HHO Fuel Cell ... Develop One Please!

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HHO Fuel Cell ... Develop One Please!

140 points posted to Environment, New Product Ideas by aikiwolfie Jun 22

HHO fuel cells are the future. Unless you have been living in a cave in Afghanistan you will have noticed YouTube is full of videos demonstrating this technology. Now choosing to avoid the nutters that are more likely to blow themselves and you along with them to kingdom come, I've choose a slightly more reputable video to get the message across.

So how green are Dells green credentials? Do you have the bottle to get really serious about green IT technologies?

zmjjmz Jun 22	... Last time I checked, Dell doesn't make cars...
aikiwolfie Jun 22	It's not for cars. It's for laptops, desktops, UPS, servers, displays, projectors and just about anything else that uses electricity. Dell makes lots of stuff that uses electricity right? The video is just to make a point. The power plant in that car can power half a street! The only waste product is water! Now even if this was an impractical technology for a laptop battery or a desktop PC PSU. It could be used in computer rooms that house rows and rows of servers. Dell has made much noise recently about how it's new servers are so power efficient. Well how much more efficient could you get than producing your own power? Sooner or later someone is going to produce a PSU for a rack server using this sort of technology. The applications are almost limitless. The question is, will Dell wait for everybody else to do it first? Or will it steal the march on the market and be first for a change? I'd like to see Dell do this and be first. Start with servers. Refine the technology. Work down to laptop batteries. Just imagine how easy life would be on the road if all you had to do was top up a power cell with a little H2O.
dermatologist Jun 23	I will say aikiwolfie is very correct that that is the correct direction technology have to go. Dell have the resources and power to drive this frontier. My uncle watch this video, my neighbour watched this video, my grand dad watch this video - and said they'll definitely get dell products if they can tap on such powers!!! What's more, the waste of this technology can be filtrated to what? purified drinking water? The world will not only go green, but go VERY BLUE!!!!! Awesome idea. Cheers.
paperpilot Jun 23	I have to demote this idea. DELL should not be in the business of developing fuel cells. If a fuel cell comes on the market suitable for powering computers, DELL should integrate them into its notebook computer line, but when it comes to developing them, I vote NO.
aikiwolfie Jun 23	Why shouldn't Dell be developing fuel cells? Isn't it in Dells interest to develop the most power efficient systems possible? How much more efficient can you get than generating your own power with nothing but clean fresh water as a bi-product? Personally I think it's a no brainer. The technology has already been proven to work. Even DIY nutters can get it to work!
zmjjmz Jun 23	It'd be better for servers, mainly because you'll need the hydrogen fuel for the cells, and it won't be fun having to stop at a agas station to charge your notebook. But mainframes and servers are impersonal and immobile, and so a constant (maybe) flow of the necessary fluid would be more convenient.
paperpilot Jun 23	Aiki The fuel cell is a touchy, complicated device requiring many materials and chemists for its development, disciplines not usually associated with computer design. Now if DELL were into chemical or biological computer design I might say "Go for it." After all, the human body is fuel cell powered. But DELL is an integrator of other people's technology. I don't expect or want them to delve into research outside the company's core expertise.
aikiwolfie Jun 23
aikiwolfie Jun 23	paperpilot people are building these things in their sheds with stainless steel and baking soda! zmjjmz, yeah right now servers are the obvious application.
aikiwolfie Jun 23	Here's a really complicated HHO fuel cell.
paperpilot Jun 23	Aiki do you want all that water dripping around inside your Inspiron 1330n computer? I know I don't. In the Space Shuttle, we power computers with fuel cells, drink the water and run it through our space suits. For the average user, uncontrolled fuel cells are more likely to wet his pants.
aikiwolfie Jun 23	LOL haven't Dell just built the 720/730 H2C fan assisted water cooled gaming PC? I think by now we've learned to combine computers with water and not kill ourselves. Besides, I said start big with servers and refine the technology.
paperpilot Jun 23	Well, I'm not against fuel cell powered computers. I just don't think DELL should be doing the work.
zmjjmz Jun 23	Laptops still don't seem appropriate for this technology. Desktops... mebbe.
aikiwolfie Jun 23	The bulk of the work has already been done. There is actually a company that sells fuel cells that charge up phones and iPods and can even run a laptop. I just can find the video. What Dell needs to do is apply the technology in a suitable form. Just like they do when they buy chips from intel or nvidia and squeeze them into stupidly small notebooks with custom built motherboards.
paperpilot Jun 23	DELL needs to use the fuel cell I can pack up and take on a plane. Hydrogen and oxygen are too iffy. Ever hear of the Hindenburg complex? The fuel cell would have to be something like alcohol and air. Still too much work to be done.
