H2 O as fuel

[Matheous]

Does anyone remember the guy who came up with a formula for water as a fuel for standard combustion car engines? Who was he- and what happened to him?

[Peter Pedant]

didnt he get carted off to the funny farm for physicists. The one where all the cold-fusion pundits are, unless you are referring to cold fusion.

and THAT is a busted flush (con to you and I)

[jake-the-peg]

Here you go schematics and all

http://www.keelynet.com/energy/waterfuel.htm

See if you can spot the fatal flaw :c)

[ALLIGATOR]

I remember him, He was quietly put to sleep, and his invention was put at the bottom of the well so that every body could enjoy the chance to pay for their fuel.
Alligator.

[jake-the-peg]

Actually this is a really old hoax / conspiracy theory / urban legend.

Wikipedia have this guy as the first.

John Worrel Keely of Philadelphia in 1872 (he also had a traveling show of exhibitions). He fooled many scientists with a machine which appeared to run on water. He raised 5 million of investor money (more for the time than Dennis has raised). Keely tried to avoid being tested. The machine was based on hidden air pressure tubes. In spite of massive fraud being found - there are still believers in his 'technology' today.

Basically the problem with splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen and then burning the hydrogen is that the energy you get from burning it is less than the energy you put in to split the Hydrogen ond Oxygen.

Otherwise you would be creating energy out of thin air and that contravenes one of the most fundamental rules of physics "the conservation of Energy"

[Joeloki]

The idea of using water as an engine fuel is, in itself, quite ridiculous. Curiously though, a very small injection of water into the cylinder of an internal combustion engine has been found to improve performance. This, I believe, is because the losses due to dissociation (which are greatest at high temperatures) are minimised.