An opinion please

[dg2010]

I have come across another design which I would welcome an opinion on. There is a video here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSzC2fA39GY

It does strike me that the top half is out of the water and not producing gas, but perhaps that is the downside of sealing the edges.

Would it be better if somehow the gas could be taken off the top?

[fastcompacts]

Hey i dunno if you posted the right movie but all it is showing is the bubbler in action. No cell is shown.

[lhazleton]

Yup, fastcompacts is right. It's just the bubbler.

[dg2010]

Sorry about. Here is the correct one. The bubbler does belong to it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi-rEwExz0M

[hhoconnection]

Looks like a regular old dry cell with a couple of fans bolted to the top, nothing new really.

[lhazleton]

That's all it is.....a plain old drycell reactor. The fans on top do nothing but look stupid. If a reactor needs to be cooled, it's built wrong. A couple of fans from a PC's power supply won't do a thing.

[dg2010]

Thanks for looking

The reason for the fans is that the plates are extended outside the cell so blowing air over them cools them.

However that is not the point that concerned me. He is drawing off the gas just over half way up and looking at the cell the top part does not seem to be in the electrolyte. Is this common to all dry cell designs or is it better to compromise the plate sealing to create more space at the top so that the plates are fully immersed.

It also strikes me that the gas has to migrate horizontally across the plates rather than being allowed to travel vertically. Surely in the former gas will be trapped for a period between the plates.

[lhazleton]

Like I said, if a reactor needs to be cooled, it's built wrong.
If the plates remain totally immersed in the e/lyte, it will produce better.
Any plate area that's not in contact with solution is not producing. Total cell immersion is hard to achieve. Back pressure from the gas will try to force the e/lyte out of the reactor and back into the reservoir. This is a common problem and there are as many ways to correct it as there are experimenters.
As far as compromising the plate sealing, I have no idea what you mean.

[dg2010]

Like I said, if a reactor needs to be cooled, it's built wrong.
If the plates remain totally immersed in the e/lyte, it will produce better.
Any plate area that's not in contact with solution is not producing. Total cell immersion is hard to achieve. Back pressure from the gas will try to force the e/lyte out of the reactor and back into the reservoir. This is a common problem and there are as many ways to correct it as there are experimenters.
As far as compromising the plate sealing, I have no idea what you mean.

Thanks for your reply.

As regards your last paragraph. I was assuming that the plates are sealed all the way around, but if you did not completely seal the top of the plates and increased the height of the cell over the plates so that more electrolyte could be put in. This would also allow the gas to migrate more easily to the top of the cell for collection, or would just allow too much leakage between the plates.