Sooooo, I built an electrolyzer in my garage that can process approx. 50+ gallons of tap water with KOH additive every hour. I don’t have a Honda FCX Clarity yet…lol…so for right now, I am tanking the products (Oxygen and Hydrogen), and using it in a fuel cell stack that cost me $4800. The Tanks are simply the "energy-storage medium". The point is: I am using free solar energy to turn cheap tap water into Hydrogen fuel. When the FCX Clarity does become a reality here in Oregon, what’s to keep me from never going to a gas station ever again? Assuming that I don’t exceed the vehicle’s 270-mile fuel range? Can you imagine it? Never needing an oil company for anything, ever again? Of course, most of them are plotting Natural Gas reformation to produce hydrogen fuel. But my process is cleaner…really as clean as it gets, really… Free fuel, as long as I have sunshine and water.
Yea, I know it’s already being used by others… I just can’t know why oil companies are pushing for the Natural Gas reformation route when it comes to Hydrogen. Other than the fact that it’s cheaper for THEM. But it makes waste, including CO2 and Methane gas. Though the Mathane can be used as a secondary fuel if burned, I suppose.
No, it’s NOT expensive. Asside from the $4800 fuel stack, and the Solar panels, which are $1200 a peice, being they are high-efficiency Polycrystiline Si. My panels track the sun, as well, which increases maximum energy output considerably. I designed the sun-tracking device using photo-sensitive receptors, and the 2-axis pankace gimble was also addapted by me from a design I saw on a tracking telescope once.
I should clarify that the INITIAL price seems prohibitive, but I have made about $7,500 as of my six-month mark simply by selling the O2 and the H2. That’s the tough part though, as I don’t have the hazardous materials permit required in Oregon to stockpile this stuff, so the 400 gallon pressure tanks are technically illegal in the first place, when storing that amount of liquid Oxygen. If there ever was an explosion, let’s say, there wouldn’t be any walking away for me. I mean, the house would be GONE. I guess THAT’s one downside of producing my own fuel, eh?

As it is right now, I am producing far more of both gasses then I really require to power my house, and what I sell back to EWEB (utility company) is nothing compared to what I could be producing if I had additional fuel stacks. Some of the 400-500 W variety…lol.
To wjc: I only have one fuel stack as it is, but it’s putting out about 90 KW, and I’m only using about 10KW max at any one time. I’m making enough electricity to power several EXTRA homes on my block – for the price of tap water and free solar energy. =) The thing is, EWEB would start to wonder how I am producing soooo much electricity if I upped my output onto the grid any further. As far as the utility company is concerned, I am using straight solar power – they don’t know about the hardware in the garage… LOL. The utilities pay small potatoes for the extra power you produce anyways; I am making way more money selling the O2 to local welding supply stores, and the H2, well selling that is slightly more tough geven the ammount that I am trying to sell. Making pure profit though. Tap water is cheap in the WIllamette Valley.

I reckon it is a fantastic thought. 50 gallons per hour? How many solar panels do you have? Sounds like you could also make electricity for your home. I live in Arizona where there is a lot of sunshine and want to do the same thing but don’t know if I could afford the initial costs. Lots use solar and store in batteries but that is only excellent for RV application where you can make use of small quantities of power.

Keep up the excellent work.