more on Carbo Plus

[Roger Miller <rgrmill at rt66_com>]

Something that occured to me after I sent my first letter on this topic...

The CO2-producing reaction at the anode:

2H2O + C -> CO2 + 4H+ + 4e-

is actually two reactions.

The first reaction is the oxidation of water:

2H2O -> O2 + 4H+ + 4e-

and the second step is the combination of the oxygen with the carbon
anode:

O2 + C -> CO2

If the device is 100% efficient, then all of the oxygen will combine with
the carbon anode and the gas bubbling off the anode will be pure CO2;
that's unlikely to happen.  Only a part of the oxygen will actually react
with the carbon anode, so the gas bubbling off the anode should be a
mixture of CO2 + O2.  The proportions between CO2 and O2 depend on how
well the carbon is combined with oxygen.  If the anode isn't working well
there might not be very much CO2 in the bubbles coming off the device.

Inefficient reaction at the anode seems like a likely explanation for the
case where the CarboPlus bubbles along without having much effect on pH or
plant growth.  Perhaps a new carbon block would work better.  In fact, if
the efficiency drops as the reaction rate increases then you might
actually get a better result by turning the device *down*.


Roger Miller

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