Horsepower to Watts

Question

Hello. I am new here. I was told to come here regarding my Prototype CPU Cooler. I am an independent researcher that is struggling. All the engineering firms, or factories I have called, refuse to work with me because I am not a business. I am hoping this is a place I can ask my questions. It is a 2 step problem

First step is the OxyHydrogen. I am using it to get Horsepower. To protect the prototype, I am going to avoid saying how. I hope you can understand. The part I am stuck on is the 4%. The flame is cooler the less Hydrogen there is per volume. The minimum is 4%. Do I increase or decrease the flame nozzle to achieve this? Or is it a container issue? Or both?

The second step involves the engine itself. It will produce horsepower if I can get the 4% figured out. I don't know what the best approach is to using that horsepower, to get the coolant the power it needs. The coolant in question is a refrigeration compressor. I would have to re-design it to work with the engine, or find a way to send electricity to the terminal. Which approach should I take?

These are all the questions I have for now. Any information you can provide is greatly appreciated. Thank you

mcb1 · Answer

Sounds to me like the University of Canterbury beat you a long time ago and have commercialised it. Whispertech was the commercial arm who developed it for commercial sales. Basically they designed and built a small, run on anything, power plant. In reality it could be used to power/drive anything, but electricity was seen as commercially viable. For your ratios there is some information here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyhydrogen and horsepower v watts is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower With 2 Horsepower you'll have 1450 watts give or take a few available. The torque to start the compressor will be the issue, and the output my require gearing or large flywheel to operate without stalling. Mark

jw0752 · Answer

Hi Ericcb,

The first step is going to have to be a rephrasing and detailing of your question. For example your question about the 4%. I am guessing that you are talking about fuel to oxygen percents but this isn't clear. Obviously the optimum is 2 moles of hydrogen for each mole of oxygen. Any ration different than this is a waste of one resource or the other. You will have enough challenge trying to get a complete combustion. I am not an expert in this area only a student of physics. Empirical experiments may have determined that it is worth wasting some extra oxygen in order to provide increased opportunity for for a more complete hydrogen burn. To control the output of the energy released you must control the amount of combustion per unit time. Obviously if you are burning 4 liters of hydrogen and 2 liters of oxygen per second this will release twice the energy that 2 liters of hydrogen and one liter of oxygen per second will release. So I am not sure where the 4% comes in. Since you haven't been clear if you are talking about a heat to steam to mechanical energy or a fuel cell to electricity to mechanical energy transformation chain it is difficult to make any suggestions. I realize you want to keep part of your idea a secret but this has the cost of eliminating advice as we can't guess as to what you are doing and if we don't know what we are talking about our suggestions to you will be useless. It sounds like you have an interesting project in mind so please come back with your questions with as much detail and specifics as you can and then we can give you an answer that may be in the realm of useful.

John

michaelkellett · Answer

It's quite easy to design a gas burner where the hot part of the flame is not in contact with any part of the burner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunsen_burner

The tube is made of quite normal steel or similar and doesn't melt.

MK

ericcb · Answer

Ok. Perhaps starting from the beginning will help then? This is what I have read so far:

OxyHydrogen is most efficient when it is a 2:1 ratio (Hydrogen to Oxygen). Any change to that, may cause a different chemical to be created

Flame Temperature can vary

At standard pressure and temperature, Oxyhydrogen can burn when it is between about 4% and 95% hydrogen by volume. 95% Hydrogen by volume is called "pure Oxyhydrogen" (nickname). That is when the flame gets to the maximum temperature of 2,800C. At 4%, it is estimated to be around 1,000C

The minimum energy required to ignite such a mixture with a spark is about 20 microjoules

My understanding of it, is it's not the ratio that is the concern. It's the volume of Hydrogen being introduced in the pipe at, and during ignition. If I am incorrect in understanding the above, then please let me know

I guess no one knows what I am burning so I will be flexible in response to your post. I am using a Steam Engine. I have kept the weight low, by using lightweight materials if that helps

I can achieve a maximum of 2 Horsepower. The Compressor is 400 watts

jw0752 · Answer

Here is a link to a wikipedia article on Oxyhydrogen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyhydrogen

They state that the max flame temp is achieved at the proper ratio of Oxygen (1) to Hydrogen (2). They mention that an excessive mixture of oxygen can provide unburned oxygen which can oxidize things that you may not want oxidized. (This may be the different chemicals of which you spoke). Flame temperature may not be as great a concern as getting whatever heat that you produce into the water to produce steam before the heat escapes out the exhaust or otherwise into the environment.

You mention that the materials being used, (I assume in the steam engine) will tolerate a maximum 400 Celsius. This will limit the steam pressure that can be used to about 225 Kg/cm^2 (approx 3,200 psi). At this pressure I would be more concerned with strength as opposed to lightness.

Make sure you are reading good sources of information as you study this area as there are a lot of pseudo science projects being proposed with bad information and in many cases bad intentions.

John

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