This was an e-mail of mine in response to various requests for details regarding my suggestion that there may be ways to obtain hydrogen from water, which do not require as much energy as the subsequent burning of the hydrogen, i.e. its recombination with oxygen to form once more water, will release.
There are several techniques that come to mind. As the first thing however I want to tell about a method of easy storage of hydrogen which could solve the problem of taking hydrogen as a fuel along in a car. This is Yull Brown’s method of mixing hydrogen and oxygen to obtain a stable combustible gas.
The various methods of hydrogen production I will be writing about are:
1) Yull Brown - Production, by electrolysis, of a gaseous mixture of hydrogen and oxygen that may be stored under pressure and burned in a similar way as natural gas.
2) Stanley Meyer - method of separating water into hydrogen and oxygen by use of high frequency, high voltage electricity.
3) Sam Leslie Leach - method of separating water into hydrogen and oxygen by ionisation through strong ultraviolet radiation.
4) Gianni Dotto - method of separating water into hydrogen and oxygen by magnetic action after vaporisation accompanied by heating.
5) Archie H. Blue - method of electrolysis and combination of resulting gases with air to form combustible gas.
1) YULL BROWN
Brown has developed an apparatus able to separate and subsequently recombine into a stochiometric gas mixture, the hydrogen and oxygen contained in water. The gas has been called Brown’s gas and has properties that make it an ideal energy storage medium. This information is included here not because of a particularly high efficiency of the process of electrolysis but because of the possibility of easy handling and storage of the resulting gas, which would solve some of the problems that afflict H2 storage and transport at present. Brown has been running automobile engines on this gas, apparently without difficulties. His electrolysing units produce between 12 and 13.5 cubic feet of gas per kwh of electricity. The units are currently being produced in China and are commercially available.
A good and quite complete description of Brown's discovery is contained in a 2-piece series of articles entitled "Fire from water", published in a magazine called raum&zeit (Vol. 3 No.2 and Vol. 3 No.3, 1992). The magazine is now named EXPLORE!, their address is: P.O.Box 1508, Mt.Vernon, WA 98273.
The articles contain a description of some quite exotic properties of the flame that results from the burning of Brown’s gas in a welding torch. EXPLORE! might have more information or later articles on Yull Brown, but the above is all I have found for now.
2) STANLEY MEYER
Stan Meyer of Grove City, Ohio, has developed a hydrogen fracturing technology based on subjecting fine water mist to the effects of high frequency pulsed high voltage fields, inside a spherical resonance chamber. Efficiency apparently is higher than conventional electrolysis. Meyer says that hydrogen for use as a fuel can be produced on demand, using his technology. He is miniaturising components and developing dedicated electronic chips to control the process. There were 30 patents granted to Meyer up until 1993 in connection with his ‘Water fuel cell technology’. The hydrogen production unit has apparently been installed on a dune-buggy and been demonstrated (I did not personally attend any demonstration).
Meyer unfortunately died in 1998 under mysterious circumstances.
Articles on the technology developed by Meyer can be found in raum&zeit magazine Vol.3, No.1, 1991, and in EXPLORE! Vol.3, No.4, 1992 and Vol.4? No.2 1993. (P.O.Box 1508, Mount Vernon, WA 98273). Also, some information on Meyer is available on Keelynet. The files are MEYER1.ASC and MEYER2.ASC and can be obtained directly from Keelynet or through a mirror site on the web.
3) SAM LESLIE LEACH
According to the a New York Times Special of 20 April 1979, (can't find the original on line, but here is a more recent reference to the matter) Sam Leslie Leach, a professional inventor with several basic patents in the field of optics, has obtained two patents for an invention that he says accomplishes the economic separation of hydrogen and oxygen gases from water.
The process, as described in the article, subjects water vapor injected into a reaction chamber to ultraviolet radiation of a specific wavelength, which ionises the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Apparently, the radiation is re-emitted by the atomic gases and so upholds the separation process in a self-sustaining way, as long as more water vapor is supplied.
Information in the article is scant of technical detail. No contact address is given. Maybe someone out there would be able to follow this up and give us more information, especially as to further developments (if any) after 1979. It appears that Leach ran into a lot of scepticism from scientists contending that his process ‘could not possibly work’.
April 2007: Someone found the Sam Leach patent and sent me the link. Also, on Free Energy News' Energy Suppression page, I see some more information on Leach as follows:
"During the mid-1970s, Sam Leach of Los Angeles developed a revolutionary hydrogen extraction process. The unit easily extracted free hydrogen from water and was small enough to fit under the hood of an automobile.
In 1976, two independent labs in LA tested this generator with perfect results.
M.J. Mirkin, who began the Budget car rental system, purchased the rights to the device from the inventor, who was said to be very concerned about his personal security."
