Ken Riznyk wrote:
>I was at a Penn State lecture on global warming. In the parking lot they had a
>hybrid car. Biodiesel and electric. There was also a tank of hydrogen in the
>trunk. The fellow there said that the hydrogen boosts the power of the
>biodiesel. He didn't seem to know much. I asked if the hydrogen was stored as
>a metal hydride and he looked at me blankly and shrugged. He didn't seem to
>know how much extra power the hydrogen added. All he knew was that the fuel
>tank was 6 gallons and the range of the car was about 300 miles. He didn't
>know how much the battery power contributed to the range. Anybody hear about
>boosting power with hydrogen? Seems like a lot of extra trouble to me.
>
>
The technique works because of hydrogen's flammability
characteristics. If you liken the biodiesel to a stack of wood and the
hydrogen to a few liters of gasoline, you can imagine that coating the
wood with gasoline makes the stock easier to ignite. In this manner,
the hydrogen acts as a kind of catalyst to speed combustion. The reason
it gives more power (and a cleaner burn) is that most of the power in a
piston engine comes in the first 33% of its stroke. Burning the fuel
faster delivers more energy to drive the piston during that critical
period, hence, it makes better use of the energy in the fuel.
Additionally, the hydrogen itself contributes to the overall energy of
the fuel charge. By mass, nothing comes close to hydrogen in terms of
energy. One of the big problems with hydrogen as a fuel, however, is
its energy density is so pathetic.
Sir Harry Ricardo discovered all of this during the 1930's. He was
one of those rare, brilliant people who figured out a lot of things
using actual science, rather than hype!
Is it a lot of trouble? Yes, I think so. Nonetheless, hydrogen
boost would be fun to do as an intellectual exercise. Peak power and
efficiency occurs when hydrogen is roughly 5% of the intake mass. Since
this varies by temperature, you'd need a computer to do the hydrogen
boost most effectively. But it's possible to get around 20% more fuel
economy this way. To make it worthwhile, the price of your fuel would
need to be pretty high to justify the expense of the hydrogen. It could
also be generated on board, which would limit that efficiency gain to
between 5 and 10%.
robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
"The Long Journey"
New Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.newadventure.ca
Ranger Supercharger Project Page
http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/
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