This invention relates to a method for decomposing water, consisting of feeding liquid water into a vessel and decomposing the molecules of water by means of electric energy, as well as to an apparatus for decomposing water, including a vessel and electrodes connected to the poles of a voltage source supplying direct current therein.

At the beginning of the XXI. century it became clear, that every scientific research intending and able to reveal a clean and endless source of energy has a great importance for the mankind. Research laboratories and universities, governments and vehicle producers are now exploring to find an energy source changing over the fossil fuels.

The attention of the researchers is focused nowadays on the hydrogen gas as a secondary energy agent. Since the two third of the Earth's surface is covered by water, realizing a cost effective and rapid process of water decomposition in industrial scales could obviously involve a widow's cruse of energy.

Methods of water decomposition are for producing hydrogen from water. The simplest way to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen is the so- called electrolysis. This process takes place between electrodes supplied by direct current and 2,8 kWh electric energy is necessary to produce 1 m ³ hydrogen gas of normal state. It is also known the thermo-chemical decomposition of water steam by way of blue gas reaction as well as a generation process of hydrogen achieved by partial oxidation of methane.

Patent application US 2 004 024 072 discloses a device for thermo- chemical decomposition of water steam, wherein a flow of water steam having temperature between 600 and 800 ⁰ C is conducted into a reactor filled with a fluidized finely-ground mixture of CaO and coal powder.

Patent application CA 2 289 666 discloses a method of direct thermal water decomposition, wherein a volume of water having a temperature of 80 ⁰ C become transformed to steam in a steam generator, then carrying the steam into a reactor containing a complex compound of silicate-aluminate, preferably zeolit. The reactor should externally be heated to a temperature between 300 and 600 ⁰ C.

Published patent application No. WO 2004002881 discloses a method for producing hydrogen gas by way of contacting steam with iron or iron oxide contaminated by earth metals, rare-earth metals, rare metals or noble metals on a relatively low temperature.

While the efficiency of above mentioned blue gas reaction and partial oxidation is low and these methods produce environmentally harmful carbon dioxide, electrolysis is a clean process and its laboratory efficiency is more than 98%, but this efficiency in industrial scale does not reach a range of 75% and having a further disadvantage of being very slow and this is also the case in methods disclosed in above mentioned patents.

Therefore the object of the present invention is to provide a hydrolysing or water decomposing method and apparatus, which are more effective and cheaper by far and produce hydrogen gas faster by orders of magnitude than existing methods and apparatuses forming the state of the art.

We have found that the continuous hydrolysing process known in the art achieved by liquid water should be changed over by a controlled impulse-like method operating along with a non continuous and multiple effect manner, wherein a volume of water-dust will be created from the water and exciting water-dust by electric microwaves, then decomposing excited water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen ions in controlling this multistage feed-back process by a computer. By this method it could be possible to obtain an excellent efficiency and a very high speed of decomposition.

This large increase in speed is due to the use of a phenomenon observed in the nature, namely the ultraharmonic resonance. The multistage resonator device developed by the inventor uses a resonator chamber the operation of which is optimized by a feed back mechanism.

Basic difference between the hydrolysis according to the state of the art and the water decomposition achieved by a multistage resonator device is that the decomposition of water takes place in liquid state and one step in the case of known methods, but for the method and device of multistage resonator the process passes off by using pre-excited steam, exploiting the accelerating effect of high voltage. Consequently, the H ⁺ and O ^{' "} ions do not "drift" between the electrodes in a liquid braking their movement, but high speed ions deriving from water molecules decomposed by high voltage " fly" towards the respective electrode, where they combine diatomic gas. The above aim may easily be achieved by the method according to the invention for decomposing water, the method consisting steps of feeding liquid water into a vessel and decomposing the molecules of water by means of electric energy, and creating cold water-dust from said water by microwave atomization, introducing said water-dust into a chamber of a cavity resonator provided by a microwave energy source, exciting water dust by electric microwaves and creating water steam, introducing said steam consisting of high speed molecules into a high voltage catalyst chamber, decomposing said high speed molecules into hydrogen and oxygen ions, introducing said ions between accelerating electrodes connected to the poles of a controlled voltage source supplying direct current with alternate amplitude, trapping said hydrogen ions on the negatively polarized accelerating electrode (cathode) of said voltage source, and trapping said oxygen ions on the positively polarized accelerating electrode (anode) of said voltage source.

