Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] What do Hydro-caps do?

[Ray Keefer <Ray.Keefer@ebay.sun.com>]

Hi all,

> 
> George's diesel boat was built for a customer and operated for a time, but 
that's about all I know about it, other than it was in the shop when I was in 
Maine last fall and partly dismantled. 
> 

I had a few e-mails with George on the subject since I would like a 
diesel-electric PSUB. He said then one he did build ended up in Alaska 
where it worked for a while then ended up as someones planter box.

Then he was trying to figure out how to add a diesel to one K-600 that he
had. I don't know if it was a sub he already had or if he got the one
back from Alaska.

He was trying to figure out if he wanted to just power a generator then
feed the electricity to the motors or if he wanted to use the engine
to directly drive a propeller shaft for the main propellor and do away with
his main electric motor.

For reliablilty and effeciency he was looking at driving a propeller shaft.
For ease in installation and with minor alterations the generator idea was
attractive. I never heard what he finally came up with.

His goal was to save on battery power for surface travel, not to recharge
batteries.


> How are you going to carry the batteries? I don't know about venting them 
through the exhaust. Captain George must have had some idea but I don't know 
what it was. I email him every week, and will try to remember and ask him about 
it. You wouldn't need much, however. THere is virtually no offgassing to 
atmostphere with the caps. The only real problem is to replenish the oxygen 
which is drawn from the battery space atmosphere and combined with hydrogen to 
make water. That results in a vacuum after each dive, and a stronger one would 
develop during charging, where considerably more hydrogen is produced.

I am puzzled. When you make hydrogen out of water you also make oxygen. Since
both are confined in a battery case and battery box the both gases should 
remain in the correct ratios for recombination. So why is "replenish the
oxygen" an issue? How can a vacuum be formed if all the original atoms
generated from the water are still there?

Regards,
Ray