August 2012
I’m building a HHO generator and am trying to figure out the best way to power it, keeping the power usage low. A high voltage, low amp method like using a Tesla coil might do the trick. Any ideas to help me figure it out?
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First of all, try to avoid the term "HHO" it makes you look like a crackpot. Electrolysis of water produces a mixture of molecular hydrogen (H2) and molecular Oxygen (O2) in a 2:1 ratio, there is no such thing as "HHO".
Second thing to know, is that no matter what you do, the energy into the system is more than the energy you get back out of the system. If you put in one Joule of energy to break the water into H2 and O2 you will get back less than one Joule when the H2 and O2 is recombined. That's the laws of thermodynamics and you can't break those laws.
Now, what are you really trying to do? You mention a Tesla coil but that is a high voltage low current system. Electrolysis cells are intrinsically low voltage high current devices. To electrolyze water you only need about 2 volts per cell. Using higher voltages doesn't accomplish anything useful, indeed higher voltages just mean that you will get electrolysis reactions you don't want as well as significant energy loss due to ohmic heating. So it would be really silly to take an energy source and use that to run a Tesla coil then use that output to run the electrolysis rig. If you are thinking of using the Tesla coil to pull power out of say… atmospheric RF (basically using the coil as an RF antenna), then you have to go back to my earlier point about energy in > energy out. How much "free" energy can the coil actually capture from the atmosphere? RF waves are extremely low energy; even with a big antenna you are not going to be able to capture enough energy to light even a single LED. So, running an electrolysis cell might be possible but it isn't going to generate enough fuel to make it worthwhile.
One last thing, H2 + O2 is explosive. The Hindenburg didn't explode, it combusted. A mixture of H2 + O2 WILL explode, and that explosion will be much more energetic than what occurred with the Hindenburg. Add in the worry that any electrolysis cell produces gases that can be compressed along with heat and you have two pathways to an explosion: combustion and over pressurization of the H2 + O2 storage tank.
