Found! The plate hole test: dry or wet. 8% difference!‏

[BoyntonStu]

Found! The plate hole test: dry or wet. 8% difference!‏


I ran a few tests yesterday on the Amoeba Cell.

There is a single 1/4 hole at the top of all plates.

There were 2 test positions for the Amoeba Cell relative to the reservoir.

Low position: a lot of electrolyte is pumped along with the gas.

High position: mostly gas with very little electrolyte.

My first observation was the change in current.

9.6 Amps in the low position, 8.9 Amps in the high and dry position.

Everything else remained the same! Voltage, temp, and output.

9.6/8.9 = 1.078 or ~ 8% more efficient. QED

This experiment demonstrated the importance of keeping the cell holes
high and dry with minimum automatic replenishment.

The close height positioning is a benefit for car mounting where height differential space may not be available.

I hope that this helps.

BoyntonStu

[Painless]

Stu,

I take it that LPM production was also identical for both tests, proving a higher MMW?

Russ.

[BoyntonStu]

Stu,

I take it that LPM production was also identical for both tests, proving a higher MMW?

Russ.

"Everything else remained the same! Voltage, temp, and output."

Yes, LPM production (output) was the same.

Try it with your cell.

Check temperature at both positions.

BoyntonStu

[Painless]

I would love to try and build a dry cell with absolutely no holes through the plates, I have it in my head how it could be done, but need to work out a way to actually build it. I need to get it down on a diagram and share, at least then someone else with the resources could build it.

[Painless]

"Everything else remained the same! Voltage, temp, and output."

Stu,

I find it interesting that temp remained the same despite much less movement of the electrolyte. How long did you run each test for?

[BoyntonStu]

Stu,

I find it interesting that temp remained the same despite much less movement of the electrolyte. How long did you run each test for?

Russ,

Good point, quite valid.

I ran the tests, one right after the other in order to test the single variable; height.


However, I ran the cell for quite a while, dry, and the temp rise was only 10*F.

Several thoughts:

1> The Amoeba 7 cell design is quite efficient and it runs cool.

2> The reservoir has time to cool and therefore the replenishment electrolyte comes in cooler.

3> The additional 8% current generates leakage waste heat.


Thanks for bringing it up.


BoyntonStu

[Painless]

You make a good point about the waste heat from the current leakage. I've been thinking that I could simply push a nylon bolt through the bottom hole run on my cell and close that hole off. I'm interested to see if it makes a huge difference or not.

8% would be a good gain, seeing as I'm planning to run between 45 and 50 amps on my truck.

I just did some rough calcs with my handydandy MMW calculator on my blackberry, I added a 'what if' function to it where I can put in real world values and then, assuming the same MMW, forecast output at different amp settings.

If I assume that my new cell has the same 5.5 MMW as my old one, then at 50 amps I should be able to push 3.88 LPM at that same MMW. If we apply the 8% reduction in amps to 46, the MMW rises to 5.98 and my 'what if' for 50 amps predicts 4.22 LPM!

Even if heat did become a little more of an issue with the single hole, this wouldn't be a problem as I had issues with my old cell getting too much cooling and not producing as well as I wanted!

Now I'm excited!

Russ.