AC and Electrolysis

[Highlight]

I am not a scientist. But I hope you will bear with me anyway. Everybody knows how you can use DC to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water through electrolysis. I don't know which is which, but oxygen is drawn to one pole of an electrode in water and hydrogen is drawn to the electrode with the other pole. I was just wondering if anybody knows this. With the H20 molecule being electrified, can the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in H20 take on an attribute of being attracted to one pole or another in a magnetic field? If not, then you can reject the rest of what I am going to say.

I was reading that using a Tesla coil, you could use just one volt of DC current and transform it into many thousands of volts of AC current. Then use that current to simply electrify water. Though not to the point of sending AC arcs of electricity through the water. With the water being highly electrified with AC current, use very strong Neodymium magnets to help break the H20 molecular bond and having oxygen being attracted to one pole and hydrogen being attracted to the other pole.

Electrolysis by itself using DC isn't very efficient. But adding the power of strong Neodymium magnets to the process with an AC current could make it much more efficient. And if you can efficiently get hydrogen out of water, our energy problems would be solved.

 

[renormalize]

With the H20 molecule being electrified, can the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in H20 take on an attribute of being attracted to one pole or another in a magnetic field?

The answer to that specific question is no. But that's not to say that magnetic fields can't have a (modest) effect on water electrolysis. See:
The effects of magnetic fields on the electrochemical and molecular dynamics during water electrolysis

 

[Baluncore]

Electrolysis by itself using DC isn't very efficient. But adding the power of strong Neodymium magnets to the process with an AC current could make it much more efficient.

DC is more efficient than AC when you convert the AC to DC by using a rectifier bridge with a reservoir capacitor, or a big inductive choke. One reason is that the reaction runs continuously, without reversing or stopping.

You get efficiency with DC by connecting many electrolysis cells in series, so the same current flows through all cells. That needs a higher voltage, but for say six cells, the loss of energy in the rectifier becomes irrelevant.

You can take the current directly from say, a 30 volt solar panel, to drive say, fifteen electrolysis cells in series.

 

[Highlight]

The answer to that specific question is no. But that's not to say that magnetic fields can't have a (modest) effect on water electrolysis. See:
The effects of magnetic fields on the electrochemical and molecular dynamics during water electrolysis

I don't have a lot of time or expertise to go through the document you provided a link to. Though it said that in one application, the introduction of a magnetic field could result in a about a 6% increase in electrolysis. Which isn't enough to make much difference. But I'm glad to see that there are scientists working on the problem of improving electrolysis.

 

[Highlight]

DC is more efficient than AC when you convert the AC to DC by using a rectifier bridge with a reservoir capacitor, or a big inductive choke. One reason is that the reaction runs continuously, without reversing or stopping.

You get efficiency with DC by connecting many electrolysis cells in series, so the same current flows through all cells. That needs a higher voltage, but for say six cells, the loss of energy in the rectifier becomes irrelevant.

You can take the current directly from say, a 30 volt solar panel, to drive say, fifteen electrolysis cells in series.

I spoke of converting DC to AC. No doubt doing so would cause some loss in efficiency. And no doubt a huge drop an amperage. But I was thinking that having around 100,000 volts of AC from a one volt DC source might be beneficial. Though not knowing much about electronics, maybe doing so isn't possible from a one DC source without causing too much draw from the one DC source.

Also, Tesla was able to cause arcs of electricity to spark through the air using his Tesla coil AC current. I was thinking that such energy run through water might do something to weaken the molecular bond in H2O. Maybe doing that in conjunction with a regular DC electrolysis might help improve the electrolysis in an overall manner. Using both AC and DC. Along with doing so in a strong magnetic field.

Basically, I am just spitballing with the whole idea. It might give somebody with much more knowledge to be able to build off of.

 

[berkeman]

I don't have a lot of time or expertise to go through the document you provided a link to.

That's not a good sign. You were given a good reference to help you answer your question, and you don't have time to read through it?

I spoke of converting DC to AC. No doubt doing so would cause some loss in efficiency. And no doubt a huge drop an amperage. But I was thinking that having around 100,000 volts of AC from a one volt DC source might be beneficial.

No, that is basically impossible and/or extremely inefficient.

Basically, I am just spitballing with the whole idea.

Please don't do that. It's fine to ask reasonable questions, but it's not fine to suggest blue-sky impossible stuff here at PF.