4) GIANNI DOTTO
Gianni Dotto is an italo/american electrical engineer and inventor who has described a way of separating distilled water into hydrogen and oxygen, releasing the oxygen and capturing the hydrogen for use in an internal combustion engine (motor car) or just for heating purposes. Here is how he describes his method:
With a Diesel injection pump, bring distilled water up to 240 bar of pressure, feeding it into a one meter long 1/4 “ stainless steel tube connected to a very strong expansion valve such as those used for air conditioning or house gas supply. This is enough to convert the water into a very thin moisture vapor.
From the first expansion valve, using a four meters long 1/4 " stainless steel tube that must be maintained at a temperature of at least 90°C, connect to a second Diesel injection pump, followed by a second expansion valve, working at 120 bar. The outgoing tube would carry a hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture.
At the end of a five meter 3/16 " stainless steel tube, connect a very strong Al nickel permanent magnet with one 1/4 " hole intake but several outlet holes arranged in a star configuration, with a total of at least 6 outlet holes, each with a diameter of 3/32 " alternately having a strong positive and negative magnetisation.
Oxygen gas would come out of the negatively magnetised holes, to be liberated into the atmosphere, while the hydrogen gas coming out of the positively magnetised holes should be collected in a conventional methane tank to be used for running the internal combustion engine. The methane type tank would be used to store hydrogen produced over the engine's need, and as a backup for cold starting purposes.
Although the data is not yet independently verified, I would see no harm in someone trying out to see if the method has merit.
5) ARCHIE H. BLUE
Blue is from New Zealand and obtained a patent on a very simple electrolyser that he claims will supply a sufficient amount of an oxygen/hydrogen/air mix to run an internal combustion engine.
His patent (US patent no. 4,124,463 was issued on November 7, 1978. It may be obtained from the US Patent Office.
A description of the invention of Blue as contained in a published article, is given below:
Almost all drivers have made the experience that the motor runs better when it rains. This is also a reason why our parents sprayed coal with water to make it burn better. Therefore it is no wonder that for years some drivers have used a kind of water spray injector, which is very simple. It is a container of plastic or glass, which can be closed airtight. A thin pipe with an aquarium valve leads through the top cover down close to the bottom of the container. A second pipe enters only about 5 cm into the container from the top cover and is connected with the carburettor or the air filter. The container is filled with water to just below the level of the second pipe. The suction of the carburettor pulls air through the water in the container and so adds hydrogen and oxygen to the gas mixture, which results in a lowered consumption of gasoline.
This simple mechanism was improved by the New Zealand inventor Archie Blue with some additions so that the water vapor alone can run an internal combustion engine, without gasoline. It runs about 40 km with 1 liter of water.
His american patent (number 4 124 463) is so simple that anyone with mechanical skills can produce it. On the non-metallic air pipe that enters the container, are mounted at equidistant intervals eight corrosion free round metallic plates, which have been perforated with numerous holes. They are electrified alternately with positive and negative DC voltage from the car battery (12 Volt, 2-3 Amp).
The resulting electrolysis separates the water into oxygen and hydrogen which attach to the metal plates in small bubbles. The air bubbles forced through the water by the suction of the carburettor take those small bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen with them to the top of the container. The energy thus obtained is three times that of gasoline per weight. No poisonous exhaust gases are produced because the end product of combustion is water vapor.
The air needs only 4 % of enrichment with these gases to burn hotter and faster than natural gas.
Warm water is easier to electrolyse and therefore a heating element is mounted in the bottom of the container.
Here an attempt to reproduce the cell design in ascii:
ELECTROLYTIC CELL
Mixture H2/O2/air (out)
<---- ________________
___________________ ( <---- Air (in)
__________________ ) I ______________
I I I I
_____I I__________I I__________________
/ I I I I /
/ I I /
/ I I /
/ I I /
/ I I /
/ I I /
/ + I I /
12 V DC(+) / ---------------I--I--------------- /
/ - I I /
12 V DC(-) / ---------------I--I--------------- /
/ + I I /
/ ---------------I--I--------------- /
/ - I I /
/ ---------------I--I--------------- /
/ + I I /
/ ---------------I--I--------------- /
/ - I I /
/ ---------------I--I--------------- /
/ + I I /
/ ---------------I--I--------------- /
/ - I I /
/ ---------------I--I--------------- /
/ I I /
/ o o I I o o /
/ o o IooI o o /
/ o <-- air --> o /
/ /
/ /
/______________________________________/
================================================================
There seems to be another patent for a process of electrolysis by use of resonant electrical to Andrija Puharich, which I have seen mentioned somewhere but have no details on.
I believe that certainly the above is enough of an indication to research further in that direction.
Regards to all researchers and I would be happy to hear of any success in duplicating one of these methods or developing your own!
- Josef
If anyone should have questions, they will have to pull strings on the information given here.