Day 3 of HHO Games

The winner of the HHO Games "Best Innovative HHO System" was announced today at 10am at the Manatee County Fairgrounds. Jim Tarantola of High Performance Fuel Cells gave Joe Shae a giant bear hug when he was announced in front of 50 or so vendors. Jim and his crew have come to the Games from several states to show their innovative hydrogen generators and other applications.

Jim's basic cell design is more complex than most of the cells we've seen, yet still easy enough for the layperson to install or at least understand and operate. In fact, it doesn't need to be maintained nearly as much as any system we've seen.

Jim starts with a series of stainless steel plates placed one after the other, back to back. Between each plate is a high-quality gasket to prevent leaking. At both ends (see the pic) are thick, transparent plastic with heavy duty bolts that hold the cell together. Then he wraps the plates with a protective coating to keep them insulated. This "exposed plate" design is great, as it keeps the electrolyte flowing through the cell and back into a reservoir that also acts as a bubbler. The electrolyte is sucked through a water pump, into the cell where it turns into HHO and then pushed with the remaining water into the bubbler. At the top of the bubbler is another hose that vents the HHO into the engine.

Our system was placed in the trunk as there was no space under the hood. Jim also included a cooling fan that keeps the unit under 100 degrees Fahrenheit and a digital temperature gauge. In the cockpit is a pulse width modulator which can be varied to increase or decrease the frequency and thus the output of the cell. We have it currently set on 75% maximum output.

Sound confusing? This is for consumers who want a professional system. Jim and his crew claim an average of 35-50% increases with no modifications to the ECU. Why? Simple. Using the PWM, they can "dial in" the right amount of HHO production and by simply smelling the exhaust, they can find the "perfect" ratio of HHO to fuel. This keeps the HHO production within the limitations and parameters of the ECU and doesn't throw any codes. The result is an efficient, maintenance-free fuel cell that looks nice enough to show to NASA.

I am in no way telling you to get this product, as we haven't even tested it yet. But our job is to help people learn about this stuff. If we like it over the long-haul back to LA, we'll promote Jim's company on our website along with others we see as professionals who meet our qualifications. If you want to see what those qualifications are, check out Water4Gas.com.

During the time that Ozzie was working with Jim on the install, I was attending a seminar hosted by Bill and Tom Lang of Gulf Laboratories. The title of this seminar was, "HHO, the history". It was quite fun and it ended with Joe Shae asking me to tell how Water4Gas become the number 1 water-fuel promoter in the world.

Tomorrow is the last day of the HHO Games. We will be attending one final "round table" panel of pro's at the Manatee Technical Institute for a 6-hour seminar and then wrap up the day with a meeting with High Performance Fuel Cells to talk about expansion and getting them up and running.

If you are interested in looking at their stuff, check out www.highperformancefuelcells.com

Ari