Run your car with water

[HeXploiT]

I've been seeing this website advertised increasingly at legitimate websites across the web.
I have a difficult time imagining how this might actually work so my best guess is that it's a load of Bull. What do you think?
Can anyone explain why this would or would not work?
I think decent sites across the web are having the wool pulled over their eyes advertising this but then I didn't major in chemistry or physics.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Gosh dang look at the skirt on her!

 

[bamacre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rb_rDkwGnU

News story, but I dunno. Sounds too good to be true.

 

[EagleKeeper]

I would expect that many websites to not pay attention to the content of the ads as long as the ad is not illegal/porn. $$ roll in for the space - all is well and good.

Look at the problem the AT has with the banners at times.

 

[daveymark]

they also sell water powered toy cars at Target and Hobby Shops...

 

[BoomerD]

This was in yesterday morning's newspaper:
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/letters/story/285567.html

"In response to the letter ("Those old alternative fuel stories true," April 22) about using water and pills for fuel to run your vehicle: It is true. I don't remember what was available in the early '40s, but a person came by my station in the late '60s and sold me four of the units hoping I could drum up some interest. I sold two to customers; lo and behold, the state came by and cut me off. Seems it wouldn't pass the smog test, which was a bunch of hogwash. The other two I sold out of my Mobil station at the corner of College Avenue and Needham Street. I was called down by the state on this, also.

If the big boys would get on either one of these ideas, they could develop it and get the price down. They know they have us over a barrel and they will continue to keep us broke for the rest of our lives."

True or not? I don't know, but the rumors about these things have been circulating since I was a kid...(and gas was about $0.25/gallon)

 

[HeXploiT]

The one thing that was a huge red flag was when the guy put his finger to the torch and supposedly it was cool to the touch yet it could superheat metal in seconds.

 

[Brainonska511]

Looks like a load of crap.

Just refreshing my memory and reading a wiki article on the Laws of Thermodynamics, using a battery to convert water to Hydrogen and Oxygen gas has a maximum efficiency of 20-30%. Then you have to convert that energy to mechanical energy (with another loss of efficiency). You'd be better off running the motor directly off a battery if you're going to get the best efficiency.

Anyway, the quick look I saw of that website, it didn't say where the energy comes for the electrolysis of water. If it's coming from a battery, you'd quickly lose out thanks to Thermodynamics. If it's coming from the gasoline, then why even bother, again, the loss of efficiency in the process, you're better off powering the engine directly.

 

[palehorse]

Where it stands as of right now:

With the development of our Hybrid Hydrogen Oxygen System (HHOS) we found that Aquygen? Gas can be used as a primary fuel source or a fuel additive for gasoline and diesel engines. We have applied this breakthrough method in two prototype vehicles, experiencing an increase in gas mileage of up to 30 percent, and an increase in horsepower. The HHOS significantly raises the vehicle's level of performance without raising water or oil temperature, and requires only slight modification to the standard mechanical parts. Because the HHOS is evolutionary, not revolutionary, it utilizes the time-tested technology of the internal combustion engine while improving the performance of that technology.

It looks VERY promising... and it's worth watching for all kinds of reasons, including potential investment!

Water-powered Hummers?!? I WANT ONE! I'd love to see the looks on the faces of any anti-SUV folks when I tell them I get 100+ mpg with a smaller environmental footprint than their Prius! lol...

Anyways, thanks for the link!

 

[Moonbeam]

Burn gas to run a generator to produce hydrogen. Right, very efficient.

The question, then, is, does a car generator increase drag on the engine as it generates more electricity and, or, is there a constant and fixed drag on the engine all the time. It would seem to me that the generator only supplies electricity to charge the battery when needed and not at a constant and 100% rate.

 

[Vic]

The comments make it sound like the link is NSFW.

And I'm a bit confused as to the physics here. You can use electrolysis to split H2O into hydrogen and oxygen, and then recombine them for energy (and get water), but the 1st Law still applies. Meaning you can't get more out than you put in, and will actually harness less due to inefficiency.
So if we're burning fossil fuels in an ICE to power the electrolysis, we'd be no better off than where we started and probably worse.

The solution to the energy problem remains the same as it has always been. Which is, there is no shortage of energy on earth. We are awash in energy in fact. What we have is an energy storage problem. We need better batteries. We need to be able to store energy more readily and efficiently so we can take it from almost any source to power almost any application. Anything short of that, be it far-fetched hydrogen fuel cells, biofuels, whatever... will not solve the problem.

 

[shrumpage]

I think Mythbusters built this device and attached it to a car. Didn't work.

