Malcolm Bricklin reveals a few more details of his hydrogen plans
Speaking in an interview with Robert Farago from The Truth About Cars, Malcolm Bricklin offered a few more details on his plans to convert existing vehicles from Chrysler and General Motors to hydrogen hybrids. To put it mildly, we remain unconvinced that the technology will work, but Bricklin once again asserts that he's got a working prototype and will show off a functioning vehicle with the technology in about 90 days.
According to Bricklin, his hydrogen-on-demand unit measures just four by six by eight inches (about the size of a coffee cup, he says) and will increase the fuel mileage of any internal combustion engine by 50 to 100 percent. He further suggests that the biggest hurdles his team had to overcome in making the unit work was "overheating, blowing out the engine's O2 sensors and corrosion of the stainless steel housing unit."
Naturally, it will cost a lot of money to purchase up to 300,000 new vehicles from GM and Chrysler to start this venture, which is why Bricklin is hoping to get funding from the Department of Energy as part of its $25 billion AVTM program to promote the manufacture of eco-friendly automobiles.
[Source: The Truth About Cars | Photo: Bricklin SV-1]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jharlan 7:39PM (5/30/2009)
I think I get it. It's not about the car, it's about the money! What was it WC Fields said? "There's a sucker born every minute?" That is probably a misquote, but you get the idea.
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Derk McRockgroin 7:54PM (5/30/2009)
You got the quote right.
stevezilla 8:15PM (5/30/2009)
I think it was PT Barnum, but your point remains valid.
This has nothing to do with being "green".
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Joe 9:02PM (5/30/2009)
Bricklin pretty much nailed it in this quote: "This complete stupidity is the only reason something like my hydrogen-on-demand system will ever be considered.”
You have to be completely stupid to buy one.
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Jason 12:01AM (5/31/2009)
The irony in his quote is amazing.
ShopDog 9:32PM (5/30/2009)
Malcolm Bricklin from what im getting from someone that works on the project does have the unit and its about in inches 3 1/2 height x 3 1/2 wide x 2 thick and produces from 3 to 5 units of enhanced hydrogen running at a little less the 8 amps.
I was a bit leery of that amount of hho hydrogen produced from the cell he showed me until he explained how it worked and why.
There are no moving parts other then the chemicals and gases flowing through the lines and that was a shocker.
I also understand that a vehicle with the unit installed will go before the State Of California testing faculities for emissions testing within 2 weeks.
My source is alway dead-on accurate with what he tells me about the different projects he has been and is working on.
Im not trolling either
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Jason 9:56PM (5/30/2009)
Boy, you sure convinced me, Shopdog. How could I have ever doubted Mr. Bricklin?
Seriously, though; if it were that easy to increase fuel consumption by 100%, why don't we ALL have these devices on our cars already?
Seeing is believing. So far, it sounds like a scam to me.
Chris M 2:39AM (5/31/2009)
3 to 5 "Units"? What unit? Cubic Centimeters, liters, pints, Kilograms, ounces, what? If it is a volume measure, at what pressure and temperature? Without knowing what the measurement means, "3 to 5 units" is useless.
But the simple fact is, H2 is a very bulky gas, lower density than air, and even a large volume represents little energy. A full gallon of that electrolyzer gas, at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, is the energy equivalent of a droplet of gasoline.
ShopDog 11:08PM (5/30/2009)
Jason - I think that the research and development monies at the manufacturers make it to easy for them to stick there heads in the sand. The other thing with most R and D areas is most project responsibilities are isolated into specific areas of responsibilities and they do not coordinate for ideas nor share well with each other.
When a decision is cast to implement a new change it is not done overnite it has to or may run years before they move on to other improvements and that is coordinated for years into the future as well.
Just think with the talent pool in most R and D areas within a company and something as simple as this hho was exposed, implemented - how long do you think they would be employed.
The hydrogen hho has really been only exposed over the last couple of years by garage and home hobbists even though it has been around for over 75 years. The EPA and the car manufacturers with the on-board computers with oxygen sensors have screwed the lid down so tight that it is impossible to get real road mileage.
The vehicle's oxygen sensors and computer do not see hydrogen so you will never get any mileage improvement after model years 2004 or 2006 to the present but it gets tougher and tougher as the years get younger. HHO also produces oxygen and when the sensors see it the computer adds more gas and that is wasted out the tail pipe.
Now that the small companies are investigating hho there is a new element involved and that is the smart electronic guys playing with EFIE's to trick the vehicles computer into thinking that the vehicle is running to rich and needs to lean out the gas.
Does it work - yes but the car computer has a very narrow window to lean out and its not alway perfect. That is the statement i made about the manufacturers and EPA screwing down the programming so other fuels can not be implemented without massive amounts of re-programming for all the different manufacturers and all there models and engines.