aikiwolfie Jun 23	The Hindenburg? Now you're just being overly paranoid. A plane carries tones of fuel. Besides a laptop battery isn't the Hindenburg. And it wasn't just the hydrogen that brought down the Hindenburg. It was the aluminum paint they used to seal it air tight. Aluminum burns rather well. We still use it to build jumbo jets though. Basically anytime you step into a vehicle based on fuel derived from oil. You're sitting on a bomb. Of course you just don't think of it that way because it's normal. Don't worry I won't mention the runaway exploding lithium-ion batteries we all already have in our laptops. And you're ignoring the fact that i said Dell could start big. With servers. It'll be at least a few years before this technology gets into your laptop. Although one or two manufacturers are working on methanol cells designed to provide 40 hours of charge! This is something Dell needs to get involved in and you're excuses are getting evermore desperate. try not to think about your exploding lithium-ion battery sitting on the back seat of your car above the fuel tank just waiting to turn you into a crispy critter. ;o)
he_the_great Jun 23	First off, while ideastorm is provided by Dell, I see nothing that says it has to be ideas for Dell to pursue, just that Dell can use them. As for Hydrogen, where are you getting it H2 is not found naturally by itself. But thee's plenty of water right? The problem here is splitting Hydrogen from water takes a lot of enegy (more then you get from putting it back together again), in HowStuffWorks they don't state this exactly, but look at what is need to create the power to split the hydrogen. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hydrogen-economy4.htm A liszt of non-fossil fuel power stuff # Nuclear power - can't use this, causes slowly decaying wast # Hydroelectric dams - oh the poor fishys, we must destroy dams # Solar cells - a little expensive, need energy to creat, and I believe uses harmful material? # Wind turbines - Hey could move, you're blocking my wind. You say the wind usually blows from the east. # Geothermal power - This might work if we could just figure out how # Wave and tidal power # Co-generation - More burning, how does that better than fossil fuel? And you thought Laptops were expensive now, with Hydrogen power we can get them over $20,000.
dermatologist Jun 24	Let's not get too rough on the argument. All Aiki and like minded peers wants is just to tap on uncharted potentials. Though everything we venture into have risks, risk management is certainly required, and dell have the resources and platform, like i mentioned earlier on, to make such innovations work. Its not about being skeptical, but dell can HELP ALONGSIDE TO the innovating and refining of the technology to possible levels, which in return, THEY WILL BE PIONEERS for the owning' power against other competitors. Yeah, starting with major stationary servers. I just wanna mention that if skeptics voice objection about leaky water - what about leaky cells or even explosive lithium? why evade that? As for the recharge, it can be (through refining) done in a way where there is a mini recharge station at home that vaccums the air and fractionate into subsequent gaseous elements or what have you. --- You don't exactly need a portable recharge station if the cell last you more than 40 hours or so! What's the complain??
aikiwolfie Jun 24	Well on the subject of obtaining hydrogen by electrolysis. You've clearly been living in a cave in Afghanistan. Yes the official empirical scientific line is it's an inefficient energy intensive process. But as you'll see from searching through YouTube countless numbers of nutters are getting this technology to work far better than it's officially supposed to. It's even efficient.
paperpilot Jun 24	I can see on YouTube people getting this technology to work, but I can't see how efficient their process is. I could make gasoline out of garbage in my backyard, but it wouldn't be very efficient and I'd be polluting the local environment. Let me see one powering a server and I will connect to it.
aikiwolfie Jun 24	It's good enough for some of them to turn it into a viable business enterprise supplementing the fuel in their cars with the hydrogen.
aikiwolfie Jun 24	Methanol Fuel Cells to Power Military Laptops
paperpilot Jun 24	OK. Let DELL add Ultracell fuel cells to the accessories list when buying a notebook. I just hope the Ultracell doesn't require reagent grade methanol. I would promote the idea because DELL can buy the fuel cells from Ultracell.
he_the_great Jun 24	@aikiwolfire, So what if we could get out the same amount of power that we put into it. You still need electricity, and that means from a source other than Hydrogen, Most power comes from fossil fuel, but any other source will get chewed out be Environmentalists or or lake being a viable option. The main point is that your suggestion is premature, yes, youtube videos look intriguing, but mind you they're youtube videos. If things were really that simple then I guarantee you that not even the oil companies would keep this tech at bay (All those youtube creators would be millionaires.)
aikiwolfie Jun 24	For the fuel cells the DIY nuts have been playing with, they're only using a few volts. Literally 2 to 3 volts pulling a whole amp in some cases. Which is easily obtainable from solar or wind power. It all seems to hinge on the quality of the electrolyser used.

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