RUN 6
3rd Series of Incandescent W Experiments (300 volt power supply)
25JAN00
Ken Shoulders visited us on 25JAN00 to observe and kibitz on our Incandescent
W experiment. At his request we physically separated the cell and the
DC power supply and connected them with a makeshift transmission line (parallel
wires) about 8 feet long. We operated the cell at the end of this transmission
line and experimented with various capacitor terminations at the cell end of
the line, looking for a combination that would dramatically reduce the average
current drawn by the cell. We employed a modern AM radio (with automatic
RF gain control) to monitor the overall RF emissions. Although we could
greatly affect (increase) the RF emissions of the system by adding certain capacitor
values, we could not reduce the average current to decrease noticeably.
Ken
suggested that we run the cell at higher voltages in order to possibly promote
the formation of charge clusters. We filled the cell with distilled water,
applied the full 300 volts from our DC power supply, and then slowly added 0.2M
K2CO3 solution until the cell current rose sufficiently to cause the transition
into glow discharge electrolysis. The appearance of the cathode under
these conditions was significantly different than before. Now the "sparkly"
discharges that appear to dance over the cathode surface were fewer but fatter.
That is, each white spark was noticeably more energetic than before.
We place this cell, with approximately .01 M K2CO3 electrolyte, into our
water-flow calorimeter and conducted a calorimetric measurement. The results
are shown to the left. Note the voltage trace (blue), which is plotted
on a 0-500 volt scale. During the first part of the run, the cell voltage
was about 285 volts, input power (green) was erratic but averaged about 165
watts. Observed output power (purple) was about 161 watts. The 4
watt shortfall can be accounted for in the escaping H2 and O2 gases. The
average current was .60 amps (NOTE: RMS current, which is significantly higher
than average current, is plotted) and we measured the gas evolution to be 3.5
times higher than the Faradaic level. Assuming that all of the escaping
gas is a stoichiometric mixture of H2 and O2, those figures yield an escaping
gas fuel power of 3.1 watts.
In the 2nd half of the run, we decreased the voltage to about 210 volts.
This cooled the cathode to a non-incandescent temperature but left it
covered with the dancing white sparks. As you can see from the plot, the
input power (green) declined slowly during this period and the observed heat
output power (purple) tracked it closely. The yellow trace is cell temperature
and it ranged from 90°C down to about 82°C during the active period
of the run.
We see no sign of excess heat in these data.
ZERO
stability: After this experiment ended, we let the calorimeter system
run overnight. The weather is relatively cold around here these days and
the lab is not heated at night. Therefore the room temperature dropped
steadily throughout the night. In the plot to the right, the entire 16+
hours of data is shown. The power traces are plotted on a vertical scale
that runs from -1 to +9 watts (i.e. 1 watt/div) to reveal the zero performance
of the calorimeter. The room temperature (white) is plotted on a vertical
scale that runs from 15°C to 25°C (i.e. 1°C/div).
As you can see, the reported output power (purple) runs very close to zero
with about a +/- 0.2 watt noise.
Further, the average zero reading of the system is not significantly affected
by the 3°C drop in ambient temperature that occurred during the night.
It should be noted that this immunity to ambient temperatures is not an intrinsic
attribute of this calorimeter system. The ambient temperature directly
affects the rate of heat loss through the walls of the calorimeter enclosure.
The degree of ambient immunity observed in this plot is attained via a
linear correction to the zero offset term used to compute the water-flow delta-T.