We’ve all heard the big dream of water-powered cars, especially with gas prices creeping higher and higher. Today my father-in-law sent me a video about a guy who built a welder powered by water, then rigged his car up to run on the same gas. You can find the video and the concept here.
The gas is has several names, such as HHO, Brown’s Gas, Rhode’s Gas, and more. They all seem to refer to the same thing - the electrolysis of water. To paraphrase the linked site, this stuff implodes rather than explodes, so is much safer to use. Its burn temperature is related to whatever it’s burning; the guy above held his hand in front of the flame without effect, then burned a hole through a fire brick and melted metals.
He’s patented his process and calls it Aquygen.
So why haven’t we heard more about this? My guess is it’s still not cost-effective enough to make it practical. You still need electricity to separate the hydrogen and oxygen and recombine them, creating a sort of paradox. And they don’t say how much energy is required, though I did find this site which does.
Given the rise in energy costs, especially in fossil fuels and oil/gasoline, I wonder if the process will become more effective. The cost of the energy to keep the process going would not have to fall as fast if the cost of current methods continue to rise to meet it.
Related advances may make it easier, too. There are new batteries in the works that pack twice the power of current lithium ion batteries and they charge in a fraction of the time. Check out the article here — not the one I read a while back, but it looks like the same tech.
I wonder if the technologies could be combined in a car? Yeah, you’d probably have to charge the batteries off the grid, but at least you could run the car on water and have clean emissions. (Unless these batteries can take better advantage of solar energy… No idea how that relates. I’m not a physicist by any stretch.)
Of course, this is all pure speculation. For all we know the company is charging a small fortune to license the technology, making it even tougher to bring the costs down. Throw in conspiracy theories and Big Oil lobbyists and this stuff could get buried but good.
We’re just going to have to wait it out and see what happens.
on May 12th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
I’ve been looking for the “39 patents” claimed by HyTech for this Aquygen gas creation process without result so far on the USPTO webpage. Tried this yet? Had any results? Searching by “Denny Klein” or “Aquygen” produces nothing.
on May 13th, 2006 at 10:59 am
I’ve only done peripheral Google searches so far. My gut was this is too good to be true after the lack of any real coverage (as in national news), but if there are no patents on file, then I’m betting this is a lot of smoke and mirrors in an attempt to get some funding (or worse, to scam some folks).
on May 13th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Looks like Boing Boing picked up the story as well. The have a link to a forum with a lot of links and other info, mostly debunking the process and calling the Klein piece a scam.
We see him burning metal in the video, though. I wonder what that’s about. Maybe he’s got a couple of different gas bottles in the little generator there and he’s switching between them? That or maybe it’s as simple as it’s sucking up a lot more juice for the electrolysis than it’s giving off as heat…
I guess it boils down to if this were the real deal, we’d be using it by now, at least in limited production if not in everyone’s house yet.
on May 13th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
The following URL is to a page criticising the claims made by proponents of brown’s gas.. ( one of the names mentioned )
http://www.phact.org/e/bgas.htm
Brown’s Gas has been around for a long time and is used by con artists regularly to convince fools with money to part with same…
Believe at your own peril..
on May 13th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Thanks for the link, K.E. Lots of info there.
on May 15th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
The question is, where does the extra energy come from? Not from matter in a nuclear reaction, so must be from some other cheaper form than gasoline. It sounds like one of those ever more efficient engines where the engine turns the generator and the generator forms the hydrogen, and the car runs off from the hydrogen. Somehow all those transformations running at 100+% efficiency.
on May 18th, 2006 at 9:46 am
This guy (Klein) looks familiar to me. I think he might be the same guy who was trying to sell ‘dope detectors’ to Law Enforcement agencies in the 80s. If it is the same guy I can guarantee this is a scam.
on May 23rd, 2006 at 7:57 pm
NOT TRUE(Klein) OR NOT FALSE(people thats says SCAM) = TRUE(Klein)
TRUE(Klein) OR FALSE(people thats says SCAM) = TRUE(Klein)
Be careful, this guy is protected by logic …
on May 27th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
I agree that hydrogen fuel has a long way to go before we can call it an efficient energy source. It takes energy to make energy (unless we are talking about solar power or wind power, which are obviously not good energy sources for vehicles.
on May 30th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
I was able to locate links to the trade mark applications. I will see if I can find the patent applications as well and post them to the site.
