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What is Brown's Gas?

By Matthew F.
Updated: May 16, 2024
Views: 24,617
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Brown's gas is a chemical used in high-powered lights and lamps, torches, and welding tools. Also known as oxyhydrogen, Brown's gas was named for Yull Brown, a Bulgarian inventor who first patented two producers of oxyhydrogen. It is a technology that burns water as fuel, and can be used for heating, cutting, fusing, and is popular in automotive industries. It is also known as HHO gas, di-hydroxy, green glass, water glass, and knallgas.

Brown's gas has been used to produce oxyhydrogen lamps, like the limelight sometimes used in stage lighting. It is also used in the melting of and working with many metals. Because of the high temperature possible in oxyhydrogen, the chemical has been used to melt various metals, such as platinum, since its discovery, though more efficient and safe methods have since been discovered. The oxyhydrogen torch has been used in this method for cutting glass and thermoplastocs as well. It has also been used as an experimental automotive fuel.

Brown's gas is a mixture of the elements of water in the same proportions as water: hydrogen and oxygen mixed at a 2:1 ration. An electric current is used to separate and disassociate the molecules of the water, allowing the hydrogen and oxygen to act independently of each other. It can burn with almost any volume of hydrogen, and when burnt it converts to water vapor and releases energy. This energy released is enough to keep the reaction burning, and the chemical powered, as long as hydrogen remains.

Brown's gas burns at a rate of 241.8 kilojoules of energy. It can reach a temperature of 2800° Celsius (5072° Fahrenheit), which is nearly 700° C (1290° F) hotter than a normal hydrogen flame produced in air. When the molecules are in their proper ratio and producing their own energy, ignition is enough to keep the gas burning and can reach a level 3.8 times higher than that of a normal oxygen flame.

Yull Brown first patented an electrolyzer in 1977 to utilize the power and benefits of Brown's gas. The electrolyzer is a tool that separates the oxygen and hydrogen of water by decomposing it into its separate components. Brown's gas has been introduced to manufacturers and the general public through generators which prepare the gas for welding. It is a relatively safe substance to work with. It is odorless and not poisonous when inhaled or ingested, and its cheap cost and abdundance, only the price of electricity and water, make Brown's gas an available and convenient chemical for many scientific endeavors.

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Discussion Comments
By Recure — On May 08, 2022

Oh my, Matthew. Here are a few things to complain about:

Brown's Gas is a gas and not a chemical ) there are differences)

It is not oxyhydrogen, the oxyhydrogen has only 1/3 of the energy. known, It is used not only in techn but also in medicine.

Brown's Gas is a mixture of the water elements in the same ratio as water: 2:1 in a single channel system. That's important, as MB King aptly described it in a 2011 scientific paper: "unusual energetic anomalies, which include the vaporization of tungsten when used in a welding torch and the operation of internal combustion engines on small amounts of gas. Some claim closed-cycle generators exclusively to run on the gas from the electrolyser, fed solely by the generator Most researchers believe that the energy comes from the combustion of hydrogen It is hypothesized that the dominant energy does not come from hydrogen but from charged water gas clusters activate and coherently capture zero-point energy.

This released energy is enough to keep the reaction going and power the chemical as long as hydrogen is present. Not correct!! the chemical (the gas) is not supplied with energy by itself, that would be a perpetuum mobile, but it needs an energy and also a catalyst. Investigate the hypothesis that the dominant energy coming from the water electrolysers does not come from hydrogen, but from another source that could be much more energetic: charged water-gas clusters that activate and coherently harvest zero-point energy (ZPE). Others have suggested a coherent water-zero-point energy interaction. Prevenslik [9] presented a model in which a collapsing nanobubble coherently activates a standing wave of the ZPE, the continuously increasing resonance frequency of which acts like an ultraviolet X-ray laser, which coincides with the dissociation frequency of the hydrogen-oxygen bond of water to achieve charge separation. He applied the model to explain steam electricity, waterfall ionization, sonoluminescence, and storm cloud charge separation. If Prevenslik is correct, this implies that zero-point energy is a major contributor to flash formation. To further support the ZPE hypothesis, another phenomenon exhibiting energetic anomalies resembling energetic fluids gas is discussed in Appendix B: plasma charge clusters. Plasma charge clusters are a form of microscopic ball lightning observed experimentally and extensively studied by Ken Shoulders [12]. He named them "electrum validum" (EV), meaning "strong charge", and later renamed them "exotic vacuum objects" (EVO) when he became convinced that they were coherently coupled to the ZPE to induce the to explain excessive energy that they manifested [13]. The observed energetic anomalies in their interaction with high melting point ceramics are similar to those exhibited by Energetic fluid's gas welding torch.

By anon246427 — On Feb 09, 2012

How complicated is it then to separate the o2 from the hydrogen?

By anon61938 — On Jan 23, 2010

brown's gas is mono atomic H1 and O1 as opposed to di atomic = H2 and O2. H1 and O1 are highly active (they want to fill their outside valence rings) whereas H2 and O2 are more stable. H1 + H1 + O1 = browns gas = in a contained environment will implode not explode.

By pocurana — On Sep 27, 2008

Anon17734 -- Depending on the relative amounts of hydrogen and oxygen used to make Brown's gas, it can be a relatively safe gas. Yull Brown discovered a proprietary method of water electrolysis that created a non-explosive mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gas. If a 2:1 ratio of hydrogen:oxygen was mixed, and this can be off (apparently) by +/- 5%, the resulting gas will be safe. I think it's when the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen is much different than a two to one ratio that the result becomes _incredibly_ explosive as you note.

By anon17734 — On Sep 05, 2008

Say what? A mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, especially in the 2:1 atomic ratio produced by water electrolysis, is _incredibly_ explosive. I can't see how you can possibly call it a "relatively safe substance"! There's nothing special at all about Brown's gas. It is just a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, and you'd get the same thing by mixing O2 and H2 from a tank: a very explosive mixture!

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