Well, today is the day.  I finally finished the sealing project and things look really good.  As mentioned before, pressurizing the system is not going to be possible due to the flexing of the plexy glass but bubble tests and volume tests should be just fine.  At first I thought I still had a problem with it leaking but later realized that the hose was full of water so I’d get one huge series of bubbles and then nothing for another couple minutes while it pushed all the water back out of the test.  I then built a water bottle to view the bubbles in and it worked much better.

1 minute bubble test was not possible to get.  I even tried to video tape and then slow down to try to count bubbles but they went by too quickly to capture between frames.  Also, after playing around I’ve yielded the bubble count idea useless due to the fact that the size of your hose, depth inside water vessel and so on, all determine how many and how quickly bubbles come out of the tube.

So the next thing I did was setup a volume test.  The test consists of a bottle marked off in 100mL increments and then filled with water.  As the gas is pushed into the vessel and the water removed I time it.  I start at the 100mL line and count off to the 200mL line.  Then again between 200 and 300 to make sure we are consistent.  Each test was run 4 times a piece and almost within the second results were recorded.  Oh, the results…  47 sec for 100mL of gas.  And it makes no difference whether the anode is inside or outside for the electrodes.  Exact same measurements were taken both ways.  We were running 6.23A and 12.4V.  When testing the 5 plate design we got 100mL in 1min and 40 seconds and pulled 2.32A and 12.4V.

A FEW INTERESTING FACTS:

Looking at the math from the other day that I posted, we calculated the differences between the 2 designs in order to try to determine which is performing the best, given its current surface area/amperage combinations.

Here’s the math:
  Tube Design:
    100mL Gas / 47 seconds = 2.13mL/sec
    2.13mL/sec * 60 seconds = 127.66mL/min
    127.66mL/min * 60 minutes = 7659.58mL/Hr
    6.23 Amps * 12.4 Volts = 77.252Watts/Hr
    7659.58mL/Hr / 77.252Watts/Hr = 99.15mL/Watt/Hr

  5 Plate Design:
    1 minute 40 seconds = 100 seconds
    100mL Gas / 100 seconds = 1mL/sec
    1mL/sec * 60 seconds = 60mL/min
    127.66mL/min * 60 minutes = 3600mL/Hr
    2.32 Amps * 12.4 Volts = 28.768Watts/Hr
    3600mL/Hr / 28.768Watts/Hr = 125.14mL/Watt/Hr

So the plate design appears to be 26% more efficient than the tube design at this point.

Now for all the video footage…

Test-039: This video clip shows side by side comparisons of the anode and cathodes being switched from inside to outside.  Also shows the cell from the top and side views during each test to show what is going on.

After doing the above tests it appears that the anode being inside does in fact yield the best results.  At first it appears the anode on the outside works better, but after time the other scenario yields more bubbles where the anode on the outside just stays the same over time.

Test-041: Here are anode inside and outside Top View results after 10 minutes.

Test-042: Explosion Test for you junkies…

Test-040: This test shows our 5 plate unit running.  While its output is less than the cell, you’ll notice the bubbles coming out are a lot faster.  I am at this point thinking that the flat cell may very well out perform the pipe design in side by side comparisons but we’ll have to wait until I finish the 12 plate layout required to get us the same surface area of the pipes. 

Test-043: This test shows what the cell does when it has less water over the top of the pipes/plates.  It appears that it actually creates less gas in this configuration as it generates  bubbles at the same level within the water.  Less water, less bubbles… Need to do gas volume tests to see for sure.

Test-044: This test shows the cell configured and capped and ready for its first real measurement run.  Also tried to explain an earlier comment about the electrodes themselves appearing to be making hydrogen.

Test-045: This test shows the discoloration in the water and how it sits on top of the cell and works its way down.  So whatever it is seems to float.

–glenn hancock