On Aug 31, 2007, at 5:52 AM, Jones Beene wrote:
Stiffler Scientific wrote:
.... gas burning in calorimeter to determine actual
output/input.
[snip]
ERGO - there needs to be a totally accurate (bullet-proof) gas
burning calorimetry protocol out there to use as a yardstick,
correct ?
Recombiners have been used a lot in CF calorimetry. Try googling
hydrogen recombiner.
There is a neat write-up of experiences with recombiners at:
http://www.earthtech.org/experiments/Inc-W/Wreport.html
I especially enjoyed: "For Run 9 we added a flame arrestor between
the recombiner and the cell. This device consisted of a tight roll of
fine Cu screen stuffed tightly into a glass tube. The roll was about
8 cm long and was expected to cool the advancing flame front below
the ignition temperature thus extinguishing the flame."
"It didn't work! Run 9 exploded just like Run 8, again shattering the
glasswork, breaking the W rod, and generally irritating the
investigators."
It is also unfortunate that recombiners only work fully when the H
and O are in stoichiometric ratio. When CO or CO2 is produced, or
other product gasses, then you still have to handle the left over
gas, which could be explosive when mixed with oxygen.
I've often thought an inert atmosphere, like helium or argon,
directly above the electrolyte or water surface, plus a low current
HF HV spark, should do a pretty good job of recombining hydrogen and
oxygen from electrolysis, and it would not take so much power to do
that that calorimetry would be unfeasible.
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
