VIDEO: Run your car on saltwater? It could happen. Sorta.
Former broadcast executive John Kanzius hoped his use of radio frequencies would be a cure for cancer, but when the researcher turned his machine toward a test tube of salt water, out came hydrogen.
Apparently, the radio frequencies emitted by Kanzius's machine weaken the bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen molecules, releasing a stream of hydrogren that, as you can see in the video, burns brightly when lit.
Labs around the country are trying to replicate and figure out exactly how the process works, how it might be harnessed as an energy source, and just how many zeros Mr. Kanzius's check will have on it.
Not addressed in the video is how much energy is needed to power that ray beam pointed at the water. Splitting water into its basic elements requires more energy than is released, and we'll be very surprised if this method is any different.
Despite his growing fame, Kanzius says he hopes to sell his patent-pending discovery for loads of money so he can focus on his original goal of curing cancer.
Thanks, British Rover for the tip!
[Sources: YouTube, Wikipedia, Yahoo! Green]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
The Quiet Guy 1:42PM (4/06/2008)
I've visited all the links thus posted so far on the previous comments. Here is one that I found most interesting. http://www.cmm.upenn.edu/~ensing/thesis/node3.html
enjoy
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Kevin 11:32AM (7/21/2008)
Windsurfer,
I couldn't agree with you more on consider supplemental fuels! I am actually working on a hydrogen on demand Case study. I've not gotten it down to a science, but I am getting good results. Right now I'm using baking soda as an electrolyte, but salt water I haven't tried. Maybe I'll try it today?! I think the more we the people educate themselves on alternative fuels the less chances the higher up can control everyone.
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Kevin 11:42AM (7/21/2008)
Oh I forgot, http://runyourcaronwater4gas.com is the case study I'm working on. Check it out for those of you that are thinking about hydrogen on demand systems.
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Drewboy 7:45PM (9/12/2007)
Wow. Just wow.
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mr friggles 10:20PM (9/13/2007)
wow is right. We should all watch this very closely.
The first thing groups with ulterior motives will do is try to lower expectations about the tech before they outright suppress it. Sadly, there is a long list of new technologies being suppressed:
"..This page is a compilation of specific cases in which the emergence of a new energy technology development is impaired in some way by an entity outside themselves, whether it be a competing interest such as an oil interest or an oppressive government, or some other faction whose control over the people or whose monopolistic income will be impaired by the emergence of the technology."
http://peswiki.com/energy/Directory:Suppression
There is an incredible number of cases described in the link.
naggs 12:24AM (9/14/2007)
LOL
i knew it was just a matter of time until you started ranting about THE CORPORATIONS!!!
because there is no money in selling a machine that produces power from water!!!
noone would want to sell those, would they
are you a 9/11 conspiracy chode too?
doglet 12:57AM (9/14/2007)
friggles
Pure Energy Systems wiki?!?!?!
that link is hilarious, overunity!!! magnetic resonance amplifiers!!! water cars!!!
why do you refuse to pick up a 3rd grade science book? seriously, dont take my word for it. why not look it up in wikipedia?
i find it ironic that the same people who believe that these types of machines are possible also have no understanding of what that would mean for humanity. it would not be an alternative energy source. it would be THE energy source. energy out from nothing in, overnight the world would completly change forever. energy and everything you can do with energy would be completly free.
how can you not understand that it is impossible for a machine to be over 100% efficient? how can you not grasp that basic concept? what makes you believe that 'established' scientists are stupid and wrong and absolutly every single one of them suffers from 'not thinking outside the box'?
over the centuries, there have been thousands of people who claim to have uncovered a new property that allows them to circumvent physics. every single one of them has failed without exception.
you are either a kid who needs to pay more attention in school or a very sad man who needs to check out a library.
here is a simple test to determine weither an engine/generator/whatever is bullshit. every powersource on earth gets its power either from the sun or from neuclear/atomic/radioactive. all fossil fuels are energy from the sun taken in by plants then burried underground. a hydroelectric dam is solar, it runs on the solar energy that evaporates and lifts the water to fill its lake. volcanos are powered by the molten neuclear core of the earth. the life huddled around the heat vents at the bottom of the ocean miles under water relies on the chemical potential energy generated by neuclear decay.
so which is it for burning water? identify the closed system then tell me where the energy is coming from. you cant, just like you cant respond to any of the points that people have made. you just say "YOU DONT KNOW!!!"
its you that doesnt know, we do not claim to know everything but one thing we do know is you are wrong
you cannot burn water and end up with a net energy output because the byproduct of burning hydrogen and oxygen is water. you cannot go from water to water plus energy.
mr friggles 1:23AM (9/14/2007)
WoW.
Judging from the personal attacks and essay-long rant I must have really hit onto something......
