FXSTD – Alternative Energy Center

By: Gellert Varga
Years have passed since man's fascination with alternative fuel. Now with the ever increasing oil prices and concern for the environment, the search has gotten into fever pitch levels. But probably the most controversial notion of our times, with regards to alternative fuel, has been the water powered car. Countless debates, numerous hoaxes, and tons of technical papers had been presented with regards to this topic. It fuels the imaginative and creative side of man's necessity for cheap, reliable, and renewable energy.

First, let us categorize what is not a water powered vehicle. Steam engine is one example here because it uses the water as an agent to transmit heat energy. It usually has a heat source that uses fuel of some kind. The crower six stroke cycle, wherein in water is injected into the cylinder walls for cooling purposes and increasing compression ratio, is also another. Hydrogen fuel powered vehicles also fall into this category. Although water is the main ingredient for producing hydrogen; these are made in industrial plant by using electricity. In this case, the car ultimately receives its energy from the plant and the hydrogen just acts as the carrier of this power.

Now for a vehicle to be truly water powered it should derive its main source of fuel from water. We all know that water by itself won't burn. But we also know that water is composed of 2 atoms of hydrogen and 1 atom of oxygen. This mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is the one that gets to be burned thus producing the fuel which we need.

So how exactly could we get hydrogen out of water? This is done by a process called electrolysis. Many alleged water powered cars get their hydrogen from electrolysis process. This hydrogen oxygen mixture supposedly powers the car and at the same time provides energy to electrolyse more water. But the fundamental of electrolysis is; that it needs tremendous amount of electricity to start the process. Following the laws of thermodynamics, the amount of energy used to produce hydrogen from electrolysis is much greater than the energy derived from it. Simply put, there is no electrolysis reactor that is efficient enough to produce hydrogen and could also be fitted in an automobile. There is currently no battery, which could be fitted into an automobile, which could practically start electrolysis.

Even though there is proven facts that electrolysis is non-sustainable in automobile, there are those who still claim that they achieved it. One Stanley Meyer claimed he run a dune buggy by using mist of water (that is subjected to electrical resonance) injected into the engine cylinder. His "fuel cell" supposedly breaks the water into hydrogen and oxygen. The firm Hydrogen Technology Applications recently patented an electrolyzer device and a hydrogen oxygen mixture called "Aquygen". Basically it is applied for oxyacetelyne welding, but the company claims to be able to power a vehicle using "Aquygen". Just recently in Japan, a company named Genepax produced a car that runs on water. Not much has been said about the car except that it uses an energy reactor (a membrane electrode assembly) to extract hydrogen.

Many of these claims are without basis, and lacks thorough scientific verification. But who knows, maybe someday we will just go to our nearest faucet for a fill up.