Wednesday, August 29, 2007

United Nuclear: Hydrogen Fuel System Kit

The following report was prepared by NEC member, Gary Vesperman, as part of his documentation series on suppressed energy inventions. It was posted here at PESWiki on Aug. 28, 2007.

Overview

The United Nuclear Hydrogen Fuel System Kit converts late-model fuel-injected gasoline-powered vehicles to run on hydrogen. In addition to specific complete kits that are planned to soon be available for specific late-model cars and trucks, individual system components will be available for those who choose to assemble their own kits.
Included in the kits (and also available separately) is the company’s either solar or wind turbine-powered hydrogen generator that remains in the vehicle owner’s garage. The hydrogen generator manufactures the hydrogen fuel for the vehicle at virtually zero cost. Simply put, the vehicle’s owner never would have to buy gasoline again. Since there are no major changes made to the engine, a converted vehicle can still run on gasoline at any time.

Hydrogen Power

Powering a vehicle by hydrogen is by no means a new idea; and in fact, almost all automobile manufacturers are currently developing a new generation of vehicles that run on hydrogen as opposed to gasoline. This new generation of vehicles essentially comprises of electric cars that use fuel cell instead of batteries to run the electric motor. Using a chemical process, fuel cells in these new vehicles convert the stored hydrogen on board, and the oxygen in the air, directly into electricity to power their electric motors. These new hydrogen powered electric vehicles are very efficient, and in fact are more efficient than any internal combustion engine. The problem is that these new vehicles are years away from production, are very expensive, and converting to using hydrogen fuel in this manner requires the purchase of a new (and expensive) vehicle. All hydrogen/fuel cell systems currently under development by large manufacturers require the purchase of hydrogen as would be for gasoline.

How it Works

The United Nuclear Hydrogen Fuel System Kit is an intermediate approach that simply converts existing vehicles to burn hydrogen or gasoline. The stock gasoline fuel injection system remains intact and is not modified in any way. It is shut down while the hydrogen fuel system is activated.
The hydrogen gas is precisely metered into the air intake of the engine while the exhaust gasses are continuously analyzed for correct burn ratio. This allows the driver to switch between running on gasoline or hydrogen at any time. The engine itself is only slightly modified. The conversion makes substantial changes to the computer & electrical system, ignition and cooling systems. Since they never have to be removed, hydrogen fuel storage (hydride tanks) can be installed in virtually any available space within the vehicle.
Due to the fact that hydrogen gas burns so much faster than gasoline, engines with compression ratios greater than 9.5 to 1 are very susceptible to damaging pre-detonation (engine knock). For this reason, hydrogen conversions are not recommended for vehicles with turbochargers, superchargers, or compression ratios greater than 9.5 to 1. Also, because of the higher compression, different ignition system, and host of other factors, the Hydrogen Fuel System will not work on diesel engines.
The company’s hydrogen generator produces hydrogen from electricity. The electricity can be common "household current". If the electricity is produced directly from solar power or wind power, the energy cost is zero. Electricity can be produced by Neil Schmidt’s hydraulic wind turbine, or by a number of other wind generators such as Number 47 of http://iiic.de/4643.html which is a combined solar/wind electricity generator.
The most productive solar photo-voltaic cell seems to be the Soviet-developed high-efficiency crystal lattice solar photo-voltaic cells.
Las Vegas inventor Jeff Prescott invented a method of generating hydrogen by concentrating solar rays to heat pure iron in the presence of water. The iron oxide byproduct can be sold for paint and other uses. Questions remain as to the overall energy efficiency of his process, particularly in regard to refining and transporting the pure iron.
It does, however, take a substantial amount of time to produce sufficient hydrogen to fill even a small tank. As an example, it takes over 2 days of the company’s hydrogen generator running at full power, 24 hours a day, to fill its smallest "short range" tank.
The tanks are filled with granulated hydrides which absorb hydrogen like a sponge absorbs water. Hydrogen is pressurized into the material. Hydrides have many advantages over ultra-cold liquid or pressurized gaseous hydrogen. One is that the density of the hydrogen stored in the hydride can be GREATER than that of ultra-cold liquid hydrogen. This translates directly into smaller and fewer storage tanks.
Once the hydride is "charged" with hydrogen, the hydrogen becomes chemically bonded to the hydride. Even opening the tank, or cutting it in half will not release the hydrogen gas. In addition, if incendiary bullets are fired through the tank, the hydride would only smolder like a cigarette. It is in fact, a safer storage system than a gasoline tank.
Then how do you get the hydrogen back out? To release the hydrogen gas from the hydride, it simply needs to be heated. This is either done electrically, using the waste exhaust heat, or using the waste radiator coolant heat.
The company’s Hydrogen Fuel System kits heat the hydride tanks electrically. As soon at the hydride is sufficiently warm, hydrogen is released from the tanks, and the on-board computer detects the presence of hydrogen pressure. The fuel system remains in "Hydrogen" mode until the tank pressure begins to drop. If the tanks run out of hydrogen, the engine will seamlessly switch over to gasoline, which enables the car to run conventionally until the hydrogen tanks are refilled at zero cost.
Using hydrogen, the only exhaust products produced are water vapor and a tiny amount of nitrogen oxides. It's about as clean burning as you can get.

To Market

United Nuclear's first prototype was a 1994 Chevrolet Corvette that was converted to run on hydrogen. Using the Extended Range kit (2 sets of tanks), the driving range is over 650 miles per fill. As the hydrogen gas is produced using the company-furnished solar-powered hydrogen generator, the resulting fuel cost is near zero.

United Nuclear now has accumulated over 50,000 trouble-free miles on their prototype vehicles. They are currently fleet-testing their systems and are in final preparation for sales to the general public. They will fully guarantee and stand behind all their products and workmanship. Their conversion kits will initially sell for $7,000 to $10,000 each.
United Nuclear has developed every aspect of its Hydrogen Fuel System on their own, using their own funds and not a dime of federal tax money. They do not sell stock, and do not need investors.

Suppression

Not unexpectedly, the corrupt U.S. Government has swooped in by utilizing its Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) as a means of suppressing the pending commercial sale of United Nuclear’s Hydrogen Fuel System Kit by confiscating the necessary chemicals used in this system from public use – possibly basing its action on false premises.
Currently, the CPSC is focusing on common chemical oxidizers such as perchlorate compounds, nitrate compounds, permanganate compounds, chlorate compounds, etc., along with a wide variety of other common chemicals and metals such as sulfur, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, zirconium, zinc, magnailim, benzoate compounds, salicylate compounds, antimony and antimony compounds, etc.

The CPSC now claims that this action is to stop the manufacture by United Nuclear of illegal explosive fireworks. If their true intention is to attempt to curtail the construction of these devices, there are only two chemicals which should be of concern: potassium perchlorate and German aluminum.

For those unfamiliar with exploding fireworks, they are all made from one material: flash powder. Flash powder is a mixture of potassium perchlorate, and a special ultra-fine aluminum powder known as German aluminum. These have been the only 2 chemicals used in the manufacture of every single exploding firework from firecrackers to M-80s from the 1960s to present times.

United Nuclear’s Hydrogen Fuel System Kit is not yet available for sale. There are legal problems with several components of the unit which is preventing its sale. Until the legal proceedings are complete, the company won't be moving forward with the system.

BY NURUL HIDAYAH BINTI SULONG

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