Run your car with water, Water Fuel Cell

[stellarola]

Yes Car that runs on water baby!!!

http://www.waterfuelcell.org/index.html


video here:


The guy is now dead!

[jbox]

Lots of cars have been built than run on water. The article seems to be incrediably light on the one key component people have trouble with though - the catalyst used to seperate the water in such a way that the energy expended to create the reaction can be obtained from an external source before each trip.

In other words, if it looks too good to be true, it usually is. 

[Havok]

Hopefully this is truly developed "open source" then the oil barons won't be able to buy this technology and of course, bury it.

[danny_galaga]

groan, benjamin franklin was wrong- there are THREE certain things in life

1) death

2) taxes

3) conspiracy theories about water powered cars and 'the man' silencing the inventor...

[Havok]

groan, benjamin franklin was wrong- there are THREE certain things in life

1) death

2) taxes

3) conspiracy theories about water powered cars and 'the man' silencing the inventor...

You don't think that those multi-billion dollar companies don't feel threatened by this? Unfortunately, it's probably crap, but hopefully it does come to fruition someday.

Stop acting like a lemming!

 

/end rant

 

[RayB]

Well, it does make you think doesn't it... That in 20 years we've had tremendous leaps in computer technology (to the point where the entire circuitry of a personal computer from the early 80's can now fit on a small 1 inch chip), yet what advancements have we had with the combustion engine? Shouldn't we at least be getting double or triple the mileage we got 20 years ago?

[thebrownshow]

Well, it does make you think doesn't it... That in 20 years we've had tremendous leaps in computer technology (to the point where the entire circuitry of a personal computer from the early 80's can now fit on a small 1 inch chip), yet what advancements have we had with the combustion engine? Shouldn't we at least be getting double or triple the mileage we got 20 years ago?

From Wikipedia (emphasis added):

Fuel efficiency is normally expressed in terms of power per unit of engine displacement, also known as specific output. It should be noted that despite common usage, "fuel efficiency" is not a synonym for "fuel economy" or "gas mileage". Modern fuel injected engines are much more efficient at producing power than their carbureted predecessors. For example, power output from Chrysler's 3.9 L LA V6 engine jumped from 125 hp (93 kW) to 180 hp (134 kW) in 1992 due to the addition of fuel injection and a free-flowing intake manifold.

However, improvements in fuel efficiency achieved over the last 20 years have not been translated into improvements in fuel economy

[Dartful Dodger]

Well, it does make you think doesn't it... That in 20 years we've had tremendous leaps in computer technology

If you're not to busy thinking up conspiracy theories, think about this:  

In the last 20 years, how much money have you spent, either catching up or keeping ahead of technology.

Now how much have you spent on your water powered car?

The oil industry isn't paying off car companies to hold back on alternative fuels, you're paying off electronic companies to move forward on technology.

[Ed_McCarron]

Its easy to power a car with water.

Start with water.  Pour in loads of energy to an electrolytic cell to seperate the H₂ and O₂.

Burn the H₂ in an IC engine.

Oh, wait - you put more energy in than you got out.

Theres no way to cheat physics.  Conservation of energy wins every time.

[danny_galaga]

Well, it does make you think doesn't it... That in 20 years we've had tremendous leaps in computer technology (to the point where the entire circuitry of a personal computer from the early 80's can now fit on a small 1 inch chip), yet what advancements have we had with the combustion engine? Shouldn't we at least be getting double or triple the mileage we got 20 years ago?

and we can. if theres a conspiracy, its that big oil make us believe we need a 6 litre, turbo charged SUV to do the shopping in...

edit; hehe. just read the wikipedia quote. i had actually just plucked 6 litre and SUV out of the air as an example...

[M3talhead]

... if theres a conspiracy, its that big oil make us believe we need a 6 litre, turbo charged SUV to do the shopping in...

Words of wisdom.

[danny_galaga]

... if theres a conspiracy, its that big oil make us believe we need a 6 litre, turbo charged SUV to do the shopping in...

Words of wisdom.

dude! you cant post anymore! you are the number of the beast!

[M3talhead]

... if theres a conspiracy, its that big oil make us believe we need a 6 litre, turbo charged SUV to do the shopping in...

Words of wisdom.

dude! you cant post anymore! you are the number of the beast!

Woe to you Oh Earth and Sea
for the Devil sends the beast with wrath
because he knows the time is short
Let him who hath understanding
reckon the number of the beast
for it is a human number
its number is six hundred and sixty six.

[mj147]

Funny on how  this topic came up , as I recently saw the Discovery channel -Mythbusters episode on such topic (not sure if it was a rerun)

A few different fuel types were used  and were tested for best fuel economy:

Long story short,  they used information based on on-line sites on how to build your own hydrogen "catalysts" . The results were horrible, as not enough hydrogen was created to even start the vehicle.   In true Mythbuster fashion, they shot hydrogen directly into the carb and the vehicle did  start and was running. That is until it backfired and created a big fireball, needless to say, that was it for the  hydro  fuel test.

What was a surprise was they actually took used filtered cooking oil and pumped it into the carb of said vehicle and it actually turned over and ran pretty good without modification...... 


Tried to  find the link to that particular episode but  its kinda late and my Google skills aren't up to par ATM 



mj147

[danny_galaga]

... if theres a conspiracy, its that big oil make us believe we need a 6 litre, turbo charged SUV to do the shopping in...

Words of wisdom.

dude! you cant post anymore! you are the number of the beast!

