Six months ago, Steve Schappert was out of a job. Today, he's still not technically employed, but his life is on a very different track. These days, Schappert is driving around the tri-state area showing off his '72 Mustang, which has gotten as much as 26.8 mpg with a hydrogen generator added into the mix, a 59.4 percent increase in efficiency.

The generator is a small, two-third gallon cylinder that sits unobtrusively in front of the engine. Inside the cylinder, electricity is used to stimulate the water solution inside, creating hydrogen ions in a one-inch vacuum space left at the top. That hydrogen is siphoned into the Mustang's carburetor and mixed in with the gasoline fuel, where it is then distributed to the six-cylinder engine.

Using the hydrogen generator, powered with an extra 90-amp alternator in the engine compartment, Schappert can improve the gas mileage from 17 mpg to anywhere from 20 mpg to 26.8, which he recorded earlier in the day before being interviewed. The more electricity the driver pumps through the generator, the more hydrogen is created for fuel. The only problem is heat.

Too much power or too high a temperature in the engine compartment will cause the water in the capsule to evaporate, diluting the fuel in the carburetor and putting more air into the mixture within the canister (less hydrogen to separate and more air to dilute it).

Normally the water has to be refilled every 500 miles, but under extreme heat conditions, Schappert has to dial back the generator or risk blowing through the tank in under 100 miles.

On a cold afternoon this week, "I was able to hit it with 90 amps the whole time," Schappert said, netting him almost 27 miles to the gallon.

Schappert doesn't have any mechanical background or degrees in engineering. In fact, "I was almost kicked out of high school," he said, and is currently taking courses to become green building certified. His method is to "watch and learn," and, luckily, the Mustang is a simple car to work on.

After losing his job as a painter earlier this year, Schappert said he had the Mustang and his choices came down to "live in the car, sell the car or put a hydrogen engine in it," he said. So Schappert and fellow Brookfielder and amateur mechanic Stephen Melycher set off on a 10,000-mile cross-country trip to test out the generator and stir up some publicity for alternative energy sources.

For the first 7,000 miles, the system they were using didn't actually work, he said. A system that was "supposed to just be dropped in took [green tech] experts from WestConn three days to get it in," he said, and over the course of the first two-thirds of the trip, they saw no increase in gas mileage.

While in Oregon, Schappert and Melycher met part-time inventor Kevin West (Water4Gas.com), who hooked them up with the generator Schappert is still using today. The generator works great and, through constant tweaking, is getting better mileage by the day.

The two Steves (or Steve-squared) started out with $700 between the two of them and were able to raise over $3,000 while on the road, through donations on their Facebook page and help from sympathetic strangers along the way. They took three weeks to make their way to Oregon, stopping along the way to do interviews and home shows in every region of the country.

Any car can be outfitted with these types of generators and, in fact, fuel-injected engines work better according to Schappert, but "the Mustang goes that extra step of proving that any car can do it."

But the real advantage of this system over a hydrogen fuel cell is that there is no hydrogen in the tank, which means no threat of explosions. The hydrogen is created in the generator and siphoned off to the engine, however the generator is turned off before the vehicle, burning off the last of the ions and leaving behind nothing but oxygen and water. No hydrogen fuel is stored.

Hydrogen generators are still just a hobby for Schappert, though he would like to turn hydrogen technology into a career, eventually designing hybrid vehicles.

Over the next few months, with some funding assistance, Schappert plans to install a 100-tube system in the truck (the current generator is an eight-tube system), which "will create enough hydrogen to run an entire car," he said.

For now, Schappert is doing home shows in the area and showing off his car around town (he expects to be at Al's Cookout on Wednesday night) trying to raise awareness of — and money for — the next wave of alternative energy.