Jones Beene wrote:
Ah...Ultra high efficiency electrolysis - it is a subject that reappears
at least yearly on vortex. As it is involved in CF, there are probably
more water-splitters here per capita than anywhere else on the net.
Between all the water and hair-splitters, we could set up a chapter of
Slitters-Anonymous - 12 steps to OU recovery, so to speak.
Electrolysis is easy and cheap to experiment with, and often seems more
promising at first take than later - because you can get "some" gas
bubbles on a 'proper' cathode at extremely low voltage. There is a
pronounced "reverse economy of scale" going on in this situation -
IMHO, which is what is to be expected of ZPE-extraction, as a rule
(again, very opinionated)
A few of us went to work last year trying to find OU this way -
follwoing the announcement in India that Prof R. P. Viswanath of Indian
Institute of Technology Madras, had been uscessful using a
compartmentalized electrolytic cell - and that they have been successful
splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen at a relatively much lower
potential of around 0.90 V compared to 1.23V. You can do this on a small
scale, but doing it commercially on a large scale is another problem
altogether.
The theoretical minimum decomposition potential to split water into
requires a potential of 1.23 V. but due to an assortement of reasons, a
significantly higher potential is usually necessary for high-output -
but the same does not apply when splitting H2O into H (as hydronium) and
corresponding OH redicals as nature does that free-of-charge naturally.
At the nanosecond time-scale, the formula for water is more like H(1.6)O
plus intermediates than H2O.
Jones, let me suggest another reason why a voltage below 1.23 V can be
used to split water. The 1.23 V value is for the "ideal" condition when
all reactants and products are at unit activity, i.e. when H2O is pure,
and H2 and O2 are at 1 atm. However, pure H2O can not be used because
it is essentially an insulator. When extra H+ or OH- are added to make
the fluid conductive, the H2O is no longer pure and at unit activity.
In essence, energy has been added that has partially split the water
into H and O. As a result, less energy is required as voltage to
complete the process. If the energy added to the solution in making and
adding the H+ or OH- is taken into account, the correct enthalpy of H2O
will be obtained. In other words, an apparent OU is only caused by not
taking all energy sources into account.
Regards,
Ed
- Re: Could Low Level Electrolysis Be Overunity? Edmund Storms
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