Homemade Hydrogen -- Hydrogen Generator

Being somewhat of a nerd at heart, homemade hydrogen using a personal hydrogen generator just sounds nifty, doesn't it? Homemade things are always fun, and homemade things that are both useful and explosive, like homemade hydrogen, are definitely a nerd's paradise. But what are the real benefits to using a hydrogen generator to make homemade hydrogen? Depending on how much effort you're willing to expend, homemade hydrogen can be used for a wide variety of things, like boosting the efficiency of cars and to power home appliances. All one needs is a homemade hydrogen generator and a storage device, or on demand system for making hydrogen as needed.

A hydrogen generator, like the one pictured below if you're not familiar with the term, is a simple apparatus that generates hydrogen from pure water through a process called electrolysis for home use. They're generally pretty cheap and effective and manufacture hydrogen easily from distilled water. The downfall is that homemade hydrogen is difficult to store for use, so unless you have a system for making hydrogen on demand, you'll have a slight problem.

Did you know that homemade hydrogen can be used as a fuel additive to enhance and boost the combustive properties of other fuels? Even in very small quantities it can increase fuel mileage on a vehicle, which is definitely of use in our current economy. It works with propane, natural gas, regular gasoline, and diesel, bringing noticeable improvements to the motor output of the vehicle.

But because homemade hydrogen is very difficult to store, the only time it's really effective is to have a system that creates the hydrogen on demand. The video to the right is a youtube explanation of an on demand system for homemade hydrogen for automotive use. It's pretty cool.

Homemade hydrogen is an excellent fuel. The video above showed an example of a homemade system that generates homemade hydrogen on demand for the use in boosting the fuel efficiency of an engine. But there are other methods of hydrogen production that exist for automotive use that are very inexpensive and not too difficult to install.

Hydrogen devices called electronic fuel injection enhancers (EFIE) exist that can be hooked up to an engine to produce hydroxy cas an introduce it into the fuel mixture already being drawn into the engine. As a result, the mix of air/hydroxy gas causes greater ignition and burns much better. This gives higher fuel efficiency and in some cases can actually cause the exhaust coming out of the engine to be more oxygen rich, aka cleaner, taking away the need for a catalytic converter. The electricity needed for the electrolysis is drawn off of the car's alternator to create what's called HHO, or oxyhydrogen, or hydroxy gas. This is a process that can actually be done yourself and there are many sources that have guides for making HHO and converting your car into a hybrid. Though I haven't done the process myself, with new plans claiming to do the whole process for less than $100, it's starting to sound pretty inticing. Before, the process of creating and adding HHO, and reformatting the fuel mixture ratios was always an expensive professional service. Now, apparently, we can do it ourselves. Here's to saving money and fuel!

Lets talk a little bit more about hydrogen generators for household use. Hydrogen generators come in many different kinds and use different methods and chemical solutions for hydrogen development. Some generators are for cars, some for industrial, some for medical, and some are for home use. Some generators create ultra high purity H2 from distilled or deionized liquid water, while other hydrogen generators extract the hydrogen from hydrogen rich chemicals. Hydrogen generators that make homemade hydrogen generally run from a process called electrolysis, where pure water is electrified, causing a reaction and splitting its molecules into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). I've searched the views of many people and simple hydrogen generators which use electrolysis are a definite favorite.

Electrolysis is a very simple process. All a person has to do is suspend two electrified wires (one positive, one negative) in water, and after a short while, gas bubbles will begin to form on each of the wires. Go here for a more in depth online plan of how to build your own hydrogen generator. Having a good plan to go off of is definitely better than just putting some live wires into a glass of water to see what happens. The plans generally use easy to follow instructions and designs, and common materials to build your own device. With the right hydrogen generator, you can generate enough homemade hydrogen to run many systems in your home, including your stove, your water heater, and a regular generator. Testing and research have shown that highly purified hydrogen is a very good source of fuel.