Discussion of 9/05/09 Experiment

So this is what happened. I set the Variable Transformer to some reasonable voltage, like 200 V DC. I measured the voltage between the Cathode and the Anode. There was a purple plasma around the Cathode. I'm sitting there watching it, and after a while, it all of a sudden gets bigger, changes color; the bubbling becomes more violent, and the voltmeter goes crazy. And there were flashes of white light. The voltmeter jumps around 500 600 800 700 1200 1900 1300 800 700 600 400 500 400... when the voltage finally chilled out, the plasma got smaller and went back to being purple. Then after a few more seconds, the same thing would happen all over again.

The other weird thing that happened was at one point the whole cell turned blood red. It really freaked me out. I didn't know it could even do that. Why do these things happen? I don't know.

I ran the cell again today with the leftover electrolyte, and it didn't make any good plasma. just got sparkly. then the tungsten got hot like a toaster element. i guess you can't re-use electrolyte? have to get more distilled water. keep getting aqueus solution on my hands but it doesn't burn. it says "storage code GREEN" so i guess it's safe? I got the K2CO3 from amazon.com.

Oh wait, actually it says it's harmful and irritating :)

I want a bigger capacitor. I discharged my cap array with a screwdriver and it went CRACK and made a big spark.

Plasma is Hot

The melting point of Tungsten is about 6000 degrees Farenheit. The Cathode got fried. The ceramic sheath took a beating.

9/05/09 Plasma Electrolysis Run

Part 1 - What We're Doing.
Part 2 - Power Supply, Set-Up.
Part 3 - Mix up the Electrolyte.
Part 4 - Orange Plasma when Water is too Cold.
Part 5 - Good Purple Plasma at 200 V DC.
Part 6 - Beautiful Stable Blueish Purple Plasma at 150 V DC.
Part 7 - Weird Dark Bubbles and Voltage Jumps in Cycles.
Part 8 - Color Changes and Voltage Jumps. Over 1000 V.

YouTube has a bug whereby you must write &fmt=100 at the end of the video's url. On these links I added that in.

Is it the Future Yet?

Modern industrial installations require 4 kWh for production of 1 cubic meter of hydrogen from water. When this hydrogen is burnt, 3.6 kWh of energy is released. If the energy expenses for production of hydrogen from water are reduced by twofold or threefold, it becomes a competitive energy carrier. If it is possible to reduce these expenses of hydrogen tenfold, it will become the cheapest energy carrier. In this case, coal, oil and natural gas fail to compete with it.

Our investigations have shown that there are some plasma electrolytic devices and modes of their operation, which reduce energy expenses for obtaining one cubic meter of hydrogen up to 0.40 kWh. In this case, more than 1000% of additional energy is obtained. A laboratory device with such indices was made one year ago.

Phillip M. Kanarev, The Kuban State Agrarian University, Krasnodar, Russia, Department of Theoretical Mechanics
WATER IS THE MAIN POWER CARRIER OF FUTURE POWER ENGINEERING

Hydrogen Gas Production is Not a Function of Current

In normal Electrolysis, the amount of Hydrogen gas produced is a function of current passed through the cell. In Plasma Electrolysis, this is not the case. The image above is taken from:

Hydrogen Evolution by Plasma Electrolysis in Aqueous Solution
Tadahiko MIZUNO
, Tadashi AKIMOTO, Kazuhisa AZUMI1, Tadayoshi OHMORI2, Yoshiaki AOKI3 and Akito TAKAHASHI4

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics
Vol. 44, No. 1A, 2005, pp. 396–401
(c) 2005 The Japan Society of Applied Physics

Current Drops When Plasma Forms

Hydrogen Evolution by Plasma Electrolysis in Aqueous Solution
Tadahiko MIZUNO
, Tadashi AKIMOTO, Kazuhisa AZUMI1, Tadayoshi OHMORI2, Yoshiaki AOKI3 and Akito TAKAHASHI4

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics
Vol. 44, No. 1A, 2005, pp. 396–401
(c) 2005 The Japan Society of Applied Physics