Said microwave atomization advantageously takes place by means of piezoelectric crystals, and said cold water-dust is filtered by a ceramic filter having a pore size of at most 5 μm. The pressure of said cold water-dust is measured by pressure sensors, and the chamber of the cavity resonator is formed of a corrosion-resistant metal.

A ceramic filter having a pore size of at most 5 μm preferably filters the steam consisting of high speed molecules.

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The piezoelectric crystals, the pressure sensors, the microwave energy source and the accelerating electrodes are each connected to a control unit and operated periodically.

Furthermore, an apparatus is provided for decomposing water, the device includes a vessel and electrodes connected to the poles of a voltage source supplying direct current therein, and an atomizing chamber is arranged in the vessel, and a conduit entering the vessel from a water source outside the vessel, and sources of ultrasound are placed in the atomizing chamber, and further, a cavity resonator chamber having at least one magnetron is provided in the vessel, and a filter means is arranged between the atomizing chamber and the cavity resonator chamber, and the apparatus is further provided with a catalyst chamber having an opening receiving a catalyst rod, and a second filter means is arranged between the catalyst chamber and the cavity resonator chamber, and the electrodes are placed in open bottomed gas collecting receivers arranged about the catalyst rod adjacent the opening of the catalyst chamber.

Said sources of ultrasound are piezoelectric crystals, and said atomizing chamber is a metal cylinder and the piezoelectric crystals are arranged spaced apart evenly and symmetrically on the cylindrical shell. The atomizing chamber is provided with pressure sensors, and said filter means is a ceramic filter having a pore size of at most 5 μm.

The cavity resonator chamber is made of a corrosion-resistant metal and both its opposite sides are covered by screen grids, and said second filter means is a ceramic filter having a pore size of at most 5 μm. Said gas collecting receivers are open bottomed glass cylinders connected to gas-issue openings formed on a cover plate of the vessel, and an electrode coating is formed on the inner surfaces thereof.

The piezoelectric crystals, the pressure sensors, the microwave energy source and the accelerating electrodes are each connected to a control unit. The invention will now be described in details by way of attached drawing. On the drawing

Figure 1. shows the inner structure of the apparatus according to the invention.

A preferred embodiment of apparatus according to the invention is arranged in a closed vessel 1 having a cylindrical shell showed in the Figure 1. A lower and an upper microwave screen grid 2a, 2b into three compartments each placed in the whole cross section of the vessel 1, divide the inner space of the vessel 1. In this preferred embodiment, a close-bottomed cylinder 2 made of metal is arranged in the space beneath the lower screen grid 2a. On the cylindrical shell of the cylinder 2 there are four piezoelectric crystals 3 and eight pressure sensors 4 spaced apart evenly along the periphery. Adjacent the bottom of the cylinder 2 a water inlet conduit 5 entered from outside the vessel 1 is connected to the cylinder 2. The conduit 5 is further connected to a water injection device operating discontinuously (not shown) and placed outside the vessel 1. A ceramic filter 6 having a pore diameter between 1 and 5 μm covers the cylinder 2 from above. Advantageously, a baffle means 7 having a form of a conical frustum is arranged between the ceramic filter 6 and the screen grid 2a.

As it is shown on the Figure, a cavity resonator chamber 8 is arranged in the space between the two screen grids 2a, 2b. On the periphery of the chamber 8 two pieces of oppositely displaced magnetrons 9 are attached to the shell of the vessel 1. The resonator chamber 8 is blocked up above by the second screen grid 2b. A baffle means 10 having the form of a conical frustum is attached to the screen grid 2b from above. On the top of the baffle means 10 a ceramic filter 11 is arranged, the pore diameter of which is preferably between 0,1 and 0,5 μm. A catalyst cylinder forming a catalyst chamber 12 having a catalytic coating on its inner surface is fixed on the top of the filter 11 and supported by spacers 13 secured to the shell of the vessel 1. A catalyst rod 15 is immersed into the inner space of the catalyst chamber 12 from the direction of the cover plate 14 of the vessel 1 and it is supported by spacers 16. Spacers 16 are preferably attached to open-bottomed gas collecting receivers 17a, 17b being advantageously glass cylinders fitted to the cover plate 14. In the inside of each glass receivers 17a, 17b unlikely charged accelerating electrodes 18a, 18b are placed, respectively, i.e. electrode 18a is positively charged (anode),

