1 Pulsed Electrolyzers Bob Boyce is easily the most experienced and knowledgeable series-cell designer at the present time, and sincere thanks are due to him for sharing his design freely with everybody and for his continuous help, advice and support of the builders of electrolysers. Bob achieves a massively increased gas production rate by using an electrolyser with a large number of cells in it. Bob’s electrolyser is easily the most effective available at this time. It uses one hundred cells (101 plates) and applies a sophisticated pulsing waveform which raises the operational efficiency far above that envisioned by the science textbooks available today. Units with just 60 cells are inclined more to brute-force DC electrolysis, tending to mask the gains produced by pulsing. As there is a voltage drop across each stainless steel electrode plate, it is usual to allow about 2 volts across each cell for DC operation. However, Bob finds that for high-efficiency pulsing, the optimum voltage for each cell with 316L-grade stainless-steel electrode plates is about 1.5 volts. This means that a voltage of about 1.5 x 100 = 150 volts is needed to power it to its maximum pulsed output. To get this higher voltage, Bob uses a 110 Volt inverter. An inverter is an electronic circuit which has a 12 Volt DC input and generates a 110 Volt AC output. These are readily available for purchase as they are used to run (US) mains equipment from car batteries. The output from the inverter is converted from Alternating Current to pulsing Direct Current by passing the output through four diodes in what is called a ‘Diode Bridge’. Bob usually uses a 6” x 6” plate size. It is essential that every item which contains hydroxy gas is located outside the passenger compartment of any vehicle. Under no circumstances should the electrolyser or bubbler be located in the passenger area of the vehicle, even if pop-off caps are provided and a second protective outer housing is provided, as the explosive force is so great that permanent hearing damage would be a serious possibility. For straight DC operation of an electrolyser of this type, the circuitry is very straightforward. The inverter should be mounted securely, preferably in the stream of air drawn in to cool the radiator. Using a diode “bridge” of four diodes converts the stepped up AC output of the inverter back into pulsing DC and produces the electrical arrangement shown here: As mains voltage is quoted as an average figure (“root-mean-square”) it has a peak voltage of 41% more than that. This means that the pulsing DC has a voltage peak of just over 150 volts for the nominal 110 volt AC output from the inverter. The one-way valve shown between the two bubblers, is to prevent the water in the bubbler mounted beside the electrolyser, being driven into the electrolyser in the event of an explosion in the bubbler mounted beside the engine.
