Shim cell design - take a look

[Shane Jackson]

Ok guys here is the design I spent a ton of time and money working on:




(one note, the white shims are only shown to show detail that will not show up in a picture of a black shim. Also they look a little warped but that is due to the fact they are a soft flexible material used for an experiment production shims are hard plastic)

As you can see the design is actually very simple but very effective at limiting current leakage. By eliminating the holes in the plate that are exposed to solution, current leakage is significantly reduced. Is it totally eliminated? NO. The channels still provide a path for current leakage to take place but increases the distance (resistance).

My goal with this design was to make something that would be very efficient but relatively inexpensive to build. As such I will be offering the parts for sale for the following prices:

Shims $3each
Gaskets $3.50each
Power plates $4.50each
Plates $4each
Endplates $15each

That would put the price of a 7 plate cell at:
Shims $3 x 7
Gaskets $3.50 x 8
Power plate $4.50 x 2
Plates $4 x 5
Endplates $15 x 2
Total $108 + shipping and the cost of hardware.

As for MMW, let's say a conservative 5.5. I am not a big fan of advertising MMW's as everyone will measure differently.

If anyone is interested in some PM me.

Shane

[reggaerican]

thats interesting looking Shane
I would love to see one assembled and bench tested

[Darrell]

Shane If I wanted to buy enough materials to build a 13 plate setup, is there a way to make a solid shim for the center plate to devide the 2 cell groups? Also wondering will there be a couple differnt size plates or kits?

Let me know. Thanks "D"

[Shane Jackson]

You could but it would be more trouble than it would be worth. As for more sizes, I will make any size you would like.... the mold just cost a couple $1k..... LOL yea no joke. I spent a lot having these made....

I will do a video when I get time.

Shane

[hhofox]

Hey Shane, great job man! I instantly understood how the shims worked when I looked a them because I came up with the same idea in 2011. That was back when I was working with 4" washers as my only source of stainless steel. I planned to plug the center hole of the washers and use rubber gaskets as my cut-outs/holders.
Actually, I still have the parts sitting there, but I never assembled them because I found a new source of stainless steel which has been working well for me ever since then.
It's good to see the plan being funded and materializing in this manner. All the best with the setup.

[reggaerican]

Ok so I saw it assembled in your other thread, she is a beauty,,

[Motocross]

Shane,

Great design. I just started a few months ago and figured out pretty quickly that holes in the plates exposed to the electrolyte really made the cell in-efficient. I built one with external supply for electrolyte and gas out put for each cell and got some great efficiency. However, it leaks and is not a good practical design. I really like what you have done.

With a 7 plate design, each plate having 3" diameter of useable surface area I was able to achieve an efficiency of 2.493 Watts per Liter per Hour and a gas production rate of 0.532 Liters per Minute (13.27 volts, 6 amps)

With a 13 plate design, each plate having 3" diameter of useable surface area I was able to achieve an efficiency of 2.240 Watts per Liter per Hour and a gas production rate of 1.18 Liters per Minute (13.23 volts, 12 amps)

At these voltage levels and current draw there is very little heating at all.

Anyway to get to the point. I think it would be worth the effort to be able to stack a series of 7 plate cells. My data is showing that there is more efficiency in doing so and the gas production is higher as well. I was really surprised by this.

cheers,
Greg

[Stevo]

Fcking BRAVO, Shane! Nice job is an understatement for sure! I'm still loving that green PWM you built and you can bet I'll be hitting you up for this as well.

For anyone that has been living under a rock; this guy is a rock star ^

[RustyLugNut]

Shane,

Great design. I just started a few months ago and figured out pretty quickly that holes in the plates exposed to the electrolyte really made the cell in-efficient. I built one with external supply for electrolyte and gas out put for each cell and got some great efficiency. However, it leaks and is not a good practical design. I really like what you have done.

With a 7 plate design, each plate having 3" diameter of useable surface area I was able to achieve an efficiency of 2.493 Watts per Liter per Hour and a gas production rate of 0.532 Liters per Minute (13.27 volts, 6 amps)

With a 13 plate design, each plate having 3" diameter of useable surface area I was able to achieve an efficiency of 2.240 Watts per Liter per Hour and a gas production rate of 1.18 Liters per Minute (13.23 volts, 12 amps)

At these voltage levels and current draw there is very little heating at all.

Anyway to get to the point. I think it would be worth the effort to be able to stack a series of 7 plate cells. My data is showing that there is more efficiency in doing so and the gas production is higher as well. I was really surprised by this.

cheers,
Greg

And good observation. Try to flesh out your work to the point more people can reproduce and verify your results.

[Motocross]

And good observation. Try to flesh out your work to the point more people can reproduce and verify your results.

Thanks for the feedback Rusty.

I bought one of the 4 inch designs like the one shown here. http://www.hho2u.com/HHO_DRY_CELL.html

Being that I enjoy tinkering I took it apart and experimented.

The last build I did was with 3" diameter o-rings 3/16" thick. All the plates were replaced with solid (i.e. no holes to flow electrolyte) 316L SS. In order to get the electrolyte into each cell I took the ink reservoir (will call it "straw" from now on) from a cheap ball point pen and stuck it through the O-ring on each cell towards the bottom to deliver the electrolyte. Similarly I stuck another one at the top to allow the generated gas to flow out. This forced most of the current to go through the solid plates and created a high resistive path that goes through the staw where the electrolyte is delivered over to the next cell(s) via a common 5/8" diameter tube. I got similar results regardless if this path was 6 inches or 18 inches between cells. I did this for each cell in the 7 plate and 13 plate unit and ran several tests at different voltage/current levels and measured the temp of the cell as well as the gas output. I got some really great results as shown earlier. This was good for a bench setup, but it would not work very well if I were to install this in a car or truck as this unit has a tendency to leak with very little provocation. When I saw Shane's design I was like "cool" he just saved me a bunch of work that I have validated is a pretty awesome design.

I should also mention that I started with a two plate configuration and turned up the voltage slowly until I saw the amp draw jump, and it did jump from a few tenths of amps to 6 amps as soon as I hit 2.2 volts. I guess this is the magic voltage for 316L SS.

At this voltage and current draw there was virtually no heat generated and this held true for the 7 & 13 plate configuration as well for an input voltage of 13.2v (2.2v * 6 = 13.2v). It always stayed under 100 degrees F.

I will try to post a picture later. Hope this was informative.

Cheers,
Greg