Again, your speculations founded upon blind assumptions are meaningless and irrelevant. However, your willingness to blindly draw up these assumptions (with almost NO knowledge of the specs or actual details of the device) and scream them as if they are factual truths shows your arrogance, or rather, ignorance.
As much as ranters on a car blog ooze credibility, I think I'll wait for the scientific review. I see nothing that disproves the device's capabilities. Instead of trying to show off your expertise in pig-headedness, why don't you waste your key strokes emailing him about why his completed product isn't supposed to exist.
:]
mr friggles 7:51PM (9/12/2007)
Suck it autoblog. I don't what you'd be "very
surprised" about. If actual scientists are still working to replicate it I doubt your editors figured it out. There is this pattern of arrogance against any non-corporate backed alternate technologies on this site that is rather disgusting.
How about stick to posting basic facts instead of the conjecture and Fauxnews style opinionated rants.
Thanks :)
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British_Rover 7:50PM (9/12/2007)
Ahh very cool glad you found a video of it.
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Nick 7:56PM (9/12/2007)
Chris makes a good point about the energy required to do this... if anything, though, this seems to be a rather simple and effective (if not inherently efficient) method of separating hydrogen from water. If we use it simply as hydrogen production, we relieve the auto industry of direct petroleum reliance, and shift the burden to municipal power - which we can already gain outside of fossil fuels. I'm thinking nuclear...
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Nick 7:55PM (9/12/2007)
This has hoax written all over it. TANSTAAFL as the bard wrote....
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Jim 8:00PM (9/12/2007)
"Splitting water into its basic elements requires more energy than is released, and we'll be very surprised if this method is any different."
So will I, since if it is any different, then the First Law of Thermodynamics has been broken and the entirety of physics will have been turned on its head.
The long and short of it is that the amount of energy required to generate the RF is by necessity greater than the energy you'll get from the produced hydrogen.
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Jim 8:05PM (9/12/2007)
Oh, and one other nitpick:
"Apparently, the radio frequencies emitted by Kanzius's machine weaken the bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen molecules, releasing a stream of hydrogren that, as you can see in the video, burns brightly when lit."
Hydrogen flames are very difficult to see in ambient light. The brightness of the flame is most likely due to the presence of sodium.
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TheVoiceOfReason 8:24PM (9/12/2007)
OH...MY...GOD.
How about next time you do a little research before you post an article like this? Maybe then you would find that this sort of process results in *NEGATIVE* amounts of power generated. Oh wait, that would mean you would have to act like real journalists instead of reposting rubbish produced by other crappy journalists.
RF plasma generation is a well-understood phenomenon that is widely used in analytical chemistry, and intensively researched for space propulsion. It consumes enormous amounts of power. This "discovery" is *not* new, *not* baffling, and will *not* have commercial applications in power generation of any sort.
Hey, how about for your next article you post a car related 9/11 hoax story? It would be about as valid.
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mr friggles 11:11PM (9/12/2007)
We have trolls against hydrogen now!! whippee!!!
naggs 2:02AM (9/13/2007)
agreed mr friggles
the laws thermodynamics are so mean...
stan 8:42PM (9/12/2007)
my cousin works for this company in Eerie PA and told me about it this summer. He said it is 100% legit and very energy positive. This is one of the most promising alternative energy options i have seen to date.
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??? 9:14PM (9/12/2007)
Slow clap...ok kiddos time for a lesson in thermodynamics and engineering! Taking an assumption that all of the energy from the radio waves is converted into the energy needed to break the Hydrogen oxygen bonds (to release the hydrogen).
Note: this is a terrible assumption, as some of the enrgy will be converted into heat, dissapate during travel to the sample ect. ect. ect.
Assuming you can trap all of the hydrogen to be used in fuel cells, direct combusion or any other purpose, there still will be significant energy loss. Fuel cells are much less then %50 efficient, so there is extra energy loss. Using energy to create hydrogen in MOST cases is not fiesable (sp?).
If we used nuclear energy to produce the energy needed to create the hydrogen I could see a benefit (although environmental, I'll leave that to another debate).
This reminds me of an episode of top gear i think where they visisted a some island in Japan where they use hydroeletric power to create hydrogen. Good technology (if someone can find the link).
Cliff:
-Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from form to form (including heat and friction)
-It is impossible to get something from nothing, you cannot get "very energy positive".
I hope this is clear now...neat technology, not that useful though.
One more thought...I wonder what "Expert" would have been baffled by the technology...
mr friggles 11:11PM (9/12/2007)
Guess what "???" you have NO idea what your talking about because you know almost NOTHING about the technology being used. Any conclusions you draw are irrelevant and meaningless because they are built entirely on blind speculation and assumption.
If the tech works like the guy says...great! If it doesn't...ok! There's no point in saying its impossible simply because it hasn't been released yet. When I see things like this, I have a wait and see attitude. I don't go around acting like I did scientific trials on the dam thing.