Woe to you Oh Earth and Sea
for the Devil sends the beast with wrath
because he knows the time is short
Let him who hath understanding
reckon the number of the beast
for it is a human number
its number is six hundred and sixty six.

up the irons!  (just had a feeling of deja vu...)

[Paladin]

I just saw that Mythbuster episode last night.  Just to clarify, the cooking oil powered car was an older Mercedes with a deisel motor.  The hydrogen experiment was with an older carberated gas powered car.

Last year the show "Trucks" had an episode about making your own deisel fuel, and it involved a fairly big multi-tank setup that mixes specific amounts of a couple different substances with the used oil.

The Mythbusters episode only used 1 litre of fuel in a plastic container, apparently using gravity to feed it to the car instead of a fuel pump.  I'm wondering if powering your car with "unrefined" cooking oil would work if placed in the fuel tank, or if it would gunk up the motor if used for a prolonged period.

[thebrownshow]

I also saw that Mythbusters episode last night, and the one thing that kinda drives me nuts when people talk about using cooking oil for "free" fuel is the usage of the term "free".  It's only free if you consider your time to be worthless, as you've got to go collect the used oil and filter it.

Also, when people start talking about how we could all do this and be free of evil big oil, once you get into the economics of scale here, I don't even think Mcdonalds and all the other fast food chains combined could produce enough used cooking oil to satisfy this country's oil needs.

I'd probably do something like this for a diesel lawn mower, but for anything else I just don't think it makes much sense.

[crashwg]

I'm wondering if powering your car with "unrefined" cooking oil would work if placed in the fuel tank, or if it would gunk up the motor if used for a prolonged period.

It would congeal in the gas tank and never make it to the engine.  Haven't you ever worked at McDonalds or BurgerKing?  3 or 4 hours after you shut the fryers off the shortening starts to solidify.

There was another show on Discovery or perhaps it was TLC...  Dirty Jobs.  I'm sure you've all seen it.  One of the episodes of that show they did a thing on bio-deisel and the "right" way to do it.  It involves large containers with all sorts of pumps and filters and a bit of chemistry to figure out the right ammount of chemicals to add to the oil to separate the thick gooey stuff from the good stuff. 

[jbox]

I'd probably do something like this for a diesel lawn mower, but for anything else I just don't think it makes much sense.

I don't suppose you'd be interested instead in helping me transact US$50,000,000 out of the bank accounts of the late General Mustafo in return for a 10% cut?   

[clanggedin]

There a a bunch of guys here in Utah that run their vehicles on used cooking oil. I watched that Mythbusters too. I am surprised that they didn;t know about the cokking oil thing thought. It has been around for a few years now.

I watched Jamie jump from the backfire of the Hydrogean probably ten times. I'm sure he loaded his shorts because of that. TOO FUNNY!

[thebrownshow]

I don't suppose you'd be interested instead in helping me transact US$50,000,000 out of the bank accounts of the late General Mustafo in return for a 10% cut?   

Oh come on, jbox, sure it might not be all that practical, and probably when you figure in the cost of your time it'll be a losing venture, but since when do any of us in this hobby think along the lines of sense and reason?

[SirPeale]

http://www.metacafe.com/f/upgrade_flash.swf?itemID=128967&fp=http://www.metacafe.com/f/fp_embed.swf

[jbox]

Oh come on, jbox, sure it might not be all that practical, and probably when you figure in the cost of your time it'll be a losing venture, but since when do any of us in this hobby think along the lines of sense and reason?

Ding! Ding! Ding!

I gotta pay that one! 

[Jess--]

My dad is currently running all of his vehicles on a 75% cooking oil / 25% deisel mix. (and has been for about 2 years)

they are an old sherpa flatbed (lookup freight rover / LDV) older than me but just wont die, and a little turbo deisel peugot (cant remember the model)

so far he has had no problems with solids in the tank etc, he is using no chemicals to seperate the used oil just some fine wire mesh to take out the larger bits.

[shmokes]

Theres no way to cheat physics.

That's nonsense.

[danny_galaga]

I'm wondering if powering your car with "unrefined" cooking oil would work if placed in the fuel tank, or if it would gunk up the motor if used for a prolonged period.

It would congeal in the gas tank and never make it to the engine.  Haven't you ever worked at McDonalds or BurgerKing?  3 or 4 hours after you shut the fryers off the shortening starts to solidify.

There was another show on Discovery or perhaps it was TLC...  Dirty Jobs.  I'm sure you've all seen it.  One of the episodes of that show they did a thing on bio-deisel and the "right" way to do it.  It involves large containers with all sorts of pumps and filters and a bit of chemistry to figure out the right ammount of chemicals to add to the oil to separate the thick gooey stuff from the good stuff. 

it's called bio-diesel and it works as well as normal fuel. no congealing or glugging etc. except when on mythbusters, it normally gets treated to make it nice and clean...

[M3talhead]

Sigh.....I love the Internet.

It can give you knowledge and insight greater than any library or collegate atmosphere, yet still keep you dumber than a handful of wet lint.

[Pi]

Sigh.....I love the Internet.

It can give you knowledge and insight greater than any library or collegate atmosphere, yet still keep you dumber than a handful of wet lint.

Internet is the biggest proof that quantity will never be as good as quality.

[Dartful Dodger]

Theres no way to cheat physics.

That's nonsense.

Shmokes is right, I cheated my way to a B in physics.

[jbox]

Shmokes is right

THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH!! THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH! REPENT! REPENT I SAY!