Sunday, June 29, 2008

How to Run a Car on Water: The Truth About Genepax's Hydrogen Car

Is there some oil company conspiracy to keep water powered cars off of the streets? I once saw this as a possibility, now I think not. If a cost efficient water powered car could be made, it would change the world, but "cost efficiency" must be judged including the total cost of production. This is the key, not conspiracy.
There are no scientific laws that say you can't run a car on water. In fact, a Japanese company is the latest to claim they have pulled it off. See the video here:

Water-fuel car unveiled in Japan

However, what you can't do is run a car on water without energy inputs greater than you get from splitting the water. ... There is a way to mask the energy input, and that is what the Japanese company is doing. I had to do a bit of research, but I finally found this:

Genepax unveils water energy fuel cell system

Within the story is the key to what's going on:
Though the company did not reveal any more detail the company president said that they had "succeeded in adopting a well-known process to produce hydrogen from water to the MEA", similar to the mechanism that produces hydrogen by a reaction of metal hydride and water.


...So, if you had NaH in your car, and you dripped water on it, you would produce hydrogen from the water. What's the catch? Metal hydrides that react with water don't occur naturally, because they would have already reacted. This is the same reason hydrogen doesn't occur naturally on earth. So, it takes energy inputs to make the metal hydrides. And there is the hidden energy source in the water car. ... (Note that they may not be using metal hydrides; there are other compounds that react with water to liberate hydrogen. Again, none occur naturally on earth, and all require significant energy inputs to produce). -inteldaily

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