General Biking Discussion Approved.

@roshan - mate you will have to give more info as to what you mean by a hydrogen booster?? how does it work??

First of all, you do know that hydrogen in most cases is produced together with oxygen and that the mixture you get from electrolysis is very explosive? Combined with the rather hot environment of a combustion engine, where flames can and will travel into the throttle body. If you like explosions and potential shards of something flying around, this is a way of getting there in a hurry.

Now, lets analyze what you're trying to achieve: better fuel efficiency by adding hydrogen. Burning less fuel, getting more distance for that amount of fuel.

Now how do you generate hydrogen? Electrolysis.
This requires electricity, where do you get this? From your alternator, since driving around with a long electrical cord isn't going to be an option and I don't think it's cost effective to haul around a big cylinder of hydrogen.
So now, you're using electricity generated by your engine to make hydrogen. The efficiency of your engine is not really great and the efficiency of electrolysis is no great shakes either.

Combining the output of two inefficient processes is not going to make the those processes perform any better. Aside from the fact that burning the generated hydrogen is not going to recover the energy spent in generating it. (You're feeding it back into the same inefficient combustion engine that generated your hydrogen.)

Online there's good info on these devices, for example: Fuel saving gadgets - a professional engineer's view

Fuel saving is easy, use a smaller engine and/or mind about your riding behavior. I'll bet you that on the same bike, I can get better fuel efficiency by driving gently, than what you will get by fitting such devices.

Hi
I am not a science grad. I studied science till class 10th only. I have a question. Might be extremely stupid question
I know Hydrogen is not used as a fuel since it's highly explosive in nature. Now instead of air if only Oxygen is mixed with fuel during combustion wouldn't it be more efficient in terms of less pollution, better fuel efficiency & more power?

This question is ABSOLUTELY from a Non tech guy, so please don't throw bricks at me

pure oxygen is not feasible considering the cost vs benifits ..
that is wat concepts are for .. ideas are there .. but will need some time to come into the economically feasible limits..

No bricks coming your way. It would definitely be more powerful, give better efficiency. If only you didn't have to haul around this huge tank of compressed oxygen.

Think nitrous oxide (N2O). Good for short runs, but not suitable for long distance.

@rx100.7050 ur point is debatable, but how to separate the oxygen is the question

Thanks for the reply. May be it is not feasible now. May be later on this becomes a reality. My point is, if in future, this tech can be installed on bikes / cars would there be a considerable benefit wrt to emission, power & fuel efficiency? I guess less Co & Co2 will be produced so it will be cleaner, right?

Saw your posts later
Thanks Adante & balajidiwakar

that is if a device can be invented which separates the oxygen from air instantaneously ... which seems a distant possibility as of now ..

but if it is so .. yes it shud be much cleaner and better in terms of power and efficiency .. as the combustion wud be theoretically complete ..

but then again .. as of now, the doctors carry those huge cylinders for the concentrated oxygen.. so advancements in the same, will take some time .. if the global warming doesnt take its toll before..

Thx a lot

Thx. I have read about NOS too. But they are not suitable for smaller engines & actually quite dangerous too. Also, as you have said in your post, it's actually used for short term gain in accl. So not much of a benefit actually fro longer run. I was thinking of some device which could be installed on a bike (aesthetically as well) which could separate O2 from the air & then feed it into the chamber. Now since ain't happening in near future, so end of discussion from my end

But thanks a lot guys. Hope I have not veered out of the topic

@ RX: You can read in more detail on NOS in the Nov's edition of Bike India. One of Pune's NOS provider's/User's article is there in it.

Dude, already read that (ZMA with NOS) that's toh is kinda bible which I have got from the very beginning of it's launch Thx btw