Hydrogen boosts fuel efficiency

This story first appeared in the Aug. 28 edition of the Kansan.

It’s almost anti-climactic when Roy Patton, director of solid waste for Harvey County, lifts the hood of a 2005 Dodge pickup to show what’s been done to save taxpayers a few dollars on gas.

“There it is,” Patton says, pointing to what looks like a bit of PVC pipe with electrical wires bolted to the top.

“It” is a model L30 hydrogen generator from an Internet company called savefuel.ca.

The idea behind onboard hydrogen generators for cars and trucks is they use electricity provided by the car to electrolyze a small amount of water and inject the resulting hydrogen and oxygen gases into the vehicle's intake system. The hydrogen and oxygen displace some of the fossil fuels in the cylinders.

That means higher gas mileage. In the case of the pickup at the transfer station, the mileage has gone from 13.3 miles per gallons to 18.6 in town. The truck used to get between 6 and 8 miles per gallon while towing a trailer full of electronic waste to Leavenworth, but with the hydrogen generator it’s getting 13.

“It won’t take long to pay for itself,” Patton said. “Especially if we’re getting six miles per gallon better than what we average before we put it on. It should pay for itself in about 13 tanks of fuel.”

Patton began researching the idea of a hydrogen generator last year and, with permission of the county, ordered a book detailing how to build one from scratch.

But after weighing how much time it would take to build one, he chose to purchase one online.

“I started thinking about what they pay me per hour and how much time it would take to build one from scratch,” Patton said. “It seemed more economical to buy one.”

He chose a model that cost $347 designed to make 30 liters of oxy-hydrogen per hour.

Since day one, the project has been a success.

Not everyone who installs a hydrogen generator sees success. Car computer systems often compensate for what is happening within the engine by pushing more fuel into the mix.

“For some, the mapping sensor can be erratic,” Patton said. “There are some new sensors online now that will recognize that you are subsidizing your fuel with another combustible.”

So far that problem has not arisen with the truck Patton installed the system on — although it did happen with a generator he installed on a car for a friend.

Patton said he was prepared to see the check- engine light come on in the truck console as he worked with the generator.

But that didn’t happen. He and co-workers put the water tank in front of the radiator, bolted it down and ran tubing to carry the hydrogen into the intake manifold.

“This may be one in a million, but it’s working, and we haven’t had any problems,” Patton said.

He installed the generator in June and started with a quart of water and has yet to refill the water tank. That includes two trips to Leavenworth and one to Topeka.

“I’m excited about this,” Patton said.

So are others. Patton said the county has already asked about putting hydrogen generators in more county vehicles.

But he isn’t quite ready to do that.

“I want to wait and watch what happens with mapping sensors,” Patton said. “If we wait, the prices will stabilize, and we’ll find out if replacing the mapping sensors works.”