HyPower Fuel Moves to Power Vehicle Only with Hydrogen from On-Board Electrolysis Unit
12 December 2006
HyPower Fuel has equipped a Volkswagen GTi with an H2 Reactor (H2R) hydrogen system that it claims can produce sufficient hydrogen on-board, on-demand to power the vehicle using only water.
Company management is quick to point out that these are preliminary laboratory results using prototype H2R units and will require considerable improvements before any practical transportation application can become a reality. The company plans to host a number of live demonstrations in early 2007 with independent experts in attendance to monitor and verify resulting data.
HyPower believes that its H2 Reactor’s electrolysis process is the most efficient to date. Currently the H2 Reactor requires 1 watt hour to produce 1 liter of hydrogen—approximately 2 to 2.5 times more efficient than the current performance of competing technologies.
We have now successfully created a situation where a car could run on water and produce virtually no harmful emissions or greenhouse gases. We will continue to beta test the H2R system to strive for increased efficiency.
—Doug Bender, President of HyPower
HyPower currently produces the Hydro Power Pak (HPP)—a retrofit hydrogen generation and injection device developed for use on tractor trailer rigs and stationary diesel engines to improve fuel economy, reduce emissions and increase engine performance and horsepower. The HPP electrolysis unit draws less than 10 amps of the engine’s electrical current to produce a small amount hydrogen and oxygen, which is then injected into the combustion cycle. (Earlier post.)
Water! (The replacement for gasoline ...)
Now why didn't one of us think of that.
Posted by: Lucas | 12 December 2006 at 05:24 PM
The device uses a new process know as bullshitlysis
Posted by: Mike Z | 12 December 2006 at 05:49 PM
Ahhhh, the perpetual motion machine.
Posted by: The Giant | 12 December 2006 at 05:59 PM
This is either Yet Another Scam, or The Breakthrough That Changes Everything.
Being old enough to have seen lots of the latter that turned into the former, I'll keep the champagne on ice until there's independent confirmation.
But just once I would love to see something like this pan out...
Posted by: Lou Grinzo | 12 December 2006 at 06:37 PM
I would guess that water reacting with heated boron or zinc can release H2 at high rate that can be used for vehicular propulsion. The water here serves as an oxidizer releasing H2 while turning zinc into zinc oxide. This zinc oxide can be returned to the fueling station to get fresh zinc metal. This would solve the long-term storage problem associated with H2.
Too bad I can't access the links provided at the beginning of this article to get more detail on this fascinating development.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 12 December 2006 at 06:44 PM
I've seen numerous claims that the lowest possible energy cost to electrolyze water is 39.4 kWh per kg of H2 produced (assuming 100% efficiency).
If HyPower really is doing significantly better than that, then they've made one heck of a discovery.
And by the way--there's no more useful data in the press release than Mike provided above, unless you count the comparison of the invention to the Wright brothers and Kittyhawk. (No, I'm not kidding.)
Posted by: Lou Grinzo | 12 December 2006 at 07:34 PM
Have the TNSTAAFL skeptics here factored in the oxygen part of the equation? In a turbine, oxidizer has the effect of twice the energy of a reducing fuel (2/3rds of fuel is used to collect ambient "free" air and compress it into the turbine), and that's just dilute 20% O2 in dead weight 80% N2 gas. What's the effect in a piston engine? What about other features such as an excited monatomic state, steam and pneumatic effects? Most of the HP is being idled away anyway so why not generate oxy-hydrogen on the fly?
Posted by: Mark | 12 December 2006 at 10:13 PM
"to power the vehicle using only water."
You could run a car from water if you were in Vancouver, just put a big funnel (like a bussard ram jet) on the car roof that collects rain water that then goes through a turbine on its way to the ground. The electricity then can be used run one of these devices. The funnel just has to be very big and very tall. :)
Posted by: Neil | 12 December 2006 at 10:36 PM
i can use 1 watt-hour to produce 1 liter of hydrogen too.
gasses expand under low pressure.
1 liter of H2 doesn't mean anything unless they state pressure and temperature.
Posted by: shaun mann | 12 December 2006 at 10:41 PM
Neil:
As you know, practically 100% of electricity in British Columbia is generated by hydro power, with surplus sold as far as to California (BC Hydro even got fined in California for price manipulations at time of California power shortages). So, any future BEV in BC will effectively “run on water”.
Posted by: Andrey | 13 December 2006 at 12:03 AM
The link to the company is jacked up.
Posted by: Rob McMillin | 13 December 2006 at 03:49 AM
While I agree that to power the car solely by one of these reactors a looong stretch, enhancing combustion on more conventional ICE's has been proven. There has been a few articles here and some independant tinkerers(sp) else where who have shown the test results to prove the output justifies the input(not using more to create the gas than resulting effiecientcy).
As for the new electrolosis meathods, has anyone read up on the models that use a type of frequency resonance and some specially shaped and fitted ss electrodes. There are several different designs depending on what varriation of Hydrogen you needed.
Posted by: Jason | 13 December 2006 at 04:59 AM
The higher heating value of hydrogen is 39.4 kWhr/kg - as the previous post suggests.
One kg of hydrogen gives you 11000 litres, under normal conditions. The theoretical minimum power required to produce 1 litre is 3.94 Watts.
Of course, if you want to make people think you have unlocked the key to perpetual motion, you would need to be able to do this with about 1 Watt.
