Well powering my house via wind does not look do-able, the wind is too fickle. However maybe I could use it to generate hydrogen for car fuel. I could have a reserve to, um, ride out quite spells in the wind, and as a last resort crack some fuel out of the power grid in a really long quite spell. If I can use a smaller wind turbine, and the water cracking and hydrogen storage equipment is affordable I might be able to convince some of my friends do this too. Anyway on to the questions.
What will I have to have done to my car? I know the air to fuel ratio will have to be adjusted, and the fuel tank replaced. will anything else have to be done? Different spark plugs, and a different timing system seems like things I might need also.
How many watts does it take to generate one GGE (gasoline gallon equivolent) of Hydrogen? I understand a GGE varies from car to car. In this case it would be for a 3 cylender fuel injection engine.
How much does a water electrolysis unit able to make atleast 4 GGEs of fuel a day cost? How about the compression and storage system?
Hydrogen generation and compression equipment seem like they would not be very portable. If I was away from home how easy would it be to find a place to gas up?
Burning hydrogen will not make my engine or exaust system rust on the inside will it?
Tried googling for these answers but the results were DoSed by sites on “the hydrogen future”.
Man! I woulda stuck with the windmill if I were you. I know there are gasoline->propane conversion kits (my friend gets instant on heat in his propane truck, and when it’s -40, that’s no small benefit), but I’ve never even heard of a gasoline->hydrogen project.
Wow cool! This site claims to be making one Real Soon Now, and address some of the where-do-I-get-hydrogen problems, and this “Hydrogen Now” site has two links to similar sites, including one that lets you use dual fuels.
I’m usually on top of technology, but I found out about that Coleman fuel cell pretty late too. I’m surprised nobody’s made more of a fuss over these. I suppose until you can top up a few litres of hydrogen, it’s not gonna be coming to a parking lot near you.
Assuming 75% energy efficiency for electrolysis (cite), you need an average electric power of 2kw if you want an equivalent of 1 gallon of gasoline per day.
There are many instances of sites that must be off the grid either occasionally or all the time. In general they site use diesel generators. In the absence of good water “head” (vertical drop) I suspect this is the most practical with current technology, else many others would be using whatever else was more practical. I don’t see anyone using it instead of the grid if they can get access to the grid, which probably tells us something.
That united nuclear conversion kit in your links looks awesome. I think I can delay the project to this fall wait for it. The ability to burn hydrogen and gasoline would solve a number of problems. I’ll just work on the wind turbines till then. Thank you for the links.
Thanks for the info. I should be able to make most of the fuel I need then.
It’s more about making my car (or atleast some major part of daily life) more green then practicality. I always talk about how we as a society should work to be less harmfull to the enviroment. It’s time for me to back my words up with actions.
Maybe you should look into purchasing some used solar cells. Otherpower.com sells used units. The windmill project sounds like it could turn into a huge financial drain.
As for converting your car to hydrogen, you might want to search for people who have already done it and want to sell the vehicle. Just an idea unless you are a mechanic and have large sums of money which you can’t think of any use for.
Those plans for building your own wind turbine have got me hooked I love do it your stuff like that. I was reading the plans and where I can get alot of the parts real cheap, at scrap metal rates on some of them even.
I did’nt know you could buy used cells. I never really thought about used ones I guess. Maybe If used ones are cheap enough I’ll put up a small array to suplimeant the wind power.
I never really thought about a used hydrogen car, I’ll look around. If I can find one, then I will not need to convert a car remove one more possiblity of something going wrong.
I’m not a mechanic nor rich, but I know a mechanic who’s skills I would trust my life too. I will be getting my A+ certification for computer repair next month. After I get it (assuming I don’t fail the test of course) and get a better job, I’m going to save the extra money up for this project with the increase in pay. The Long Road your posts are most helpfull thank you.
Glad I can help you with some ideas. I would guesstimate that for every person who pulls off this type of project, 10+ start and give up. Those are the people you want to track down. They bought the equipment but didn’t finish the project so will usually sell it for a fraction of its true value. This is almost always word of mouth finds, ebay and other public venues are usually picked over. Start asking around and I bet you find some very good bargains.
When you are done with your A+ cert, look into starting your own business, at least part time, for the tax breaks. It’s easy to do and you might even make money on it. Worked wonders for me.
Maybe I could for part time, I don’t think there is enough work around here for a full time business, to many repair shops already but it would make some nice on the side money and tax breaks are always awesome. Thanks.