the other electrode 18b (cathode) shall be negatively charged. Gas delivery openings 19a, 19b are formed on the cover plate 14 above the respective glass receivers 17a, 17b. The distance between the electrodes 18a, 18b and the catalyst rod 15 as well as the distance between the catalyst rod 15 and the catalyst cylinder 12 is adjustable externally by means of a threaded device (not shown in the Figure).

In a first step of the operation of the apparatus shown in the Figure distilled or ion exchanged liquid water may be injected through the conduit 5 in a pulse-type manner into the metal cylinder 2 forming a close-bottomed atomizing chamber 21 arranged in the space beneath the lower screen grid 2a inside the vessel 1. Injection of water takes place discontinuously and pressure sensors 4 will measure the actual pressure created in the atomizing chamber 21. The water fed in the chamber 21 becomes steam in a few μs due to the action of the ultrasound energy created by piezoelectric crystals 3 arranged spaced apart evenly and symmetrically, oppositely in pairs around the cylindrical shell of the chamber 21. The oscillation of the piezoelectric crystals 3 and the cycles of the water injection may be harmonized by means of a computer (not shown) taking into account the pressure values measured by the pressure sensors 4, too. A ratio between the chordal distance of the crystals 3 and the wave length of the ultrasound created by the crystals 3 is determined in such a manner, that the ultrasound waves interfering in the space of the chamber 21 will be maximally amplified in predetermined points, preferably in the axis of the chamber 21, consequently the acoustical power of the ultrasound will be concentrated in these points or region. The operation of the crystals 3 may be modified by the computer on the base of the pressure values measured by the sensors 4 in such a way, that the ultrasounds created by the crystals 3 will be amplified exactly in the region mentioned above in despite of change of the pressure prevailing in the chamber 21. The cold water dust resulted in this manner may pass through the filter 6 which is a barrier in relation to liquid water on the other hand.

Molecules of water become steam in the region of amplification and passing through a filter 6 and the baffle means 7 as well as the screen grid 2a enter the resonator chamber 8.

Oppositely displaced magnetrons 9 attached to the periphery of the chamber 8 radiate microwave electromagnetic energy into the inner space of the chamber 8 in a pulsed manner, which is determined by the computer, resulting in an extremely increased speed of the molecules of water.

Molecules of water passed through the screen grid 2b covering the resonator chamber 8 may enter the baffle means 10 having a form of conical frustum and the ceramic filter 11 with a pore diameter of 0,1-0,5 μm, then they reach the cylindrical catalyst chamber 12. The catalyst rod 15 hanging into the catalyst chamber 12 from above and an inner coating of the chamber 12 are connected to the respective poles of a high voltage source of some kVs. Molecules of water moving with a high speed will decompose into H ⁺ and O ^2' ions due to the high voltage, and these ions will be streaming from the catalyst cylinder 12 towards the respective open-bottomed gas collecting receivers 17a, 17b made of glass containing accelerating electrodes 18a, 18b and coatings 18c, 18d formed on the surface of the glass receivers 17a, 17b, since these electrodes 18a, 18b and coatings 18c, 18d are oppositely polarized and fed by direct current having an alternating amplitude. Therefore, H ⁺ ions will be trapped on the cathode (i.e. electrode 18a) and O ^2' ions on the anode (i.e. electrode 18b), indeed, that is they accept or emit an electron, respectively. Thus each glass receiver 17a, 17b will contain H2 or O ₂ gas. These gases may be delivered through the gas-issue openings 19a, 19b formed on the cover plate 14 of the vessel 1.

The main advantage of the apparatus and method according to the invention is that the speed of the gas generation will be in a range of fifty times higher than that of the conventional hydrolysing methods according to the state of the art, moreover, its efficiency exceeds extremely the efficiency of the conventional hydrolysis accomplished nowadays in industrial scale.