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Originally Posted by Greg Perkins
What do you all think?
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Alright, let's see if math backs up their claims...
At least this video gives us a few numbers to work by. In the video, it is stated that it costs 70¢ per hour to run, and in that time frame it produces 1500 L of hydrogen. The only thing missing is what pressure this 1500 L H
2 is being generated at. Since 1500 L seems a bit high, I will assume that this is at 1 atmosphere of pressure.
After doing a little Googling for more information, I found that this company is from Florida. According to the
EIA, in 2003 the average price of one kWh (kilowatt hour) of electricity in Florida was 8.55¢. (This is the most recent data I could find.) 70¢ of electricity per hour divided by 8.55¢ per kWh comes out to 8.18 kW being used. So if their facts are right, it takes 8.18 kWh of electricity each hour to make 1500 L of H
2 at what is assumed to be standard pressure.
Since they claim they have "perfected" the process of extracting hydrogen from water, I thought I would compare their data to a reputable company from my hometown.
Proton Energy has recieved millions of dollars from various government agencies to work on hydrogen generators, and they have developed several products.
If we look at one of their
spec sheets, we can see all the data about their S- and H-Series H
2 generators. The hydrogen generator in this video made 1500 L in one hour. Converted to cubic feet, that comes out to 52.97 cubic feet of H
2 at 1 atm. If we compare that to the Proton Energy spec sheet, we see that their S40 model comes close in H
2 output at 40 CF/hr. Looking at the speec sheet, the S40 uses 17.6 kWh to produce 100 CF of H
2 at 1 atm.
To make 1500 L of H
2 at 1 atm (which is what the Klein/HHO company supposedly does) it would take 9.32 kWh of electricity using the S40. Factor in the price of electricity (8.55¢ per kWh), and we get 79.7¢ to make an equal amount of hydrogen using Proton Energy's S40.
So the grand difference of "perfecting" the process of electrolysis resulted in a net gain of 9.7¢ per 1500 L of H
2 produced at 1 atm, as compared to a similar scale generator from a reputable company. That is only about a 13% increase in the efficiency of hydrogen generation. So all this hype boils down to is a slightly more efficient hydrogen generator, and nothing more.
* Note: These calculations don't figure in the energy it takes to pressurize the hydrogen - they just calculate the cost and kWh needed to split water into H2 and O2.