Hydrogen production and use

Hey again. Right now, the main source of power I'm looking into is hydrogen, derived from water electrolysis. In case you aren't familiar with the concept, water electrolysis is the separation of water (H2O) into its components: Hydrogen and Oxygen. It works by using two electrodes (made out of some inert conductive material, I'll explain why later) to pass an electric current through water. This creates two half-reactions which cause hydrogen bubbles to form at one electrode and oxygen bubbles to form at the other. If you preform an experiment similiar to this, you will notice that there is more hydrogen than oxygen. This is because the molecule of water is two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. Thus it will create twice as much hydrogen as oxygen. You also must use a DC (direct current) power source for this experiment, as AC (alternating current) alternates the current over 60 times a second and produces no results. Now, back to the topic of the electrodes. You should use an inert metal or other conductive material such as stainless steel, platinum, or even carbon, as they will not OXIDIZE. Oxygen happens to be your worst enemy during this entire process, as if you use certain metals such as copper, steel, iron, or other reactive metals, you'll get a very corroded electrode (I know from experience.) I've ordered carbon rods (essentially huge pencil leads) to see how well they'll preform. Otherwise, I may need to buy platinum electrodes, as it is the only fairly conductive metal that will not corrode. Finally, as when I perform this experiment, you'll want to use some sort of electrolyte to make the water more conductive, thusly speeding up the electrolyzing process. I used table salt (NaCl) at first, until I smelled the cathode (where oxygen comes out) and smelled CHLORINE. BAD IDEA. Use some sort of acid, base, or salt which will readily dissolve and make the solution more conductive. And nothing with chlorine like NaCl or it will generate chlorine gas, which is poisonous (also known as the chemical agent in mustard gas.) I will be buying epsom salt soon and will inform you of how that works out. Right now, unfortunately, I have no good electrodes for this process and am waiting for the graphite ones to arrive on thursday. I also am looking into getting a better DC power source, as the one that I have now is only 24 volts. If I left anything out or you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments area as always. I'll get out another update as soon as I can.