 

But as for the Department of Energy having a link on it's website to this company, I find it very very interesting.  Yes, but you say, they have a disclaimer on that website saying they dont endorse any organization in the list.   Well, my response is  take a closer look at the full disclaimer statement.  This is a human edited list. And here's a note for the legal department at DOE to ponder: "The researchers and technical writers made diligent efforts to ensure the information presented on this site is accurate and complete."  

To me, that's fairly interesting but of course more information still needs to be gathered.

Photo Credit:  Hy-Drive's photo used in this post is found at this URL. 

Who is reading this blog?

One of the more interesting entrys into this blog is coming from persons using google to translate this blog from English into Arabic. 

Here's the URL.

Also, it's probably not related but have a look at this similar Arab/english blog.

Enthusiastic Article

Liz Casey puts together a nice piece that shows what happens when you let Aquygen capture your imagination.

Energy Planet

I was happy to see this blog listed in EnergyPlanet's Renewable Energy Directory. I consider this blog you're reading a microtopic blog which focuses fairly narrowly on the gas known as Aquygen.

Regarding the directory, it seems like the sort of thing I wish I had thought of! Best of luck EPRED!

New Website on HHO Gas

Another new website on HHO Gas. I tried to post a comment on the blog but comments seemed to be turned off.

Water4Gas Journal

This guy says he's following the Water4gas manuals and posting pics/videos on his progress.

LA Chronicle on Water4Gas

As stated previously, Hydrogen Technology Applications Inc is working on an automobile application for their Aquygen technology aka hho gas. This would essentially create a hybrid or possibly even a non-carbon fuel based automobile. But they are focusing on the trucking industry first before turning attention to consumer automobiles.

In the meantime, what about these other outfits that have created their own hydrogen extraction systems? One such company is Water4Gas mentioned in a recent Los Angeles Chronicle article. The article mentions that they offer two ebooks on how to build a kit that creates a hybrid out of your current vehicle. It goes on to say the kit can be built for less than $150 using parts from a hardware store.

Venture Capital

Interview with Russ Scott continued:

Question: Have you received Venture Capital Funding?

Russ Scott: I will not comment. .....first....I will comment on that. We will not accept venture capital money! We have not and will not.

Question: so you have your own funding?

Russ Scott: We dont need to. We do not need to accept venture capital money.

Question: have you been approached though?

Russ Scott: Oh of course. Every day.

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last installment on DoD applications.

Immitations

Here's the third installment of an interview I had with Russ Scott, COO at Hyrdogen Technology Applications Inc.

Question: There are other companies creating technologies that seem to be similar to your Aquygen. Would you care to comment on these technologies? Are they scams?

Russ Scott: I dont know if they're scams or not. I would offer you this. If they are producing water form an electrolysis and they're using mason jars, that's just about enough gas. Uh...the best way i could describe it to you and i dont mean to be rude. You could flatulate more gas than they're going to produce using a mason jar. I dont have the time to go down through each one and tell you how they are different. The only thing is, we've taken alot of time and an awful amount of R&D with 3rd party laboratories in the US and Europe to prove we are not Brown's gas and we are not these other gases. Because we are who we are and because we make a very unique gas that to date no one else can compare their gas to ours because we create more hydrogen in our gas than anyone else out there that we have identified. Thats how we stand apart. We have less water in our gas, more hydrogen in our gas, blah, blah blah. That's not just us saying that we have 3rd party validation now that supports that we have this unique capability to produce this very rich hydrogen gas...that sets us apart from the others out their that we have tested. We've even gone to the point of buying their equipment and having at the 3rd party laboratory along with ours, where the gas was taken directly from the apparatus and results of the test were fed back to us from independent laboratories.

Question: is there someone you could cite in that regard in terms of 3rd party laboratories?

Russ Scott: I will not let that out until we are ready to make an announcement through all the media. I would not do that through one source. But, you know, we've got laboratories that we've done this with as long as my arm almost.

Question: do you think these other devices are unsafe?

Russ Scott: I dont know. I really dont know. I've not been in the room with them. I'm not an engineer. I've not looked at those devices and frankly, as long as I know that we are unique from anything else that's out there and that we produce more than and better than....I dont care about them.

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Sorry, next installment concerns DoD and Venture Capital.

Where does your gasoline money go?

Ever wonder where your gas dollar goes in terms of tax vs producers, etc? CNN has an interesting piece that breaks out where your $3+/gallon goes. Sure would be nice to be able to augment this by at least partially powering your car with water.