Soon we will all have one of these on our cars - free energy! Laws of Physics need not apply!
Posted by: RM | 13 December 2006 at 05:10 AM
RM - to be picky, your numbers of 39.4 kWh/kg and 11000 kg/m3 yields 3.58 Wh/liter.
I have seen 3 kWh/m3 (3 Wh/liter) quoted elsewhere.
HyPower must have incorporated some cold fusion technology.
Posted by: Scott | 13 December 2006 at 05:40 AM
Wasn't it Stanley Meyers that did this with his water powered car? Until found in gross fraud buy the courts.
Posted by: Andy | 13 December 2006 at 06:05 AM
Assuming 1 litre of H2 is at Standard temperature & Pressure (STP) you'd need 11,400litres of H2 to equal 1kg of H2
At 1 Watthour per litre they're claiming they can make H2 for 11.4 kWh per Kg.
If I recall correctly, the chemical energy in H2 is approx 34.7 kWh.
Unless this lot have a chemical reaction taking place to make up the difference then I'm calling bullshit, as this violates TLOP (The Laws Of Physics)
Andy
Posted by: Andy | 13 December 2006 at 06:21 AM
HyPower's numbers are ludicrous, unless their one liter of hydrogen is at approx. 1/3 atmospheric pressure (which is useless for vehicle transportation purposes). Wrt hydrogen production, the only useful energy density measure is indeed the gravimetric one.
It's a scam intended to lure gullible/cynical people with more money than sense into investing, as evidenced by their use of the volumetric energy density metric. Simply physics tells you that you need to put in at least the enthalpy difference between the end product and the feedstock PLUS whatever you need to to ensure the total entropy of the end product plus waste heat is greater than that of the feedstock plus process fuel.
Posted by: Rafael Seidl | 13 December 2006 at 06:21 AM
Where and when can I buy stock? Oh, dammit...I forgot that I blew all of this weeks paycheck on cigarettes and lottery tickets. Oh well, I can just take out one of those payday cash advance loans or pawn my Mustang.
Posted by: Bob Bastard | 13 December 2006 at 07:53 AM
http://www.h2xop.com has a more advanced system, currently, for the hybrid installation. There are about 6 companies vying for a head start out of the gate in the trucking industry. The tech is amazingly simple but none of it means anything if nobobdy gets the EPA or the California Air Resources Board to certify these devices. This technology has been out for around 30 years on welding machines, and it is very real. A small port is drilled onto the fuel injector system and a "bubble" of hydrogen is produce for every stroke so that the gasoline or diesel burns up all the residue because the explosion is hotter.
The scientist behind H2XOP, Dave Dahlquist, says that if he can get $2M seed money into H2XOP, he's also 100% sure he can build engines that are 100% fueled by distilled water.
I find it incredible that this has been brewing for nearly 10 years with ZERO buzz! No other technology comes even close and the changeover can be done to existing engines for around $3,500.00 right now. The driver only needs to keep the distilled water reservoir from going empty and all pollution is removed. The engine still operates if the distilled water runs out, so maybe that's why we can't get certification.
This will be the litmus test as to if Enviromentalist's really want to clean things up...or do they actually want to shut down the industrial way of life and take the planet into a pantheistic social scheme?
Posted by: Bill Stokes | 13 December 2006 at 08:30 AM
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Posted by: Bob Bastard | 13 December 2006 at 08:56 AM
Mr. Bastard,
H2XOP is accepting no new investors. Unfortunately, I have no money involved in H2XOP. The point is, my dear Bastard friend, that right now H2XOP and others are making hybrid hydrogen systems that require no hydrogen storage and you Prius drivers are using incredibly polluting battery tech. To envision that this technology can be improved to where it further reduces gas/diesel injector intake is not at all far fetched. As far as reducing it to zero goes, of course these guys are going to try. I don't care about getting in on a scheme, but I sure want to see my world move on past this elapsed hydrocarbon paradigm. Something just tells me that you enviro-wacko's may be a more potent opposition to a non-social solution than is big bad oil, that's all. Prove me wrong. Oddly enough, the right-wingers conspiracists over at freerepublic.com have the identical reactions as do you, Mr. Bastired.
Posted by: Bill Stokes | 13 December 2006 at 09:18 AM
sorry guys,
they are not talking bullshit, rather a lot of the comments are bullshit;
the chemical reaction uses Magnesium and Water,
its a well known process.
the main problem would be the regeneration of Mg with solar energy and the disposal of the waste from the chemical reaction
Posted by: nobody | 13 December 2006 at 09:43 AM
One factor the that CARB may be closely looking at is NOx. By burning fuel hotter it creates more NOX which sunlight converts into ground level ozone. Ozone is a major hazard to asthmatics and can be fatal at high levels.
Posted by: tom deplume | 13 December 2006 at 09:47 AM
Obviously this engine runs on CARBOMITE.........
Posted by: red badger | 13 December 2006 at 10:12 AM
I don't get it, where is the power coming from to support the on-board electrolysis? If it's coming from the hydrogen engine then wouldn't there be zero power output for the car, and if it's not coming from the fuel cell then wouldn't it be easier to just skip the hydrogen completely and power the vehicle with whatever was going to power the electrolysis?
Posted by: brad | 13 December 2006 at 10:34 AM