The Correlation of Surface Morphology to the HHO Generator Gas Production

Of the many stainless-steel plates used for electrodes, typically HHO generator utilized a 316L stainless steel which is a low-carbon material and the properties depend on the oxide layer on its surface (Lodhi et al 2019). In general, the use of SS316L electrode plates measuring 100 x 100 mm arranged in 5 cells with an input voltage of 12 volts DC will produce an electric current output of 10 Ampere and a flow rate of HHO gas 500mL/min. In order to increase the quality and volume of HHO gas production, it can be done by increasing the surface roughness and contact angle on the electrode plate through the grinding and polishing process using grinding machines and abrasive paper or sandpapers starting with numbers 800, 1200 and 1400 to increase the surface roughness of the electrode plate until the roughness value reaches 1 - 0.25 μm. The surface roughness value of the electrode plate is measured using a 3D Profilometer, a tool for measuring the roughness of the metal surface, which is carried out on two kinds of electrode plates without polishing and on the electrode plate with polishing. This condition gave different results, namely, on the electrode plate without polishing the average roughness was 0.625 μm and the electrode plate with the polishing average roughness was 0.235 μm. Measurements were made on 8 samples of electrode plates without polishing and 8 electrode plates with polishing and a measuring point matrix on each of the 10 measuring points plates. The results show a significant difference of 30% from the surface roughness value and the resulting volume of HHO gas production through the calibration process carried out on the HHO generator is 11%. From this research, it can be concluded that surface roughness has a direct effect on the volume of HHO gas production with the same input voltage of 12 volts DC with an electric current output of 8.86 Ampere which is relatively smaller than the electrodes plate used without polishing.