When opportunity and desire converged last month at the Flint Hills Technical College, the result was a Dodge pickup powered by a combination of hydrogen and gasoline.
“We had a customer call us and wanted to know if we’d be interested in putting a hydrogen kit on his pickup,” said Bret Pope, an auto technology instructor at the college. “... I’ve been wanting to put one in for a long time.”
Students in the class, supervised by Pope and instructor Bill Shipman, installed the kit and made the necessary adjustments to ensure that the cell module that talks to the computer and controls fuel didn’t get confused by the introduction of hydrogen to the gasoline/air mix.
The pickup owner, who is from Ottawa, bought a top-of-the-line conversion kit at a cost of about $800, Pope said. The kit included a premade hydrogen cell, but the students and their instructors still needed to do considerable wiring, plus attaching all the controls and gauges.
“We did have to make a little box to put all the controls and stuff in it,” Pope said.
The four-day changeover was a hands-on learning experience for everyone involved.
“The directions that came with the kit were about that thick,” Pope said, holding his forefinger and thumb about two inches apart.
Water, with a chemical added to prevent freezing, runs across two plates that transfer the energy from one to another and pass it on to the engine. The hydrogen goes into the engine in a vapor form.
“During that process is when it separates; the hydrogen and the oxygen particles separate,” Pope said. “It just basically adds more oxygen to the exhaust, gives you a cleaner mix.”
As the pickup owner adds miles to the truck, he and the technicians will have a better idea of how often water must be added to a special coolant reservoir to maintain the hydrogen production.
“It’s going to be neat to see, because this is so new,” Pope said. “I drove it home to Williamsburg and the water level didn’t go down at all, so obviously it’s going to last quite a while.”
If gas savings are significant enough, the hydrogen-mix modification could be an attractive add-on for people who want to use renewable energy and help clean up vehicle emissions.
“I’m excited to see how it improves his fuel mileage,” Pope said. “... Hydrogen’s fun to play with if you’re careful with it.”
The owner was hoping to see a 50 percent decrease in gasoline use.
“I told him more like, realistically, 15 to 20 percent,” he said. “No more hydrogen than it’s producing, I don’t see the 50 percent. I think it would help more in a light vehicle than it would in that heavy pickup.”
Pope also thinks that it may be more realistic to focus attention on electric and hybrid cars rather than cars fully powered by hydrogen.
“To produce enough hydrogen to run on it solely, would take a tank this big,” he said, gesturing broadly and adding it might be like traveling with a hydrogen bomb attached. “It’s really not feasible to do.”
Hybrid and electric, on the other hand, already are feasible and in use. Electric cars do not have to be plugged into traditional outlets to recharge the batteries, he said; some even come with special garages with solar panels that supply renewed energy to the vehicles.
The options are varied, and he expects to see more diverse changeovers as owners try to find ways to minimize the cost of driving from place to place.
Some owners already are transitioning their vehicles from gas-powered to electric.
“There’s a lot of people converting S10s over to electric,” he said.
senojjones (anonymous) says...
Hydrogen boosting is a scam.
Your readers deserve better.
This is an excellent web site on hydrogen boosting fraud from New Zealand: http://www.aardvark.co.nz/hho.shtml
Popular mechanics just released the results of their tests, and it doesn't increase mileage. http://www.popularmechanics.com/autom...
Consumer affairs has an article: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04...
These devices violate the laws of thermodynamics and the simple test of common sense.
If they worked, then some major automobile company, Ford, GM, BMW, Volvo would be putting them on next year’s model. Imagine what this would do for Fedex or Boeing. Heck some military somewhere would be using them in their tanks and trucks.
The excuse is usually that these companies are ALL in bed with the oil companies.
Hydrogen Boosting is in the same league with “miracle” herbal cancer cures or the “lose 20 pounds in a week” weight loss medications that are on late night television. They make absurd claims, have no scientific backing and claim that everyone who is against them is part of some “vast conspiracy”.
Wanna save gas? Slow down.
February 8, 2009 at 1:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )