It isn't my intention to flame those interest in seeing if adding "oxyhydrogen" to the combustion process increases the efficiency of the gasoline burn, but to call BS on the idea that you can run an engine on a closed energy loop, or that the "brown gas" adds any energy to the equation once you factor in its production.
If you are getting improved milage as a result of the system, I am interested in why, and I have yet to see anything other than invalid salesmanship.
Okay, I should have kept reading in the Wiki page:
As a fuel supplement
Oxyhydrogen gas is effective at improving emissions and efficiency in internal combustion engines when used as a fuel supplement. See Hydrogen fuel enhancement; hydrogen affects the burn rate of fuels and lean combustion capabilities of internal combustion engines.[11][12][13] Fuel Enhancement systems are designed "to feed the hydrogen and oxygen gases directly to an internal combustion engine without intermediate storage".[14]
For diesel applications, it is claimed that "When the hydrogen enriched air is compressed, the diesel fuel is introduced with a resulting improvement in fuel efficiency and maximized combustion of the fuel".[15] Fuel enhancement has the potential to substantially reduce pollution emissions of internal combustion engines; research in 2004 concluded that "HC-emissions as well as NOx-emissions could be reduced to near zero".[16] A 50% reduction in gasoline consumption, at idle, was reported by numerically analyzing "the effect of hydrogen enriched gasoline on the performance, emissions and fuel consumption of a small spark-ignition engine".[17] Hydrogen "addition can guarantee a regular running", of the engine "with many advantages in terms of emissions levels and fuel consumption reduction".[16] Hydrogen fuel enhancement can be optimized by implementing established lean burn concepts, and at minimum to achieve an actual increase in gas mileage the air/fuel ratio needs appropriate modification.[12][11][16][18] "Increases in engine efficiency are more dominant than the energy loss incurred in generating hydrogen",[12] which is supported by computational analysis that "has marked the possibility of operating with high air overabundance (lean or ultra-lean mixtures) without a performance decrease, but with great advantages on pollution emissions and fuel consumption".[17]
More info here:
Hydrogen fuel enhancement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So it seems to work by allowing you to lean out the mixture.... what does this mean for maximum power production? (at WOT when you are at the limits of air flow into the combustion chamber) If you are cutting down the fuel per unit of air, it stands to reason that you are also cutting down the power produced at WOT, unless the increase in burn efficiency outruns the increase in AFR.
What potential for damage is introduced if you tune your engine to run with the hydrogen, and for whatever reason, the hydrogen supply is cut? Will such a piggy-back system work safely without being part of unified engine management system? Can hydrogen production keep pace with demand when you are working the engine hard? Can you justify playing around with this without the research money to bankroll a few blown engines in the process? I can see this having potential when tied to a system built in at the factory that varies AFR and timing to adjust for load and hydrogen feed.
What about
hydrogen embrittlement?
Blah, blah, blah.