David has requested that I respond to some questions which have been asked.
The questions I will address is system efficiency, cost of generation, and conservation of energy (first and second law of thermodynamics).
First in any thermodynamics (mechanical) system there are processes energy losses
This gives a very simple efficiency equation;
From the first law of thermodynamics, the energy output can't exceed the input, so
At this point we may asked how are we generating hydrogen/oxygen in an engine then burning it and claiming a 15% increase in efficiency? Does this violate the laws of thermodynamics?
There are three reasons for this increase in efficiency for gas/diesel motors. Improvement in the Carnot cycle efficiency, second increase in combustion efficiency and third the generator to make the hydrogen/oxygen is free or at a very low cost. I will try to do a quick engineering review as to why HydroFuture knows this to be the case.
Carnot Efficiency
The second law of thermodynamics puts a fundamental limit on the thermal efficiency of all heat engines. Surprisingly, even an ideal, frictionless engine can't convert anywhere near 100% of its input heat into work. The limiting factors are the temperature at which the heat enters the engine, Th , and the temperature of the environment into which the engine exhausts its waste heat,Tc , measured in an absolute scale, such as the Kelvin or Rankine scale. From Carnot's theorem, for any engine working between these two temperatures.
This limiting value is called the Carnot cycle efficiency because it is the efficiency of an unattainable, ideal, reversible engine cycle called the Carnot cycle. No device converting heat into mechanical energy, regardless of its construction, can exceed this efficiency.
Examples of Th are the temperature of hot steam entering the turbine of a steam power plant, or the temperature at which the fuel burns in an internal combustion engine. Tc is usually the ambient temperature where the engine is located, or the temperature of a lake or river that waste heat is discharged into. For example, if an automobile engine burns gasoline at a temperature of Th = 1500 F = 1089 K and the ambient temperature is Tc = 79 F - 294 K , then its maximum possible efficiency is:
Due to the other causes detailed below, practical engines have efficiencies far below the Carnot limit; for example the average automobile engine is less than 35% efficient and diesel only a little higher. The temperature of combustion of hydrogen is far higher that gas or diesel. By adding a little hydrogen in the combustion cycle will have the effect of rising Th . Also the adding of more oxygen will increase the burn temperature of the Carnot cycle. The best example of this is the Russian heavy lift space vehicle which burn diesel and pure oxygen. If this same vehicle used just air it would not have the lift to get off the ground. Note that the BTU’s for diesel is not changed just the efficiency of the burn. A small temperature change of 50 degrees will increase efficiency by at lease 3%.
2. Increase Combustion Efficiency
The above efficiency formulas are based on simple idealized mathematical models of engines, with no friction and working fluids that obey simple thermodynamic rules called the
ideal gas law. Real engines have many departures from ideal behavior that waste energy, reducing actual efficiencies far below the theoretical values given above. Examples are:
friction of moving parts
inefficient combustion
heat loss from the combustion chamber
departure of the working fluid from the thermodynamic properties of an ideal gas
aerodynamic drag of air moving through the engine
energy used by auxiliary equipment like alternators, oil and water pumps
inefficient compressors and turbines
imperfect valve timing
Another source of inefficiency is that engines must be optimized for other goals besides efficiency, such as low pollution. The requirements for vehicle engines are particularly stringent: they must be designed for low emissions. The average automobile engine is only about 35% efficient, and must also be kept idling at stoplights, wasting an additional 17% of the energy, resulting in an overall efficiency of 18%.
HydroFuture’s system will affect three of the above, the efficiency of combustion, pollution and emission. An internal combustion engine, the temperature of the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder is nowhere near its peak temperature as the fuel starts to burn, and only reaches the peak temperature as all the fuel is consumed, so the average temperature at which heat is added is lower, reducing efficiency. Hydrogen has a combustion rate much faster than gas/diesel. The adding a very small amount of hydrogen/oxygen to the combustion cycle will improve the rate of combustion and increase the efficiency of the combustion cycle. This is common technology, gas /diesel has many types of additives that do not change the BTU’s of the fuels, but improves combustion only. By having a higher Th and a more complete even burn rate during the combustion cycle, both pollution and emissions will be greatly reduced.
3. Cost of Production of Hydrogen/Oxygen
The electrical power to the HydroFuture generator is supplied by an alternator on the engine which is using the OxyHydrogen. Alternators, generators and transformers all have very high thermal efficiency. The running of the alternator on the vehicle is a requirement to supply electrical energy to the vehicle. Therefore the cost associated with supplying our generator will be the added drag on the alternator to supply this power. The added cost of this should be very small and could be zero at times in its duty cycle depending on how much power the vehicle is need and using. At this time we have not done the bench work to quantify how small this is. We have done an internet search to confirm our position. Presently we have test data that the cost is insignificant as compared to the benefit of our system.
I believe that the above answers the question on how our system is not breaking any engineering principals, and capable of getting 15% plus increase in efficiency. I would like to point out that the present system is only using a small percentage of the OxyHydrogen it can
produce. HydroFuture is presently working on a design that will inject directly into the cylinder. Our goal by doing this is to increase efficiency another 15-30%.
Gordon Hendrickson
HydroFuture