crosshatching- a process where the electrodes are sanded in a lateral fashion with 60- or 80 grit sandpaper, then sanded longitudinally....look up how an internal combustion engine's cross hatching(in the cylinder walls) looks, you will see a bunch of squares sanded into the metal. this effectively gives the metal a much larger surface area, in the same manner as a K&N air filters have an accordian style surface- it increases surface area. any increase in surface area is an improvement and will raise effeciency. also- the peaks of the surface of the metal- once sanded in, are major areas of production. the more peaks you have, the more surface area you have, the better production for a given surface area.
conditioning- everyone seems to have a different method, and these cells use water- one of the least understood chemicals on earth. different voltages, different cell orientations, use of magnetic fields, etc- it gets complicated. however, one constant i have seen is this: a cell's total active surface area should not run more then 0.25 ampheres per square inch. however, if you should so choose to "push the cell a little harder" you can go up to 0.50 ampheres per square inch. personally? i run my cells in between the two. thats nothing more than my personal preference.....
so heres the deal. you have a target amperage for your cell. active surface area means the surface area between the anode and cathode. my cells have a total surface area of 64 square inches(four plates, 2 in x 4 in each. thats 16 sq in each plate, 16 x 4= 64 sq in.)
however, with the cell orientation of (-++-), the total active surface area is only 32 sq in (2 x 4= 8, 8 times 4= 32 sq in), 32 x 0.25= 8. so thats 8 ampheres. pushing the cell harder @ 0.50 amps per sq in would be 16 ampheres, so i took the mean of the two- and put my goal amperage @ 12 amps. again, my personal choice here. it is lower effeciency than running the cell @ 8 ampheres.
okay! so i have a target amperage, 12 amps per cell.
now, mix up the electrolyte to limit amps, or better method is to use a good ammeter, digital, with a PWM. set the PWM so the amperage draw is at 25% of total amps desired.. run this arrangement for at least 48 hours. be sure to check water level, heating, and amphere draw at least once an hour. if using a 12DCV power supply or the like, check those three things every twenty minutes for the first four hours or so. after a few days, increase the amperage to 50% of total. run for approx three days.
repeat for 75% and 100% of desired amperage.
cant stress this one enough- the first couple hours will determine rate of H20 consumption, for instance the cell may/will get very hot if you're running a full 12 volts to a single brute force setup. it is IMPERATIVE that you check the cell frequently during the first four hours, as the cell will "stabilize" within that time period. a good, cheap way to improve this is to use a computer power supply, however i'm not 100% sure how well a PWM will work with an input voltage of about 5 DCV. i'll leave that one to someone more qualified with electronics than I.
well! i haveStatistics: Posted by resident_genius — Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:12 pm
]]>