Being somewhat of a nerd at heart, homemade hydrogen using a personal hydrogen generator just sounds cool. Making things at home is always fun, and making things at home that are both useful and explosive, like homemade hydrogen, is definitely a nerd's paradise. So beyond being explosive, what are the real benefits to using a hydrogen generator to make homemade hydrogen? A hydrogen generator, like the one pictured below, is a simple apparatus that generates hydrogen from pure water through electrolysis for home use.  They're generally pretty cheap and effective, but often, the homemade hydrogen is difficult to store for use.

The first question that must be asked is what are the practical uses of homemade hydrogen, besides blowing things up :) Did you know that homemade hydrogen can be used as a fuel additive to enhance the property of other fuels? Even in very small quantities it can increase fuel mileage on a vehicle, which is definitely of use in our current economy. It works with propane, natural gas, regular gasoline, and diesel.

But I need to point out a few potential imposters in the realm of homemade hydrogen. Other fuel additives, specifically potassium hydroxide, are used at times in place of homemade hydrogen. Potassium hydroxide is just drain cleaner, an acid that's a pretty dangerous, caustic chemical to be dealing with. If not careful, it can seriously damage the paint of your car or the skin on your body, and even blind you if you happen to trip while carrying it and get it in your eyes. So watch out.

But back to hydrogen generators. Hydrogen generators come in many different kinds. Some generators are for cars, some for industrial, some for medical, and some are for home use. Some generators create ultra high purity H2 from distilled or deionized water, while other hydrogen generators extract the hydrogen from hydrogen rich chemicals. Hydrogen generators that make homemade hydrogen generally run off of a process electrolysis, where pure water is electrified, splitting its molecules into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2).

Electrolysis is a very simple process. All a person has to do is suspend two electrified wires (one positive, one negative) in water, and after a short while, gas bubbles will begin to form on each of the wires. Go here for a more in depth plan of how to build your own hydrogen generator. Having a good plan to go off of is definitely better than just putting some live wires into a glass of water to see what happens. With the right hydrogen generator, you can generate enough homemade hydrogen to run many systems in your home, including your stove, your water heater, and a regular generator.

Hydrogen cells exist that can be attached to cars called electronic fuel injection enhancers (EFIE). Basically, they use the process of electrolysis to introduce a small amount of hydroxy gas to the air that's already being drawn into the engine. As a result, the mix of air/hydroxy gas burns very much better. This gives higher fuel efficiency and in some cases can actually cause the exhaust coming out of the engine to be more oxygen rich, aka cleaner, taking away the need for a catalytic converter. The electricity needed for the electrolysis is drawn off of the car's alternator to create what's called HHO, or oxyhydrogen, or hydroxy gas. This is a process that can actually be done yourself and there are many sources that have guides for making HHO and converting your car into a hybrid.  Though I haven't done the process myself, with new plans claiming to do the whole process for less than $100, it's starting to sound pretty inticing.  Before, the process of creating and adding HHO, and reformatting the fuel mixture ratios was always an expensive professional service.  Now, apparently, we can do it ourselves.  Here's to saving money and fuel!