HHO - HOH - H2O

Posted Mon May 22, 2006 in

A video clip circulated through one of the mailing lists I run about motorcycling. Well, the list is circumferentially about motorcycling—it’s really a kind of free-for-all that is amusing. The clip is about an inventor who has patented a device for converting water into fuel. The writer asked, “Would you advise us as to the efficacy and efficiency of this device?”

In response to the inquiry, I wrote:

I’ve heard of such attempts before. The report is correct that water can be converted into hydrogen and oxygen gases through electrolysis and the combustion of the resulting hydrogen produces water. I played around with the process when I was 13 using one of mom’s water glasses, a couple of electrodes, and a 6-volt battery. However, I can’t tell much from the brief report about the technical aspects of the device. While I’m not saying it’s a hoax, it has the appearance of not being completely forthcoming.

A question I have is how much energy is required to produce the fuel and oxidant? Fuels represent stored energy. For example, in the case of fossil fuels, the energy generally came from insolation converted into biomass through photosynthesis. The subsequent geologic processing of the dead vegetation converted the biomass into coal and oil represents significant investment in energy by Old Mother Nature. We extract that energy through combustion. In the case of the HHO device, the energy to produce the fuel must come from somewhere—presumably electricity. So, there is naturally an inefficiency there—it takes more energy to produce than is yielded by the resulting combustion.

While this is fine for a torch intended for cutting or brazing metal, it is not efficient in terms of other types of energy use—such as transportation.

In my opinion, this is one of the deficiencies of ethyl alcohol promoters—they assume that because ethyl alcohol is produced from renewable resources (ahem), that it’s energy efficient. The facts may not be quite so tidy—it requires substantial energy investment to produce the underlying grain crops and then process them into alcohol for fuel. It may turn out (it’s still obfuscated) that more energy is required to produce a unit of heat energy from the resulting fuel than the fuel yields. If my assertion is true, then biofuels may not prove to be a good investment. They may be useful for some components of our energy needs, but they are not a silver bullet. This is what I expect to be demonstrated.

As far as water as fuel is concerned, it’s a nice try but there have been other, equally smart individuals attempt to do similar things before without success. I remain quite skeptical. We have been searching, for generations, for means to transmute lead into gold.

Here are a few links I found:

You can find a link to the clip via one of those sites. I noticed the date was July 2005. It’s old news, but still a fascinating look at the old attempt to get something for nothing.