Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here to save the day. I found a solution to everything. Granted, it may not be as cost effective as @streamlover's magnesium stick + malic acid method, but it is the easiest way yet and can,reach up to 7.0 ppm dissolved hydrogen. I made an LongeCity account just to post this information.
Before I get to saving the day, I would like to contribute my ideas regarding other people's posts and alternative DIY methods for making hydrogen water. I will post the rest, including the solution to everything, later tonight.
I) Initial Thoughts:
- First, from my point of view, I side with the idea of drinking hydrogen water to be easier than breathing hydrogen produced by electrolysis. Just my gut instinct, and a more personal convenience. @adamh may have found breathing hydrogen more convenient to him, which I respect. Also, I don't mind consuming the magnesium since I have CFS and am low in magnesium. I do however, would mind drinking that much acidic water. So ideally, I would like to be drinking alkaline or neutral, high PPM hydrogen water.
- Why the heck are you guys buying magnesium metal off ebay and from China? Buy it from any US based scientific materials company such as Sigma Aldrich, Thomas Scientific, Fisher Science, etc. You don't need a license or anything special to buy from them. They have 99.998% pure magnesium rods, strips, chips, powders.
- I think @Streamlover 's technique could be optimized using Stoichiometry to maximize hydrogen and minimize magnesium and malic acid. I plan on doing a bunch of stoichiometry calculations for this to see ideal amount of Mg and malic acid. I will do calculations using other methods to see the conditions needed for 3.5ppm+. I also think his method could be improved by using magnesium metal powder. Using powder, will expose a larger surface of magnesium for the hydrogen ions from the malic acid to react with. It should also minimize the mangesium oxide (MgO) formed, which prevents more of the magnesium stick from reacting.
- THC = Total Hydrocarbons, like Methane, Ethane, Propane, Hexane, etc.
- Pressure is needed to increase H2 concentration. Henry's Law, which is c = PP/ka , describes the solubility of gases in solution. And Streamlover's magnesium stick method does increase the pressure inside the bottle in the air above the waterline as H2 is produced.
II) Hydrogen At-Home Carbination
To me, I would think that the easiest, highest ppm, and likely cheapest in terms of $0.01 per dose of hydrogen, would be to imitate a DIY, at-home carbonation setup. I have read the whole thread and @aconita and other's concerns about using highly pressurized hydrogen, including but not limited to hydrogen leaking, ignition, and metal weakening. I think that metal weakening is more of a long term prospect, requiring annual or semi annual replacement of parts. Also, the part most subject to metal weakening is the tank and the primary valve on top of the tank, since the other parts would only be in contact with hydrogen during water filling. Also, looking at lecture-sized tanks of hydrogen say storage time is indefinite if stored safely. Storage and ignition are concerns for me, but metal shops store hydrogren all the time in larger quantities and pressures.
DIY Carbination Setup is very easy and simple. It would be the same copied from these links, but would change the tank of C02 to H2:
As you can see from the links, the materials required are:
-Gas tank (Instead, use hydrogen in lecture-sized tank1 or smallest tank available, note grade3 or purity of H2 gas)
-2 Dial Pressure Regulator2
-Tubing (preferably PET plastic)
-Ball-Lock Keg Tap (brass ideal, but PET plastic next best)
-Carbonation Bottle Cap4 (brass ideal, but PET plastic next best)
-Bottle (plastic bottle that can handle pressures)
1Other links for a small hydrogen tanks are here: 14L bottle, lecture sized tank. Yes, even at $240 (one can shop around too), I think buying a tank like this would be cheaper per glass of hydrogen water. I'll do the math and post it later to confirm. The # of moles (or mass) of hydrogen gas needed would be very small to hydrogenate a liter of water. And you can still achieve high partial pressure of the hydrogen gas above the water, by minimizing the volume for the hydrogen. The volume left over in the tubes would be minimized and marginal.
2Signma Aldrich, Finn Scientific, or where ever you would order your hydrogen gas from recommends the type of regulator to use with hydrogen gas. A brass material regulator is suggeste
3I found the same catalog sheet from Airgas as @Mrwhitetee and noted the purity grades. THC = Total Hydrocarbons, so methane, ethane, propane, hexane, etc. Keep in mind, 1 PPM of THC or CO is 1 molecule for every million molecules of H2, which when dissolved in water is for then for every million water molecule. So, using @Streamlover's concentration of 3.6ppm it's really (1 PPM CO)*(3.6 PPM H2) = 3.6 PPTrillion CO in water. When thinking of it that way, it's unlikely we'd need research grade. However, I would have to think about it more and weigh cost differences.
