[TheForge] burning water

[terry l. ridder]

On Wed, 17 May 2006, Demon Buddha wrote:

>
<snip>
> The other thing that set my great steaming pile alarm off was the 
> fact that his car doesn't run on just water, but on water and gasoline.  If 
> the water fuel is so good, as they seem to imply in the clip, why would he 
> need the other fuel capability?
>

unless he has also developed a new type of battery he would need to have
an electrical power source for the electrolysis of the water.

it does beg the question of why not just use enough battery power to
kickstart the hydrogen generation to allow the engine to have an
adequate supply of hydrogen fuel. once the engine is running the
generator would take over of the battery.

>
> And then there was the statement about water 
> being the safest, cleanest source of energy in the world.
>

well in theory it would be. that being said, the water used would have
to be filtered and probably deminiralized. you do not want to use water
contaminated with an petroleum products.

>
> Unless you can generate x units of energy from hydrogen by
> expending Y units of energy, where x >= y, the statement
> is not quite the truth.  Other energy inputs will be required.
>

you want a self-sustaining reaction. for that you need nuclear
power, either fission or fusion.

>
> Last I checked, conservation of energy remain in effect, which 
> is to say that there are no free lunches.
>

would that be tanstaafl or tinstaafl? ;-)

>
<snip>
>

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>