Another Dry Cell

[Smyler86]

Hello

Well, after being glued to Painlesses thread I finally got my act together and built a dry cell, Its 316 SS 7 plates 125mm x 100mm with rubber gaskets 3mm spacing. With 2 5mm Acrilic plates to hold it all togeter (I know these are thin, i'm going to buy some 10mm)

I got some Koh from Ebay but i think its not very good, put about 300g in 1L of water and this is what I got:

Volts: 12.2
Amps: 5.4
ML: 500
Secs: 98
MMW: 4.65

Just a few Q's:
1. I used De-Ionised water, is that ok? (Battery top up water)
2. When I add more Koh it "fizzes" for a few seconds and gets warm, is that normal?
3. Is hydrogen slightly cloudy??

Thanks for your help!

Dan

[Stevo]

I have found that with a 7 plate setup I have to use a considerable amount more KOH in general, but you should also consider your voltage.


I have found that at approx 2 amps (12.2/6 cells = 2.03) the cells are basically starving for more voltage. My best mmw was around 4.5mmw.

At approx 2.35v (14.1v / 6cells = 2.35), my mmw increased by 50-60% over the initial reading at 12.2-3 volts. 6.9 - 7.2 mmw

Since my import car has the capacity of up to 14.7 volts and I have seen 14.5 intermittently, I would say that 2.4 is highly attainable.

Anyway, try to up your voltage. Checking on a 12v battery charger will only yield great results if you are a 5 cell generator and much less for 6 cell generators. That extra 1.5-2 volts makes a world of different in efficiency from what I have found. Also, I would say just use distilled water. And yes KOH has an exothermic reaction to water, meaning that once it touches water it will generate heat proportionate to the amount of KOH added in relation to the total amount of water in the container. The fizzing is another result of the reaction. Be careful and always practice safe handling procedures.