Active cooling

[tectron1]

Hi, I'm new here and just wanted to post my observation.

I haven't seen an active cooling setup used yet after several hours of browsing you tube, and I searched this forum for cooling but didn't get any results. It seems that heat is an major factor in creating lots of gas, so i was thinking why not set up an active cooling setup using a small pump(a water cooling pump for pc's would work), a tranny/ps cooler(salvage yards are full of them) and a resevoir made out of some pvc pipe and a couple dome caps with the in/out at the top cap and a drain valve at the bottom to drain sludge buildup(it would double as a sediment trap. Basically like this


Reactor>resevoir/trap>cooling radiator behind grill>reactor

It would serve 2 purposes, cooling obviously, but also the reactor elements would last longer because they would always have a fresh flow of cool water that would flush away contaminates caused from the reaction process.

Just some food for thought.


Steve

[ENURO12]

Food For thought. If you have done much with electrolysis or pc water cooling you will know that using 2 unlike metals in a active cooling system create a huge corrosion problem.

The only thing that i'm saying is anyone considering doing this needs to use a Stainless Steel radiator (which i doubt would be cheap if you COULD find one) or plastic. Of course plastic would work fine and are readily available.

Cheers

[Getreal17]

Here's a couple of ideas:

1) Use a Pulse Width Modulator (PWM) that should greatly reduced heat because the current is fired in pulses and is not continuous.

2) I've thought about running a tube out the side of my cell and mechanically attaching aluminum cooling fins on the outside of the tube (as a heat sync) and using a little pump (like an aquarium pump) to move water through the tube and having the cooling fins cooled by a small fan (like from a PC).

Just an idea...

[h-power]

My design has a water pump and radiator to disapate heat build up. I tried running without it at first but it overheated after a hour. With my cooling system it runs all day long no worries.:D

[gasmakr]

I'm also trying a similar setup with a washer fluid pump and and resevoir with a plastic trans cooler from a minivan from the junkyard. setting it up to run off of electrolyte temp.:)

[Stratous]

I used a washer fluid pump, it burned up very quickly. They are not intended to run for long periods of time. Instead try a fuel pump.

[gasmakr]

I used a washer fluid pump, it burned up very quickly. They are not intended to run for long periods of time. Instead try a fuel pump.

I will half to try that when this one burns up i noticed it gets hot during heavy use but it's still goin.:)

[3blonds]

I'm doing this now, I use a 12v water pump designed for water falls in landscaping, purchased from EBay for 10 dollars. My cell is a six plate 3.5" X 7" mounted in 4" pvc, 2 feet tall, my circulation reservoir is also 4" pvc 2 feet in the horizontal position, my input and output are on opposite ends of the pipe to allow for more circulation. Everything is mounted in the grill area in front of my radiators on my 99 Ford F150. The air movement I get while driving keeps things cool and the reservoir helps as well. I recently made a 200 mile trip and the unit stayed around 120 degrees (laser thermometer). Before hooking up my generator and my effie, I got around 17mpg on the highway, now I get around 27 mpg. The key to my success is my scanguage and the ability to fine tune my MAF and my two O2 sensors, without the scangauge I was guessing at everything, best money I spent so far..

[Ronjinsan]

Hi, I would be curious to know how your car would perform heatwise in heavy traffic on a hot day? Do you think it would cope OK. Thats the sort of conditions I have to drive in, long drives with cool air through the cell,are rare for me so my thermal efficiency has to be pretty reliable. I bought an electric fuel pump yesterday which I am going to run through a reservoir and coiled copper pipe, as the new 9 plate cell I made last week is running quite hot. I have cut the electrolyte content at the moment until I solve the cooling! All the best.

[Stratous]

When I first set up my sysem, I used a small transmission radiator and a fuel pump to move the electrolyte. The problem I ran into was the lye ate through the aluminum of the radiator. I haven tried with baking soda, but assume since its much less corrosive that it would work. Has anyone tried running sodium hydroxide, "AKA LYE" and baking soda to see if the sytems works as good? Rumor has it that sodium hydroxide produces more gas per amp. Is this true?

[Ronjinsan]

Hi Stratous

I dont think I would be tempted to start mixing Sodium Hydroxide with other chemicals at all! Fortunately with Caustic you need very little to produce a lot of gas. I only use a tiny bit on the very tip of a teaspoon to half a litre of water. That gives me the equivalent of 2 teaspoons of baking soda. I find my water stays cleaner after the conditioning period and cooler too! Unfortunately, as you point out it doesnt like aluminium at all. The only answer to this is, dont use aluminium! It took my stupid brain a while to realise that if you use active cooling in any form, the water from your cell will come into contact with a contaminant metal, if you are not careful! ie I was using a copper pipe in mine duhhh! The other answer to this is to have a dual walled cell with coolant on the outside so that there is no contact. I am going to build a cell using a SS soup flask which is double walled. Then use the outer casing for coolant circulation! What do you think guys? Worth a try? Cheers!

