In today’s column Can you really get better gas mileage using your alternator to make Browns Gas, Cecil shows that turning gas into hydrogen is quite inefficient and would be a waste of time. Having never heard of Brown’s Gas before I went looking around and found several websites selling conversion kits, instructions for building your own conversion kits, small welders and other things devoted to this technology. Interesting stuff, most of it misspelled, some of it even reporting health benefits by drinking water infused with this gas. In short, the stuff CTs are made of (well that, plus some aluminum foil).
There are a couple of things I still am not quite getting. Cecil went through the math fairly quickly leaving some of the, probably extraneous information out. How much current off of the alternator are we talking about? One of the web sites mentioned 4 watts which IIRC at 12 volts is a paltry 0.33 amps. I use more than that to charge my cell phone, is charging my cell phone reducing my overall efficiency and reducing my mileage? Or is the 4 watts from 120 volts, pulling 3.3 amps (still a small value to take a way from an alternator)?
At Harbor Freight tonight I saw a 5 watt solar panel for topping off the battery. Do these work? Would one of these power a cell and produce enough hydrogen and oxygen to burn in the engine and reduce the petrolium used? Some of the web sites I looked at mentioned materials being the issue to producing enough Brown’s Gas cheaply and effeciently to do any good while others showed vehicles running on the stuff. As Cecil said there is little reliable information that it works, but I’m still not sure exactly why it doesn’t. Any thoughts?