Active cooling

[tectron1]

Hi, I'm new here and just wanted to post my observation.

I haven't seen an active cooling setup used yet after several hours of browsing you tube, and I searched this forum for cooling but didn't get any results. It seems that heat is an major factor in creating lots of gas, so i was thinking why not set up an active cooling setup using a small pump(a water cooling pump for pc's would work), a tranny/ps cooler(salvage yards are full of them) and a resevoir made out of some pvc pipe and a couple dome caps with the in/out at the top cap and a drain valve at the bottom to drain sludge buildup(it would double as a sediment trap. Basically like this


Reactor>resevoir/trap>cooling radiator behind grill>reactor

It would serve 2 purposes, cooling obviously, but also the reactor elements would last longer because they would always have a fresh flow of cool water that would flush away contaminates caused from the reaction process.

Just some food for thought.


Steve

[ENURO12]

Food For thought. If you have done much with electrolysis or pc water cooling you will know that using 2 unlike metals in a active cooling system create a huge corrosion problem.

The only thing that i'm saying is anyone considering doing this needs to use a Stainless Steel radiator (which i doubt would be cheap if you COULD find one) or plastic. Of course plastic would work fine and are readily available.

Cheers

[Getreal17]

Here's a couple of ideas:

1) Use a Pulse Width Modulator (PWM) that should greatly reduced heat because the current is fired in pulses and is not continuous.

2) I've thought about running a tube out the side of my cell and mechanically attaching aluminum cooling fins on the outside of the tube (as a heat sync) and using a little pump (like an aquarium pump) to move water through the tube and having the cooling fins cooled by a small fan (like from a PC).

Just an idea...

[h-power]

My design has a water pump and radiator to disapate heat build up. I tried running without it at first but it overheated after a hour. With my cooling system it runs all day long no worries.

[gasmakr]

I'm also trying a similar setup with a washer fluid pump and and resevoir with a plastic trans cooler from a minivan from the junkyard. setting it up to run off of electrolyte temp.

[Stratous]

I used a washer fluid pump, it burned up very quickly. They are not intended to run for long periods of time. Instead try a fuel pump.

[gasmakr]

I used a washer fluid pump, it burned up very quickly. They are not intended to run for long periods of time. Instead try a fuel pump.

I will half to try that when this one burns up i noticed it gets hot during heavy use but it's still goin.

[3blonds]

I'm doing this now, I use a 12v water pump designed for water falls in landscaping, purchased from EBay for 10 dollars. My cell is a six plate 3.5" X 7" mounted in 4" pvc, 2 feet tall, my circulation reservoir is also 4" pvc 2 feet in the horizontal position, my input and output are on opposite ends of the pipe to allow for more circulation. Everything is mounted in the grill area in front of my radiators on my 99 Ford F150. The air movement I get while driving keeps things cool and the reservoir helps as well. I recently made a 200 mile trip and the unit stayed around 120 degrees (laser thermometer). Before hooking up my generator and my effie, I got around 17mpg on the highway, now I get around 27 mpg. The key to my success is my scanguage and the ability to fine tune my MAF and my two O2 sensors, without the scangauge I was guessing at everything, best money I spent so far..

[Ronjinsan]

Hi, I would be curious to know how your car would perform heatwise in heavy traffic on a hot day? Do you think it would cope OK. Thats the sort of conditions I have to drive in, long drives with cool air through the cell,are rare for me so my thermal efficiency has to be pretty reliable. I bought an electric fuel pump yesterday which I am going to run through a reservoir and coiled copper pipe, as the new 9 plate cell I made last week is running quite hot. I have cut the electrolyte content at the moment until I solve the cooling! All the best.

[Stratous]

When I first set up my sysem, I used a small transmission radiator and a fuel pump to move the electrolyte. The problem I ran into was the lye ate through the aluminum of the radiator. I haven tried with baking soda, but assume since its much less corrosive that it would work. Has anyone tried running sodium hydroxide, "AKA LYE" and baking soda to see if the sytems works as good? Rumor has it that sodium hydroxide produces more gas per amp. Is this true?