Take a look: http://aquygen.blogspot.com/
my site has all the local video from the small news stations. CNN also ran a story on this. If you type fuel claim in the video browser at CNN, it should give you access to the story they ran.
on May 30th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
[...] A comment appeared on my Brown’s Gas/Aquygen blog entry with a link back to a blog dedicated to HHO Gas. Those of you who have been following the subsequent comments on that entry may went to check out this blog, as the writer’s found some good info and there are links to both pro and con materials. He also found the patent application for Aquygen. [...]
on Jun 8th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Three other companies working with HHO (Brown’s Gas)
http://www.waterfuelconverters.com
http://www.savefuel.ca
http://www.hydrogen-boost.com
on Jun 28th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Of course it is a scam. His website sells the device, but only takes cash and checks. No credit cards.
on Sep 11th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
[...] from the salt water, then simply uses a spark to ignite the hydrogen. It reminds me somewhat of the Brown’s Gas energy debate, but this guy is using RF energy, not electrolysis, to release the hydrogen. The excitement for [...]
on Apr 17th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Ok, first off it’s obvious that the 14 of you that “researched” HHO gas, actually didn’t.
Actual Research Below:
Please don’t take my word for it; I do not pretend to be the authority on this. Listed below you’ll find not only US Patents but international Patents too. Please visit Dennis Klein business website then look up the US and International Patents; for your convenience I’ve linked the US Patent site and the WIPO stie, along with their corresponding Patent #s. Also, after which you will find direct links the 4 not “39″ patents obtained or applied for by Dennis Klein.
Dennis Klein’s website;
http://hytechapps.com
US Patent Site:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm
US Patent #s:
USP # 6,866,756
USP # 6,689,295
USP Appln # 2006032555
World Intellectual Property Organization Site:
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/
WIPO Patent #s:
WO2005/121412
Direct Links:
http://www.rexresearch.com/klein/us6689259.pdf
http://www.rexresearch.com/klein/us6866756.pdf
http://www.rexresearch.com/klein/us2006032555.pdf
http://www.rexresearch.com/klein/wo2005121412.pdf
on Apr 26th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Thank you for the research on the patents. I found most of the information on my own. I do agree with your observation about the 14 ID10Ts absence of meningful information in there posts.
on Apr 26th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Last point. Unlike the issues surrounding the fueling of hydrogen fuel cell cars in California (i.e. specialized fuleing stations), most gas stations in the world have a water supple. So, wouldn’t filling a car up with water reduce our need for transporting energy around. The water comes in on the municipal pipelines. On BNN the other day, the most recent consumption of energy is in the transportation of energy. I’m referring to transportation of diesel and gasoline to public fueling stations.
This technology is not rocket science and the risk of explosion is dramatically reduced with hydrogen produced on demand at the point of use -> as opposed to storing hydrogen in a tank under 1000 psi.
on May 12th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Look at the developers of a compay called hydro 4000, in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. You will find David there. This is very intresting. I have ordered a unit for testing in my organization.
on May 22nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Since my first exposure to HHO possibilities just a few days ago, I am trying not to dream too much. The beauty and common sense of extracting fire from what you usually extinguish a fire with is perfect. My questions are practical ones about electrololysis. Those who dismiss HHO as a solution say that the amount of energy required to split water is too much for HHO to have a practical application. Just how much electriciy is required to produce enough HHO to power a car? Put in another, can a standard auto alternator effectively do the job?
on Jun 4th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Ok, my thoughts on this matter are this. Has any one of the skeptics actually considered the “energy that is put into mfg gasoline. From drilling pumping, transporting, refining, transporting several times again. In my estimation gasoline usage would be 1% or less when all this is taken in consideration. So, my point is this if I can manage to create my own fuel regardless of efficiency could I do any worse than we are already doing. I think not. And by the way we are paying through the nose for this inefficient gasoline.
Just my thoughts.
I for one know for a fact that this is real stuff just a matter of working out the details. I mean think about it people. Did the very first gasoline engine run? Or, did it take time to work out the details?
on Jul 25th, 2008 at 4:21 am
I saw http://www.mikeoliveri.com/2006/05/10/browns-gas-and-alternative-energy/trackback/ and wanted to mention a useful site: http://www.FreePatentsOnline.com
It provides free patent searching, free PDF downloading, allows annoting documents and sharing them, and free alerts for new documents.
If you have a spot, a link to let your users know abou the site would be great.