Until the manufacturers and EPA are forced to loosen up all the years of the computer programming to accept hydrogen and lean the gas - we are going to accept batteries and propane and hydrogen tanks that look like aircraft JATO bottles ready for launch and get 250 miles to the tank. By the way the hydrogen the car manufacturers plan on using is still carbon based AND support the greed of the oil companies world wide.
This is not a perfect world but as hho is developed and improved - the worst enemy there will be is the resistance of the vehicle manufacturers and EPA testing to change and open the computers so that that REAL mileage of 200 to 400 percent mileage over what is present right now in todays world.
HHO and other new technologies is not going to go away but if the EPA, GOV TASK FORCE and VEHICLE MANUFACTURERS RESIST LONG ENOUGH it will be buried as each company involved gets discouraged and withdraws from further work and that will most likely be the plan. How do you justify past spending of 77 billion dollars of research when an immediate solution is right in front of there noses.
Again Im not trolling just my thoughts.
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SteveCT 12:32AM (5/31/2009)
You're either a moron or a liar.
Chris M 2:34AM (5/31/2009)
The so-called "HHO" is a lot of bafflegab by promoters selling their electrolysis gizmos. The electrolysis gas is just 2 parts H2 and 1 part O2, with a trace of water vapor.
When the electrolysis gas is injected into the air intake, it displaces some of the air. Since the amount of O2 in the gas is burned up by the H2 and there is less atmospheric O2 coming in, that means less O2 to burn the fuel. The exhaust sensor detects that reduction in free O2, the computer treats it as a "rich" fuel mixture and reduces the fuel injected. That's where the modest improvement in fuel mileage comes from. But since the H2/O2 gas has less energy than the fuel/air mixture it displaces, power is greatly reduced. The additional drag on the alternator to power the electrolyzer also reduces power. It would be cheaper and simpler to just go lightly on the accelerator.
Of course, if too much of that H2/O2 gas is injected, more than the oxygen sensor can compensate for, the computer assumes something is wrong, thinking perhaps a bad fuel injector or a plugged air filter, and turns on the "check engine" light.
ShopDog 2:58PM (5/31/2009)
Chris M
You do have most if not all of it correct. The exhaust sensor either upside or down side or both on the cat's after 2001 also has to be electronicly controlled with an efie to also get the mileage was well. And if leaned to far the check engine lite will come on but adjusting the efie to en-richen will turn off the check engine light.
That hho cell they are using does not look like anything I have ever seen with hho cells. There is quite a bit more going on with it then the hho cells i have ever seen before. The cell is under 10 amps as well and that should have no effect with the alternator drawing to much current and going into overtime.
The 2009 Hemi 5.7 i drove is exactly like the one i have and did not notice any power decreases.
Not trolling just thoughts
ShopDog 12:40AM (5/31/2009)
Steve
Thanks for the comment - guess the truth will show in the next few weeks
not trolling just my thoughts
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Jharlan 1:57AM (5/31/2009)
Whatever happened to GORR? Isn't this his subject?
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Chris M 2:44AM (5/31/2009)
Hmm, maybe he's on vacation, or maybe he's off to the Phillipines to try and buy D. Dingles H2 wonder car - try, as Dingle will take the money but won't deliver the goods.
Or maybe the nice young men in the white suits finally caught up with him, and took him back to the Home.
harlanx6 9:53AM (5/31/2009)
Comforting thoughts, Chris, we have to have a positive outlook. What would ABG be without Gorr?
Stan Wellaway 2:51AM (5/31/2009)
This surely falls into the category known as OBEM technology stories (One Born Every Minute). Always accompanied by someone earnestly arguing, at great length, that vested interests worldwide have ganged together to suppress it... (Ignoring that these vested interests include fiercely competitive companies who would break ranks without hesitation, if they thought the technology would give them an edge over their rivals).
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Joeviocoe 5:09AM (6/02/2009)
Leave it to Chris to always provide the real answer to how it works. No bafflegab, no conspiracy theory, just the honest technical truth.
Nothing can change the fact that a whole gymnasium full of uncompress hydrogen gas at room tempurature contains about the same energy as only ONE gallon of gasoline.
Chris, you always give the best explanation. It makes the most sense of whats going on in the engine.
Get a scangauge and drive slower, then you will see a miracle. 50% fuel savings instantly.
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It is a dead giveaway that this is a scam because this guy is claims the prototype will be available in 90 days. Just like Steorn, he is fishing for last minute investment.
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John 4:04AM (5/31/2009)
wait wait i have this bridge see, its really cool! i can great you a great deal on it! but you got to buy now!
hey if something happens and can be explained by science as we know it ok, but i am sorry he is playing with the laws of physics here, as usual it smells fishy, and he wants govt money for it? i still have that bridge for sale...
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jharlan 10:15AM (5/31/2009)
Enhanced hydrogen must be much more potent than regular hydrogen, and as Chris wondered, I also would like to be able to quantify " a unit of enhanced hydrogen". I think my skepticism is aroused because this just has a "perpetual motion" ring to it.
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