Water for Fuel

There were some news items published on papers and electronic media saying that a Sri Lankan inventor has developed a technology which can be used to run internal combustion engines with water as the fuel. There are some photos in the papers where he is explaining his invention to the prime minister Rathnasiri Wikramanayake. This is not the first of the same kind of incidents. Couple of years ago a person who was claiming that he has discovered a new way of generating energy from sea waves says he will not reveal the secrets to anyone but the President.

Producing Hydrogen or Oxyhydrogen from water by electrolyzing and use them as a fuel for automobile engines is not an original idea. There are thousands of people who did various experiments on this subject and there are hundreds of patents on various methods of doing this. The most famous story of all is the Stanly Meyer's water fuel cell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Meyer%27s_water_fuel_cell). He obtained several patents on his technology (http://www.google.com/patents?id=lLcjAAAAEBAJ&dq=stan+meyer+water+cell) and invited investors to start business based on his findings. After the investors realized that they have been cheated they went to court against Mayer. Mayer was ordered to repay the money he has taken from the investors. Finally, Mayer was poisoned in a restaurant and people say the oil companies were behind the murder. In this video, Mayer is talking about his invention (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6yRn4IAsrU&feature=related) and the Sri Lankan guy is telling more or less the same story.

If you search in the web you will find dozens of web sites dedicated to this technology, some sites even providing all the detailed instructions for convert your car to water (ex:- http://water4gas.com). You tube is also contains lot of videos about the subjects and if you try the Google patent search you can find hundreds of patents related to this area.

So what is the truth behind this technology. Water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. By electrolyzing water we can produce different combustible gases like hydrogen and oxyhydrogen. In order to do this, electrical energy should supply to the system. The output of burning these gases with oxygen is again the water. So the fuel is water and the output is also water and we need to provide electric energy to achieve this. If the amount of energy generated by this method is greater than the amount of energy we supply to the system, this is a perpetual motion machine and in theory, it will violate the fundamental laws of thermodynamics. So it is obvious that we cannot generate enough energy to recharge the battery without charging it from a outside electrical energy source. So the question is whether the electric al energy required for a mile is cheaper than the fuel required for a mile. If we use gasoline to generate the electricity the answer is 'NO'. But as there are much cheaper means of generating electricity there is a possibility to implement this solution effectively.

The Sri Lankan guy has not stated anything about the amount of electrical energy that needs to be supplied to the system and the cost of it over using the gasoline. Instead he is talking about how many liters of water required to travel from Colombo to Anurashapura and the amperage of the electrolyzer. Personally I do not believe that this solution will have an overall economic value to the country. Also this person should learn a lesson from Mayer because lot of companies are seeking avenues for making money out of the oil reserves in the Sri Lankan sea and the politicians also dreaming about the commissions and bribes they can get when the deals are materializing.