Water became brown color...overheating??

[muronao]

Hello,

We have a problem with a HHO generator. We are trying to use it in a Caterpillar. We tested it, but water got brown color. Please see the pictures. We want to know what was wrong. We are thinking it was caused by overheating. Do you agree with us? What is the good solution for this problem?

Please advise us.

Thank you,
muronao

[RustyLugNut]

Hello,

We have a problem with a HHO generator. We are trying to use it in a Caterpillar. We tested it, but water got brown color. Please see the pictures. We want to know what was wrong. We are thinking it was caused by overheating. Do you agree with us? What is the good solution for this problem?

Please advise us.

Thank you,
muronao

Can you give us more information?

What kind of water are you using? Tap or distilled?

What kind of electrolyte? And at what concentrations?

What amperage are you running your cells at?

What is your plate material?

These details can help us help you.

[Madsceintist]

Hello,

We have a problem with a HHO generator. We are trying to use it in a Caterpillar. We tested it, but water got brown color. Please see the pictures. We want to know what was wrong. We are thinking it was caused by overheating. Do you agree with us? What is the good solution for this problem?

Please advise us.

Thank you,
muronao

That appears to be rust? If so, then you have metal somewhere that is not stainless! If not then your liquid solution has to many contaminates. Possibly due to not using distilled or not cleaning and conditioning properly. That alone could cause overheating due to the contamination creating a bridge from plate to plate. How ever if that is as it looks to me, you will have to disassemble the entire thing to clean it thoroughly! THOROUGHLY !!!!

This may help for your reading pleasure.

http://www.hhoforums.com/showthread.php?t=7493&highlight=brown+water

[muronao]

Hi RustyLugNut,
Thank you for your help and I'm very sorry for my late reply.

We think we could find the problem. I'll update it later

[muronao]

Hi Madsceintist,
Thank you for explaining and giving us the helpful link. I'm very sorry for the late reply.
We think we could find the problem. I'll update it later.

[muronao]

Hi RustyLugNut,
We still can't find our problem, we were misunderstanding....I'll respond below:

What kind of water are you using? Tap or distilled?

A: Distilled

What kind of electrolyte? And at what concentrations?

A: KOH (potassium hydroxid). 10 to 15 grams per Liter of distilled and demineralized water

What amperage are you running your cells at?

A:Minimum = 19A; Maximun = 23A; Average = 21A

What is your plate material?

A:Stainless AISI 316


Thank you for your help!!

[aceras624]

how big is one plate in your cell?

also, did you mean 316L when you said "316"?

and finally, is you cell sideways? or is that just the way the pic was taken?

[myoldyourgold]

There is only 3 reasons for brown muck. One is type of material, two is over driving the unit, three is contamination of some kind in the water/electrolyte/cleaning of the unit.

Flush the unit with distilled water and run it with NaOH at less than 10 amps and change the electrolyte if there is any discoloring until it is clear. This could take a couple days and possible a number of electrolyte changes. I suggest you follow the D9 pdf procedures to cleans and condition the reactor except use NaOH instead of KOH for the process. If the material is not 316L I suggest you lower the amps to not more than .25 amps per square inch of active area on one side of one plate. Unless the plates are media blasted never exceed .50 amps per active active square inch.

[RustyLugNut]

The only thing I would add is to check your connection hardware and make sure they are not plated steel and are not corroding on the inside. Ideally, your piping should be plastic or stainless so as to prevent corrosion from your piping to enter your electrolysis cells.

[hhoconnection]

Is there any way you could have a short or loose electrical connection somewhere that is causing excessive heat at some spot in the cell? Just a thought.

[aceras624]

hey guys to be clear, he didnt say it actually overheated. He hasnt really given much info here :)

[muronao]

Thanks guys,

I put more information and two pictures of the cell.

We did clean the system several times, but the same problem repeated again and again…It worked 8 hours a day, but the brown water showed up in 2 days.

Water temperature of the system, will be max 48ºC (may have a peak of 72ºC) at 22ºCelsius to 27ºCelsius room temperature.

When we tested the system with a small car, it worked well. But it doesn't work properly with caterpillar and truck. We are now checking what was different between those.

The truck:
Volvo 380 12.000cc Turbo diesel
Net weight 7,9Ton
Gross weight 40Ton
1100 - 2750 rpm/minute

We checked the connection, water, electrolyte, cleaning. We think it was correct. We doubt the plate is not good quality…we are thinking about buying a new cell. Should we do it?

We used this cell:

* 21 Plates of 316L Stainless Steel Plates
* Demensions: 19*19*11 cm
* High temperature Cast Acrylic end Plates
* Four 3/8" 90 Degree NPT Elbows with Hose Barbs
* Two NPT 3/8" True "Y" with Hose Barbs
* 2.5mm Neoprene Rubber Rings
* Net Weight: 4.9kg
* Our Dry Cell is expandable.
* Stainless Steel Plate size is 15.2*15.2 cm (6*6 inch).
* Plate`s thickness: 1mm (brushed)
* Production: 2LPM to 10LPM.
* Working at 12v to 35v, 10amp to 70amp.
* Fittings including: 2pcs of 1/4x3/8 Elbows, 2pcs of 3/8x3/8 Elbows, 2pcs of 3/8 True Y Connections, 8pcs of Hose Clamps, 4 sections of high presure pipe

Thank you for your helps!!

[RustyLugNut]

It looks like we have covered most any possibility. All that is left is certification of everything that is in the Electrolysis Generator (Egen) or going into it (electrolyte and water).

Are you sure you have 316 SS plates? Is your electrolyte pure? Is your water really steam distilled? At this point this is all I can advise.

Don't worry about the heat. It has nothing to do with brown sludge production. I run my cells at 80 deg C for long periods of time. It is more about the current and driving voltage rising above the recommended levels and undoing your passivation (conditioning) and causing the iron in the stainless plates to corrode as the chromium transfers away. You may want to dismantle the Egen and check to see if you are getting any corrosion or etching in the plates.

[muronao]

Hi RustyLugNut,

Thank you for your advices. Your experiences help us a lot.
We checked electrolyte was pure, we used distilled water!!
and Cell for the small car worked well: Cell has 11 plates, 1,5l water deposit, It works at 12A, It produces 0,5 liters per minute
Cell for the truck had the problem: Cell has 21 plates, 3l water deposit, It works at 27A,It produces 3 liters per minute

So we think the 316L SS plate for the truck was not good quality. We will get new cell from a trusted company.

Thanks!!

[aceras624]

any chance this things on a 24 volt system?