Hydrogen power

This forum is for comments and the exchange of information relating to Trojan Boats and boating. Please do not post used parts or boats For Sale in this area. For general, non-boating topics please use our "General Discussions" section.

Note: Negative or inflammatory postings will not be tolerated.

Moderators: BeaconMarineBob, Moderator, BeaconMarineDon

Post Reply
reelfishin
Moderate User
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:50 pm
Location: Hampton, Va.

Hydrogen power

Post by reelfishin »

A couple years ago we installed hydrogen power for our boat. It seemed to work pretty good at the time. Over time I found several things that I did not like about the installation and equipment.
One thing I found out the water reservori was not big enough for a days run. Not fun adding water when the water. It did produce hydrogen at a pretty good rate. The unit did get warm and did eventually leak some around the fittings on it. Just drips now and then. The unit needed to be redesigned in my opinion. I would like to see more space above the unit to let the water condesate and drip back into the unit. I wanted to do some modifications but we kept getting assurances that it was being redeveloped. So far nothing and I think the company went out of business.
We still are not sure it saved any money on fuel. It is obvious to me that injectors are going to put out a certain amount of fuel into the engine at a certain speed no matter what you do to the intake air. That is where the Hydrogen was added.
It probably did help some due to the fact that hydogen was added to the air going into the engine. Probably gave a little more power. Our concern is that the system is not developed enough to be viable to keep on the boat.
I will be removing it and hoping in the future someone can perfect it a lot more.
Just wanted you all to know where we stand on that issue since I had posted about it when we put it in.
Fishing Chesapeake Bay and Off Shore Virginia.
1988 11 meter Trojan International 450 HP 671TI Detroit Diesels
User avatar
prowlersfish
2024 Gold Support
2024 Gold Support
Posts: 12645
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2005 6:56 pm
Location: Lower Chesapeake Bay ,Va

Post by prowlersfish »

I have almost forgotten about it. I feel it has its merits but its note ready for practical use yet .
Boating is good for the soul
77/78 TROJAN F36 Conv.
6BTA Cummins diesels
Life is to short for a ugly boat :D
User avatar
Mike Kulp
Moderate User
Posts: 234
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 4:53 pm
Location: Upper Chesapeake Bay/Middle River
Contact:

Post by Mike Kulp »

I was contacted several years ago by a company that produced Hydrogen generators to become a dealer and install them in the automotive field. They sent lots of paper work backing there claims of fuel savings but when I called and talked to them they were hard pressed to justify the cost versus the savings. They also were injecting the hydrogen into the intake manifold after the Mass Air Flow sensor and there was no computor flash to account for the hydrogen so basicly you are displacing oxygen with hydrogen but no way to meter it other than you oxygen sensors. I had a friend with a shop that purchased a unit and installed it on his shop truck it lasted about a year and started leaking. I think eventually Hydrogen will be the answer to our fuel needs but it will be compressed and injected into the cylinders.
Mike 1986 10 Meter mid cabin
reelfishin
Moderate User
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:50 pm
Location: Hampton, Va.

Post by reelfishin »

That is what I am thinking. It will have to be compressed and injected to work correctly. If you are going to run on hydrogen then run on it and remove the other fuel.
I think GM is going to sell a car overseas that runs on water.
Fishing Chesapeake Bay and Off Shore Virginia.
1988 11 meter Trojan International 450 HP 671TI Detroit Diesels
sehord
Sporadic User
Posts: 158
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:25 pm
Location: Panama City, Florida
Contact:

Post by sehord »

I did a lot of research into this when gas first spiked ridiculously high years ago and actually built my own small generator for my vehicle and used it for some time. It's hard to tell a true difference on a car...I did have someone with diesel boat (mine is gasoline) that could not confirm that he actually saved fuel, but did say that his exhaust did not smell anymore and he could have his passengers fish off the back without getting complaints about the exhaust.... The concept is something definitely worth looking into. The benefit of replacing air with a hydrogen mix is that it is flammable, and therefore yes your fuel will remain the same at a given throttle setting, however your throttle setting should be less for the same RPM output if effective. A boat is a perfect test platform......My theory is this.... run your boat a a set RPM and note on your fuel meter how many GPH you are burning. Note RPM and GPH. Then turn on the hydrogen generator. If it is truly effective, then your RPMS should increase and your GPH should remain the same as you have not altered your fuel flow. To determine how effective it is, reduce your throttles to bring the engines back down to the original RPMs noted and note the difference in you GPH. There is the savings (if any). With carborated engines as are mine, I would love to see if I could get on the edge of the 4 barrells opening up and remain on 2, which is a large fuel savings. So, the hydrogen wouldn't save that much in reality, however if able to give the bump to make a good planing speed and not have other two barrels open up would be huge.
A ship in a harbor is safe.... But that's not what ships were built for
reelfishin
Moderate User
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:50 pm
Location: Hampton, Va.

Post by reelfishin »

I do believe that the hydrogen did help clean the engine. I think it would be a viable system if it was a large enough unit and designed correctly. Ours was not big enough and I did not like the idea of thewater vapor getting to the engine if it did. I think there still is a lot to research on it. I think if our tank was bigger and it was set lower than the engines with baffles or a way to cool the water out of the hydrogen I think it would be a great system. I don't think it would take much to get the water out but that should be considered in the design of the tank. We could do it and I might bring the unit home and redesign it to work better. I wanted to do it on the boat but we kept waiting for the company to do it and they never did.
I like the idea of it keeping our engines cleaner.
Fishing Chesapeake Bay and Off Shore Virginia.
1988 11 meter Trojan International 450 HP 671TI Detroit Diesels
sehord
Sporadic User
Posts: 158
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:25 pm
Location: Panama City, Florida
Contact:

Post by sehord »

Do you remember how much you paid for that set up and do you have any idea of how much hydrogen that you could produce with it?
A ship in a harbor is safe.... But that's not what ships were built for
rossjo
Ultimate User
Posts: 2799
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:48 pm
Location: Charleston, SC
Contact:

Post by rossjo »

Still a ways off ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb7vhHKa ... re=related

But there seems to be some hope, as there are Hydrogen power cars, but Generating the hydrogen on-board is another story ...

Most system simply supplement the gas, as they are unable to make enough Hydrogen to run the vehicle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsvpV5-4 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1scZ9rMyJek (I think I'd use a plastic bottle myself).

In the mean time, we should use Natural Gas, which we have an abundance of. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOpjphJ_t_I

For me, I'm not sure I'd want Hydrogen gas on my boat anyway - the gas' small molecular size makes it easier to leak, and explosions are frequent. At least with a car, the fumes go out the bottom ... I'll stick with diesel.
Captain Ross, 2009 Trojan Boater of the Year
"Viva Mahia" F32 Cummins 6BTA diesels,
"Mack Attack" Chaparral 244 Fish, SeaPro 180, McKee 14, Montauk-17
Image
reelfishin
Moderate User
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:50 pm
Location: Hampton, Va.

Post by reelfishin »

I really don't know how much hydrogen it produced. We would go through about a gallon of water in 4 hours or less. One must remember with all that bubbling that moisture had to be moved up into the house. Unless it drips back down into the unit it will go to the discharge and then drip into the bildge or vapor into the engine. I think the cost was around 3500 dollars for both engines or total of 3500 dollars. They did give good service and did put it in with a professional touch. I just don't think it was big enough and it was not developed enough.
Fishing Chesapeake Bay and Off Shore Virginia.
1988 11 meter Trojan International 450 HP 671TI Detroit Diesels
Post Reply