[h-power]

3blonds, which scangauge did you buy? What sort of inputs does it control?

[3blonds]

3blonds, which scangauge did you buy? What sort of inputs does it control?

I purchased Scan Guage II, do a google and go to their web site, plenty of information. I drive in Houston stop and go traffic, so far I have no overheating using my circulation and mounting everything inside the grill of my F-150. Fortunatly for me, I have plenty of room in this area and I'm removed from the heat of the engine and have good air circulation..

[Sparkie]

I am thinking of getting a piece of stainless tube and fixing a heap of heat sinks to it. they should do the trick removing excess heat.
Probably won't work with plastic but with stainless it should work a treat. Convection should take care of the rest even in heavy traffic...I hope

[Ronjinsan]

Curious, would love to see a picture of that one mate!

[greuvin]

I purchased Scan Guage II, do a google and go to their web site, plenty of information. I drive in Houston stop and go traffic, so far I have no overheating using my circulation and mounting everything inside the grill of my F-150. Fortunatly for me, I have plenty of room in this area and I'm removed from the heat of the engine and have good air circulation..

3Blondes. Know what you mean about Houston:D I'm in Sugarland. Can the SGII manipulate any values or does it just act as an indicator? Are you able to adjust your fuel/air ratio?

[porkchop]

i'm working,still early stages, on the idea of circulating the water/electrolite to a larger holding tank. Working at a Utility Dept with a waste water treatment plant, you can scrounge some good pumps that can take corrosive fluid. Thought if the resivior was large enough, it would dissapate the heat that way. You could, if your storage containerwas fairly level with your unit, run it without a pump. The heated water would move to the cold and visa versa. Like the older boilers would work. I don't know if this would be efficient enough, but it would displace water, and they used to do it that way in the older boiler days. Just a thought.

[snapper1d]

I am looking at making a water jacket for my unit.With a water jacket and a air conditioning radiator and one of those 12V waterfall pumps.With a water jacket I would have nothing coming into contact with the electrolyte I have messed with water jackets on other applications before and have a good ideal it just might work well.

[SlipperyNinja]

nice idea snapper! make it work!

i would also like to add that i was kicking around the idea of having a coil of stainless tube placed at the bottom of the housing unit(for those with stainless electrodes). this coil would have an in and out to run through the walls of the unit and then to the cooling device of your choice...coolant could also be your choice....provided all materials are of the same stainless grade, this should combat the dissimilar metals problem....should also be able to avoid ambient gas production on coil if placed outside the flow of electricity (not sure on that one)...more holes means more potential for leaks, but that's just a quality of build issue(please note i have yet to build more than a bubbling tub of water)...and high-five if you're one of the lucky ones that has absurd access to all sorts of great crap!

[snapper1d]

SlipperyNinja your coils brings to mind that we had some tanks with heating and cooling coils inside them.A all stainless tank with stainless coils in it so you could have a cooling solution running thru them.The coils entering and exiting thru the sides and then to a small transfer pump and then to a radiator in front of your grill.I bet that would do wonders.

[HHOWolfen]

I am working on a lexan box with several tubes from one end to the other, and using air from the smog pump to cool the 'juice', there is a thin chamber on each end of the box which has plates inside, arranged vertically in 6 groups of 10 plates, + n n - n n + n n -, with both anodes connected to one bolt, and both cathodes to one bolt, with straps to each 'cell' unit, making one positive connection and one neg connection for each box, also making 3 and 4 unit boxes for smaller engines, or for divided installations due to space limitations

[mikestrikes]

Its costly but its made of SS............

http://cgi.ebay.com/Brazed-30-Plate-Stainless-Steel-Heat-Exchanger_W0QQitemZ180265419783QQihZ008QQcategoryZ 109484QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[lukeoid1]

I... The key to my success is my scanguage and the ability to fine tune my MAF and my two O2 sensors, without the scangauge I was guessing at everything, best money I spent so far..

What do you set your scan gauge to and what do you look for/monitor?
(Sounds like you have a nice set up there.)

[lukeoid1]

How about this.
I notice that guys like MagDrive and EBN are doing a brick design, but to help with heat, I thought: Why not bild the plates such that on one side the plates extend outward way beyond that one side of the gasket so that they would behave like radiator fins? With only a tiny bit of air current one could expect huge heat release, right?
Has anyone tried this?

[bat]

anyone thought about running two stainless tubes through the generator connected to a copper coil or radiator with plastic tubing? The tubes might even act as n plates.

[candyman55]

hey guys,
why not use ss gas lines and coil them around, say 1-1/2" pipe use a gas pump or pond pump if you like? I just bought 12- 3/8 lines off ebay for 19 bucks. I'm sure they will work really well in a week or so I will know.