What you’ll learn:
- Hydrogen is a dirty and inefficient fuel.
- Hydrogen-powered steam engines may be the most politically favorable vehicle powering solution for America, despite science saying nuh-uh.
- Science fair project complexity has evolved thanks to the compounding effect that technology has on technology.
- Take our science fair poll.
A brain is just fat
Unless you put something in
Make beautiful minds
Last week saw our annual April Fool’s Electronic Design tradition published. Though I joined as a technology editor a year ago (on April Fool’s, no less), I’d already been a contributing author for ED’s April 1st articles for a few years prior. This year’s April Fool’s piece found me writing about fueling Toyota’s Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell car (“FCEV”) at a Tesla Supercharger using onboard HHO generators (aka “electrolyzers” for the less science-whack crowd).
I wrote that piece as somewhat of an expert—I’d built a propulsion system that converted electricity to motive power via hydrogen storage as my science fair project in high school, a short while ago (on a geological time scale).
Honorable Discharge
I was on the five-year “honors” program, with the fifth high school year in Ontario being a prep year for a university degree that was earned with mid-30s hours a week of engineering classes over the following four years. That intense level of study meant that, back then (high school in Ontario is only four years now), a Canadian Bachelor’s in “Applied Science” degree was equivalent to an American Master’s program in engineering.
A good part of why I became an engineer was not merely my passion for physics, an enjoyment of math, my curiosity for tech, and a penchant for troubleshooting and solving problems. It was also a love for fixing, tearing down and reassembling, and building things from early childhood.
In high school we had elective classes, with most of my honors cohort taking art, literature (which I didn’t care much for, but found myself inevitably as an on/off tech writer during most of my engineering career), music, and theater electives (the “Collegiate” part of the “Institute’s” name).
I also took electives as shop classes (the “& Vocational” part of the school’s name). Those classes included drafting, woodworking, automotive, welding, electricity, machine (my brother was on the four-year track at our high school, took an apprenticeship, and became a tool and die maker), and an electronics class where we built a tube amp, a Superhet tube radio, and a transistor AM radio receiver, in addition to learning circuit and device theory and about operating lab equipment.
"Boiler-Plate" Design
Each year, our high school would have its science fair, which I may incorrectly recall was open to senior year (Grade 12 and Grade 13) students. In machine shop class, each of us had built our own working steam engine from scratch as our project for the fall term, so it only made sense to include it in my science fair entry. In addition to the steam engine, I also constructed a crude boiler, using a piece of 2-in. copper pipe and machining a couple of endplates to solder to it.
To fire the boiler, I used the principles we had learned in chemistry class and built a hydrolyzer (aka “HHO generator” by the miles-per-gallon ICE people) that collected the hydrogen produced from water when an electrical power supply discharged into the electrodes. I was able to demonstrate a continuous, albeit small, hydrogen flame.
This wasn’t enough heat to run the boiler. So, I drove my “built” Ford Falcon (I converted my dad’s three-on-the-tree, 144 cu in six, to a four-on-the-floor, 300HP V8) over to the Matheson gas office in town and managed to talk them into lending a full tank (about the size of a small propane torch cylinder, but much beefier) of Wasserstoff and a pressure regulator for my project. I used this highly compressed hydrogen to fire my boiler and show a running steam engine.
That little project got me to the regionals, was a factor in my university admission toward an EE degree, and created one of the biggest skeptics on LinkedIn against using hydrogen for anything but an industrial feedstock, despite my use of a Make America Great Again steam engine in my functional hydrogen-propulsion prototype.
Despite editors and Olympic sprinters drinking tailpipe water from hydrogen ICE vehicles, H2 is a dirty fuel that’s derived from methane-leaking, fracking wells. The production of hydrogen by steam reforming methane burns more methane for heat and the process itself releases CO2.
“Green hydrogen,” produced from alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro, throws away about 2/3 of that clean source energy (vs. directly charging a battery in your Electric DeLorean EV) used in a fuel-cell car [hydrogen → fuel cell = water vapor (a greenhouse GAS) + onboard battery charging]. However, it’s still not viable economically and is dullard engineering for zero operational emissions mobility in my book.
Back to the Future
Fast forward to today, and I’m back at a regional high school science fair, this time as a volunteer (as if I have the time for it, but I signed up anyway to give back to the community and provide a role model of engineering for young minds) judge where I live now.
The level of sophistication of the projects I’m reviewing is a testament to those of us who were part of the buildout and innovation that produced learning, research, and computational tools that are lightyears beyond the public library, slide rules (OK, I was the last cohort who was taught the slipstick, the last one learning vacuum tubes, the first to allow four-function calculators on tests, and the first to ban programmable calculators on tests), and typewriters we had back when I was in high school.
Reviewing the dozen or so projects in this year’s science fair’s electrical and mechanical track is like drinking from a firehose in terms of technology depth. And with projects researched using YouTube, Google/Bing, and AI, and the availability of expert communities such as forums and Reddit, it’s tough to discriminate the innovation from mere execution of others’ solutions.
Combine that with the rapid prototyping available for 20 or so dollars via Arduino or 100 bucks for a 3D printer, and high school students these days are better equipped to test, implement, and iterate concepts, ideas, and solutions on a level that was only available to us in corporate research labs a couple of decades ago. Some, not all, of the EE science fair projects’ goals that I need to review and grade over the coming week are:
- To create a memcapacitor emulator platform that’s accessible over the internet for anybody who would like to run their own tests on the emulator circuit.
- To develop underexplored conductive [3D printer] filaments for use in electronics.
- To create a Badminton Shuttlecock Launcher, also known as a Multi Machine, that’s reasonably priced for the average badminton player.
- To create a small, portable, and accessible robot for the average person who wants "an extra hand."
- To design a zero-gravity IV drip that can transfer liquids into humans in outer space at a rate that’s safe, with minimal air bubbles, and is made up of harmless plastics and materials.
- To try and make the best possible alarm [clock] that could stimulate your three most powerful senses—touch, sight, and hearing.
- To provide an affordable and efficient drowning prevention system for as low as $33.
‘Tis the season for science fairs—both this one and FIRST Robotics are culminating this time of year in regional and national competition. Though it’s likely too late to sign up as a judge or mentor, think about the upcoming academic year and how you can give back to the community; how you can inspire a young mind into joining us in a profession that hopefully produces more good for society than the few that destroy it. It would help multiply our white-hatted army’s strength through experience, education, critical thinking, vision, and stubborn resolve that solves the most formidable problems to make the world a better place.
The Northwest Science Expo is being held on April 11, 2025, at Portland State University.
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