Water Everywhere

I haven’t written much about my hydrogen cell research lately, because there hasn’t been much research to write about!  However, the man I work for has allowed me to build a unit to install and test on the truck I am driving, a 2007 Freightliner with a 9.5L Mercedes engine.

This should prove interesting.

It’s not that I need to learn more about building cells, at least at this moment, after all, seperating hydrogen from water is a relatively easy concept to learn.  No, the challenge lies in delivering the hydrogen gas to the combustion chamber and seeing an increase in fuel mileage.

There is no doubt that it works in an engine.  The many tests I did, and the cells I built over the last year all produced horsepower gains in the 4.2L V6 I was working with.  The problem lies in modern electronic engine controls.  ECU’s were first introduced to American Cars and Trucks in 1993, but the year 1996 saw an “improved” version.  This latest version, the OBDll, is programmed in such a way that makes it very difficult to work with.  Any slight variation in sensor readings immediately sets it to ‘default’ mode, which is a very rich mixture, usually around 16:1.

There are, of course, ways to offset this, but so far, in spitet of all the methods I have tried, the Ford stubbornly refuses to get more than 16-18 mpg, no matter how much hydrogen it is using.

So of course, after my frustration index redlined enough times, I put it aside for a while.

Truck Diesel engines are another matter.  I have heard several reports of significant mileage gains using HHO, or hdrogen fuel.  (In the trucking industry, 1/2mpg is significant)

Wish me luck!