4These caps allow the bottle to be kept under pressure, so you could theoretically keep several hydrogen waters in the fridge. Yes, some H2 would escape through the plastic, but it loss of partial pressure of hydrogen above the water would be very small and the high pressure above the water would keep the hydrogen in solution.
A bubbler not needed. You can get more gas dissolved by shaking the water than using a bubbler. (You can shake a fish tank, hence bubblers are used) Just need the gas in the space above the water. Supersatured hydrogen water is done by shaking and higher partial pressure. The hydrogen water with 5.0-10.0 ppm in some research papers was done by shaking the bottles (http://medicalgasres...3618-015-0034-2).
III. Modified DIY Hydrogen Carbination
If someone is worried about using a tank of hydrogen gas from a scientific supply company for either safety, storage, purity, or cost reasons, you could use the same materials/components, but replace the gas canister tank with a reaction vessel in which you create your own hydrogen in via an aluminum + lime reaction or sodium borohydride + water reaction.
Some brainstorming on what kind of container to do the reaction in would be required. Some sort of high pressure bottle or plastic jar or something. Then connect the reaction vessel to same regulator (or similar valve), then to tubing, then to the ball lock keg tap, then to the carbination cap, and then to your water bottle.
This method would require you to do stoichiometry and other PV=nrT calculations so you don't exceed the pressure capabilities of your reaction vessel and water bottle, essentially creating a bomb. I think would probably be the easiest and cheapest method for most people, since you wouldn't have to worry about tanks of hydrogen, refilling them, sending them back, etc. However, some chemistry and math would have to happen.
If you could easily store the hydrogen water in the fridge while under pressure with hydrogen without much leaking, I favor this method the most, since you could fill a bunch of water bottles at one time with the built up H2 pressure from the reaction vessel.
IV. DIY Gas Permeable Film + Check Valve Tube Method
This DIY method is replicating Methods I & II as seen in this research paper: http://medicalgasres...3618-015-0034-2 Some brainstorming and ideas for replicating this method have been done, but I have some ideas to contribute. I believe Method II in the paper just keeps the gas permeable film packet separate from the drinking water by inserting it into an acrylic tube. Once the hydrogen generating container is made, any chemical reaction that makes H2 could be used.
Check Valve: To create the tube with check valve, I would use a disposable check valve frequently used in medical equipment such as IV lines and other devices. See a selection here: http://www.qosina.com/check-valves Some experiementation on which one would be best would be needed, based on which size fitting would fit the tube best and what pressure setting the check valve is set to.
Tube: The tube connecting to the check valve would likely be a plastic test tube or even just plastic PET tubing cut short to the desired length. The choice would be dependent on getting a good seal/fit with the valve. A plug or cap on the other end of the tubing would seal it. Tubing cut short would also make the container easy to clean from the H2 generating chemical reaction. The problem with this is that it's been hard to find matching sizes between the tube and valve. Maybe the 22mm check valve with 22mm test tube or tubing, but I couldn't find a non-glass 22mm test tube (remember we'll be shaking the water bottle)
Another possibility is to use a plastic test tube with screw on cap. Then drill a small hole in the cap that will accept a check valve with narrow diameter inlet and epoxy the check valve to the screw on cap. This is probably much easier than matching sizes of tubes.
If anyone can find a tube with a LuerLok that accepts, that would be ideal, but I couldn't.
Gas Permeable Film: Now, if the check valve works properly and there are good seals, I don't think you'd need a this gas permeable film. However, I did come up with a possible solution: Gas permeable film = tea bag. See this article about the material new tea bags are made out of: http://www.theatlant...plastic/274482/ Newer teabags are made out of plastic, either food grade nylon or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. I would think it would be very easy to acquire samples of these tea bag materials. Or even easier, just sacrifice a herbal tea bag that uses a silky pouch/bag. From researching tea bags for this post, the raw film/material can come to be heat-sealable.You could seal two ends of the film together using a soldering iron (laying two layers on top and drawing a pocket) or heating a metal in the shape you want to create your mini hydrogen teabag.
The thing with the tea bag material is I'm not entirely sure that none of the chemical reactants would not escape. I don't know how fine the mesh is or if it is a mesh. That may be big the flaw in this idea.
Just googling "gas permeable films" produced a lot of stuff. So a more in depth search may find a solution for this.
V. Optimizing Streamlover's Magnesium and Malic Acid Method
I will do the stoichiometry calculations for this at a later time. Magnesium powder should be used.
VI. Save the Day Solution
Will post this part later tonight.