"They have this car man, and it runs on WATER!"
Posted on 06/13/2008 11:18:59 AM PDT by HAL9000
Jun. 13 - Japanese company Genepax presents its eco-friendly car that runs on nothing but water.The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water that is poured into the car's tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car. Genepax, the company that invented the technology, aims to collaborate with Japanese manufacturers to mass produce it.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Funny. The byline is not April 1.
The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water
Crack open the "energy generator" and you'll see what is actually providing power for the car.
It’s that generator that they say nothing about that will be key to making this car economical. Ain’t been done before for that reason - and people’s fear of hydrogen.
Hydrocarbons.
“Crack open the “energy generator” and you’ll see what is actually providing power for the car.”
Where’s the picture of Helen Thomas?
"They have this car man, and it runs on WATER!"
Micronuke?
I’m not buying this either. The generator would consume more energy than the engine could produce.
Lie!
The flux capacitor?
if this were true and it runs on nothing but water can you imagine what the price of a gallon of water will go up to considering they say we are running out of that also.....
and now they say that the midwest floods likely to cause gas to go to 5.00 a gallon because of the corn corp damage that is going to cause a shortage of ethanol....wait a minute...i farted...did gas go up...??....
Which would make it .........
a boat!
Sounds like a case for The Lone Gunmen.
The old perpetual energy scam repackaged to sell to the followers of Obama.
Nah, the disgronificator.
"I named the company after my kitty!
You'd be the first to know.
Hope it’s true. Regardless, most of us will be using the internal combustion gas powered cars for at least a decade.
Wait a minute. Either the car reaches the speed of light this way or we run the oceans dry. Back to the drawing board...
The size of the car puts the lie to their claims.
If it runs on water that is essentially free and nonpolluting, why is the car built so small? Just put a water tank on the back of a F350 or condense the exhausted water vapor back into the “fuel” tank and drive to your heart’s desire.
Yep I can see it now in ten years.The msn will be reporting big water excs on the hill today being grilled over the price of water and all that damm humidity.
This car needs to be BANNED NOW! It produces MASSIVE green house gases. Imagine, if widely adopted the shear massive upsurge in water vapor! This is a recipe for disaster on a global scale. Global warming will be significantly impacted.
Ban this car NOW!!!
[/IRONY]
We've seen plenty of promises about water-powered cars (among other things), but it looks like Japan's Genepax has now made some real progress on that front, with it recently taking the wraps off its Water Energy System fuel cell prototype. The key to that system, it seems, is its membrane electrode assembly (or MEA), which contains a material that's capable of breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen through a chemical reaction. Not surprisingly, the company isn't getting much more specific than that, with it only saying that it's adopted a "well-known process to produce hydrogen from water to the MEA." Currently, that system costs on the order of ¥2,000,000 (or about $18,700 -- not including the car), but company says that if it can get it into mass production that could be cut to ¥500,000 or less (or just under $5,000). Head on past the break for a video of car in action courtesy of Reuters.
Hey wait a minute. I saw a car that looked exactly like that in Galveston just a few weeks ago.
Hey wait a minute. I saw a car that looked exactly like that in Galveston just a few weeks ago.
GMTA! That was my FIRST thought!
I recall an article about this system posted to FR, a home hydrogen electrical generating unit, that provided electricity and hot water. There was a photo on the thread, of a Japanese guy adding water to one that was powering his own residence, it was a box about the size of a home heat pump or a/c.
Lets assume for the moment that this is real. How long before the environmental wackos attempt to get it banned because people are “using to much water” to get around and we need to encourage mass transit?
Does the MEA act as a catalyst or is it chemically consumed during this operation. I could do the same thing by hiding blocks of pure zinc and pure copper in the box. Add impure water and you get the equivalent of the "potato battery". That electricity can be used to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. The problem is that the copper and zinc are combined with other elements to make other compounds. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to track down the exact reactions). Once the pure copper and zinc are consumed the electricity stops.
An excerpt:
Oxyhydrogen is a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gases, typically in a 2:1 atomic ratio; the same proportion as water. At normal temperature and pressure, oxyhydrogen can burn when it is between about 4% and 94% hydrogen by volume, with a flame temperature around 2000 C.
Oxyhydrogen will combust (turning into water vapor and releasing energy which sustains the reaction) when brought to its autoignition temperature. For a stoichiometric mixture at normal atmospheric pressure, this is about 570 C (1065 F). The minimum energy required to ignite such a mixture with a spark is about 0.02 millijoules.
To keep the cost of the vehicle down, probably. They adapted an existing system designed for residential use, that costs over $18,000.00 at current levels of production. They say they think it can be mass produced for $5,000.00.
Mr. Fusion
“I've got one on backorder, man...”
Yeah. And I have a fireplace that burns on nothing but ashes, and lately I've started breathing nothing but carbon dioxide.
It’s a scam.
Water is a less excited state than free H2 and free O2 -— you get to H2 and 02 by adding energy, which is basically held in potential (less waste — typically heat) until combined back into water.
Somewhere in the loop (probably a charged membrane) there is energy going into the process, run by a battery of some sort.
Unless there is cold fusion (! itself probably a scam) going on, scam-o-rama.
You hit the nail on the head.
I think it's unlikely that they're using an alkaline metal reaction like this, though, because you'd burn up the metal really fast. You can probably extract some decent power from it, but your total energy capacity would be tiny. You could go really fast (especially in such a small car) for, um, half a mile. I can do that with a bullet. :)
If their little fuel plant is powered with some energy input, though, then it's just performing an electrolysis reaction. Whoopie. It's not a bad thing per se, but it's important to recognize that it's not "powered by water". It's not even powered by hydrogen, per se. It's powered by electricity, and is using water as a source of hydrogen, which it's using as an energy storage mechanism. In other words, the hydrogen tank that holds the water electrolysis products is just a battery of sorts. But, of course, that's what all hydrogen fuel-cell technologies are.
“Yeah. And I have a fireplace that burns on nothing but ashes, and lately I’ve started breathing nothing but carbon dioxide.”
I’m not even gonna dare ask what you had for breakfast this morning.
It appears the engine spins on hot air supported by euphoria and fueled by transparent hype.
Urea-lly don’t want to know.
The Japanese technology is correct and does work small-scale so far in labs as well as small electical devices that are available right now. The challenge will be to bring the system up to more power and size. Many of the comments are funny. Some remind me, however, that the educational system in this country has failed. There are several companies working on the breaking of hydrogen/oxygen bonds to produce hydrogen generated energy. In the meantime, hybrids will be the best transitional approach, And by hybrids, I mean the ones that produce much more energy than say a Prius. An example is the extreme hybrid by Trinity(100-150mpg). It will do for the near future for trips under an hour, and probably two hours in a year or so.
OK, Acuman. But I really don't get it. Doesn't it take energy to "break...hydrogen/oxygen bonds."? Where does that energy come from? To me it seems like basic thermodynamics. Which of course, most people have no clue about.
You are right.The laws of thermodynamics always prevail, all four of them(not including the several ones that have not been widely accepted). The best explanation of the Genepax system is discussed on the Techon website. It is http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080631/153276/
Not needing a hydrogen reformer, high pressure hydrogen tank or special catalysts are important breakthroughs. Let me know what you think.
For the renewable energy ping list. This appears to be a cheap way to use electrolysis to split up H2O and then run a hydrogen engine from the 2H.
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