How to Build a Hydrogen Generator

Hydrogen offers a cleaner and more stable fuel alternative than fossil fuels such as oil and gas. It means using the power of water in a high pressure steam form to separate the hydrogen from the water and produce fuel. This process produces hydrogen that can burn as fuel and works great for classroom demonstrations. Look below for guidelines on how to create a hydrogen generator.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Scissors
• Bottles
• Knife
• Carpenter pencil
• Telephone wire
• Hot glue
• Glue gun
• Tubing
• Electrodes
• Valve

1. Cut the top off a 2 liter plastic bottle and the bottoms off of two 20 ounce plastic bottles using scissors. Cut the larger bottle enough so that the two smaller bottles fit comfortably inside of it. Be sure to retain the screw on caps form the bottles.

2. Use a sharp utility knife to carefully cut away the wooden casing of the pencil leaving you with just the carbon graphite lead shaft. Break the lead into two separate but equal pieces using your knife.

3. Remove the approximately ¼ inch of insulation from two 12 inch telephone wires using a stripping pliers before removing 2 more inches of insulation from the opposite ends.

4. Wrap the exposed copper from the telephone wire at the 2 inch end around the ends of the pencil lead and secure in place with a little hot glue.

5. Use a drill to drill holes into the center of the two small pop bottle caps and attach a 24-inch long piece of plastic aquarium tubing. Secure in place by placing a little hot glue around both the inside and outside hole perimeter. Once dry, replace the caps onto the bottles by screwing into place.

6. Place electrodes with wire attached in the bottom side of the two small pop bottles using hot glue to secure it in place. Put the small bottles inside the large pop bottle and hot glue in place so they cannot move.

7. Place an aquarium 2 to 1 mixer value into the free ends of the tubing before connecting to the wires from the electrodes to the correct terminals on a 12-volt battery. It may be an idea to label the positive wire "Anode Oxygen" and the negative wire "Cathode Hydrogen."