How to get the most LPM from the least amps?

[maztra]

I have build a double wet 6 serie cel, using 13 stainless steel plates 6"x6", 3mm gap, KOH, 12 volts from a power supply, zero current leak, no pwm,

I found that 6 cells is too much for 12 volts. I had to put loads of koh in to get the amps flowing. 6 cells might be better in a car, because that gives 13,5 to 14 volts. But with my 12 volts, it doesn't.

I changed the cell to double 5 cells. With 5 cells it works much better. With only a teaspoon of koh it pulls 15 amps. After a while, when it starts to heat up, it gets to 18 apms.

Now i am getting 1 LPM at 18 amps. But i was hoping to get 1 LPM at 10 amps.

Is 18 amps for 1 LPM the best i can get? What to do different to get more LPM's?

[myoldyourgold]

With out knowing the temperature of your gas and exactly where you are this is a guess at best. Your MMW is 4.63 or 87% Faraday. That is very good. I suspect it is not that high but not impossible either. It all depends on the temperature of the gas, how dry your gas is, and the Barometric pressure of your location at the time you measure, in order to get an accurate calculation.

[lhazleton]

Maztra,
You say it's a wet cell? If so, how can there be no current leakage? A wet cell design is nothing short of a HUGE current leak.
A teaspoon of KOH isn't 'loads'. It's a tiny bit. The most common KOH concentration is 28%, which is roughly 3lbs. per gallon of distilled water.
The reason your unit heats up and then draws more amps is due to the wet design. All of the wasted current causes heat.

[maztra]

It is 13 plate cel, 2x6 cells. It is kind of a dry cell, but every cell has it's own separate electrolyte entry and exit. So there is no contact of water between the cells, unlike a dry cell. So no current leakage.

I called it a wet cell, because i thought it is not a dry cell. I called mine "wet" because i think of it as 2x6 separate cells.

I was aiming at 2lpm at 20 amps. If it is possible to get this from a dry cell, who has current leakage, it must be possible with my cell, who has no current leakage.

So 13or11 plate 6"x6", gap 1/8", 20 amps, low koh, no pwm (yet), doing now 1,1 LPM (measured by bottle in bucket of water) is not impressive. How to get more?

[myoldyourgold]

Is this 6X6 still a no hole plate reactor? That is still around 77% Faraday. Not so bad. To get better results we will need to have more information and possibly a photo of the reactor in order to make any recommendations. What kind of plate preparation, cleaning process process, what kind of electrical connections and just about everything else in order see if there is something else to do.

By the way the 2 X 6 should be limited to 9 - 10 amps max to run efficiently and not just make steam.

[farmer]

agree with amp limit... i like mine 10-12 max cold, otherwise current draw will undo all the good work mpg wise.
however i get this with about 1-2 teaspoons of koh, thats in approx 11/2 litres of water, so i would count 28% very high...what sort of amps does your alternator put out? just wondering how u can do this as my system drops mpg after about 18 amps or so?

[Stevo]

Have you conditioned your plates yet? You might want to do that first before adding KOH. Use NaOH for that and from my latest discovery you should run 28% and slightly overdrive it long enough to get a decent amount of iron in the water then flush that electrolyte out following with distilled and refill with 28% KOH. Use a ccpwm to control the amps and if you conditioned the plates right, you should be able to step that voltage way down in order to achieve 12-13 amps. 12.1 amps is what I am running at 12 volts and producing 1 lpm after doing this with just a 5-8% KOH. If I increase the concentration to 28% I will notice that water vapor virtually disappears and I can turn down the voltage even further to draw about the same amps.

Try conditioning your plates. I too have a reactor with no holes and entry/exits for each chamber. I am using 9/16" spacing.

[Farrahday]

How to get the most LPM from the least amps?

As the gas output in a standard electrolyser is directly proportional to the current flowing, this seems rather an odd question. Irrespective of all other considerations of the electrolyser, if you reduce the current you reduce the gas output.

Extra efficiency can be found from increasing the electrode surface areas, decreasing the distance between electrodes, reducing the voltage across each cell, or by the addition of an electrolyte to reduce internal resistance. The current is the one thing you cannot or do not want to reduce if you want to maintain gas output - and of course you will need to increase current to increase gas output.