Hydrogen engine

[r_chez_08]

Hi,
To practice my turning and design skills (engineers drawings) I would like to make and possibly design a small engine. A few people at my school have made a steam engine from plans, and someone is attempting to make a small two stroke which runs on jet fuel with a glow plug.

These are all old designs. I know hydrogen isn't exactly a new idea and may not even be a feesable source of renewable energy, however I thought it would be way more impressive if the engine was hydrogen powered.

However, I know little about hydrogen.
I thought it would be neat if I had a small water electrolysis cylinder and could feed it from that. But there are a few things-
Do hydrogen engines need to be 4 stroke with valves or could I make it two stroke? If so how would I go about lubricating the bottom end?
Also, would I require a Carburettor? And finally, does hydrogen require a spark to ignite or could a glow plug be used?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[Nodroz]

I don't know much about Hydrogen, but I would like to wish you the best of luck with your project! Sounds really nice! I am sure you will learn a lot with doing that!
Goodluck!

 

[crazzywolfie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erlcu4pYmlw

 

[brandongeiger2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erlcu4pYmlw

They produced very small amounts of hydrogen there are plenty of dry and wet cell generators that produce amounts of hho to power a small engine and even larger engine in automobiles i have personally built generators that produce small amounts of hho using a 12volt car battery.

I don't know a whole lot but i have built a few cells so i may be able to help first off a spark plug would work best to ignite the gas I'd suppose.

A two stroke engine probably wouldn't be the best choice because of the lubrication issue like you addressed but its not imposable. Though if you want to power a 4-stroke engine i would use a small <100cc engine. Nothing much larger for first trials.

Remember that Hydrogen gas(Browns gas, or hho) can rust the inside of your cylinder/piston because the process of electrolysis splits the oxygen and hydrogen and water vapor is emitted from burning it maybe because it combines again? I'm not sure about how all that works my main point is running hho through an engine will probably lead to rust.

I would think a carburetor isn't necessary but i haven't tried to run an engine yet. I couldn't tell you...

As you can see i haven't played around with it much but with a little research you'll find the answers to your question.
Try HHO Forums

EDIT: Ohh i forgot to mention make sure you use a bubbler or flashback arrester to keep the gas from flashing back and exploding your cell people have been killed in HHO explosions be careful!

 

[crazzywolfie]

i just more so posted that video to show him how you pretty much inject the hydrogen into the system. i do agree with you about using a 4 stroke for lubrication purposes.

 

[brandongeiger2]

okay because they "bust" the myth i thought you were trying to say it wasn't possible haha