 

[Evadman]

Instead of using the engine, you should just put a windmill like device on top of the car to charge the battery and power the electrolysis machine. The wind that you generate by driving is free right?

Damn, we could power the country if we did that.

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones
Gosh dang look at the skirt on her!

:thumbsup:

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Instead of using the engine, you should just put a windmill like device on top of the car to charge the battery and power the electrolysis machine. The wind that you generate by driving is free right?

Damn, we could power the country if we did that.

You're being sarcastic, right? I mean, you DO know that any wind used to drive the windmill equates to extra drag on the car, which must be overcome by the motor working harder, which means more fuel burned?

 

[ElFenix]

i sincerely hope that anyone who posts any comment about this thing working is being sarcastic. (i know dave is being sarcastic)

of course, that might explain why this forum is the way it is.

Originally posted by: Vic
The comments make it sound like the link is NSFW.

it's not.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Vic
The comments make it sound like the link is NSFW.

And I'm a bit confused as to the physics here. You can use electrolysis to split H2O into hydrogen and oxygen, and then recombine them for energy (and get water), but the 1st Law still applies. Meaning you can't get more out than you put in, and will actually harness less due to inefficiency.
So if we're burning fossil fuels in an ICE to power the electrolysis, we'd be no better off than where we started and probably worse.

The solution to the energy problem remains the same as it has always been. Which is, there is no shortage of energy on earth. We are awash in energy in fact. What we have is an energy storage problem. We need better batteries. We need to be able to store energy more readily and efficiently so we can take it from almost any source to power almost any application. Anything short of that, be it far-fetched hydrogen fuel cells, biofuels, whatever... will not solve the problem.

Damn right. A revolutionary improvement in batteries (or more evolutionary ones) would be enough to get us where we need to be. That and an improvement in charging time, etc.

 

[fskimospy]

Guys, if a $60 improvement to cars would make us free from oil, etc... etc. I don't care how strong the oil lobby is, it would be in all of our cars. This is total BS. Maybe someday, but this? No.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I suspect that we will see more and more of these sucker ads as gas prices rise.

The line "provides the atomic power of Hydrogen" made me laugh.

 

[Lemon law]

H2O is one those marriages made in Heaven. One of very few chemical reactions that yield energies in the 100 K cals/ mole if I recall my chemistry correctly. There are a handful of pure active metals with high electro negativity that will spontaneously ionize water, displace the hydrogen, and then combine with the oxygen atom in an even stronger chemical bond.
And when a chemical reaction of that nature is allowed to occur, the displaced hydrogen bubbles out of the liquid State, and then can be collected to be later combined with oxygen in the air to yield energy.

Those few metals able to ionize water are mainly Lithium, Sodium, and Potassium. Each of which of usually found in nature already tightly bonded with other non metals. And to extract them in the pure state requires high energies that could be better used to directly power the vehicle in question.

This is not to be confused with water injection which is another technique that can be used to increase MPG in supplement to conventional fuels.

 

[conehead433]

Yep I keep getting e-mails from DriveWater. Of course it's bogus. As pointed out it takes more energy using electrolysis to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water. You'll also notice these sites are selling information kits on how to find the parts you need locally and install them in your vehicle. I'm sure there are people stupid enough to buy into this crap so I'll continue to get numerous e-mails regarding such. A much more viable alternative is being developed in France and India in the form of cars that run on compressed air. These engines don't generate the high heat of combustion engines and can therefore be made almost entirely of aluminum reducing the overall engine weight. Apparently large carbon fiber tubes at the bottom of the chassis can hold enough compressed air to travel some pretty good distances and then can be refilled.

Text

 

[conehead433]

Compressed Air Car

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: palehorse74
Water-powered Hummers?!? I WANT ONE! I'd love to see the looks on the faces of any anti-SUV folks when I tell them I get 100+ mpg with a smaller environmental footprint than their Prius! lol...

A H2O powered Hummer might be more efficient but it doesn't change the fact that they're like 3 tons and their bumper is about window height on my car.

 

[Harvey]

I don't know if they're enough of a scam to be illegal, but they're certainly breaking some laws... of physics and chemistry.

If they're trying to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water, it's time to cue the theramin. They're ignoring the fact that it takes more energy to do that than they can reclaim from burning a low energy fuel like hydrogen.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Harvey
I don't know if they're enough of a scam to be illegal, but they're certainly breaking some laws... of physics and chemistry.

If they're trying to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water, it's time to cue the theramin. They're ignoring the fact that it takes more energy to do that than they can reclaim from burning a low energy fuel like hydrogen.