From: Marty Galyean (marty@heavyreckoning.com)
Date: Wed May 17 2006 - 04:14:11 PDT
Chris Brunner wrote:
> Funny enough that this would come up now, MythBusters just did an
> episode on fuel saving devices, and they checked the electrolysis
> idea. They came to the conclusion that the quantity of power required
> to create electrolysis of the quantity to make a difference would draw
> more from the engine than it could produce on the fuel. Although they
> did get a car to run off of a Hydrogen mix injected into the carb from
> a standing tank at high flow.
>
They are right that there is no "free" energy from the hydrogen process.
Consider that both superchargers and turbochargers increase fuel
efficiency (if you can keep your foot out of it!) even though they
parasite off the engine. This is because they raise volumetric efficiency.
As I posted, the gain is only about 10%.
I didn't see that Mythbusters episode, but something tells me their math
is off, and if they are only considering the energy in the hydrogen,
they are correct. But the process works (barely) by making the engine
more efficient, not directly because of a direct sum of the energy of
the hydrogen and liquid fuel. It is common knowledge that a
supercharger increases MPG is driving style stays the same.
Marty
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