Is it possible to use water for fuel?

Question

Ever since I read up on that it been nagging at me.
It seem like it’s possible just in the right environment.
Like put drop of water in a chamber and some kind conductive material salt like I guess then decompress rapidly then strike it with electricity separated the atom, hydrogen and oxygen, then strike it again to ignite, like an engine or some like that. Could that be possible? And another thing I know it is possible. How come I never hear about having hydrogen made with nuclear plant? That would definitely solve ours dependent of oil.

Answer 1

Your idea for an engine that converts water to hydrogen and oxygen "on the spot" probably wouldn't work because it takes alot of energy to convert the water. Think of hydrogen from water as more of a way to store energy without batteries, rather than a way to get "something for nothing". (we still don't have ecologically friendly batteries with a long enough service life to make them cost-effective).

We could pretty easily change the fuel used in our cars to hydrogen. Although, it would require about twice the electrical generating capacity we have now. If you want to use nuclear energy to create the hydrogen... You're going to need ALOT of nuclear power plants. I personally don't think that would be a great idea. I think they're dangerous and that there is no way to ensure the safety of the nuclear waste for the amount of time required.

Using hydrogen as a storage medium for wind or solar energy, I'm all for. Solar is still not quite efficient enough to get a suitable amount of energy from a given area covered with solar cells. Wind technology is very good right now. There has been much resistance to the building of "wind farms" though. People don't want to look at them... and we'd have to DOUBLE our electrical generating capacity to go to hydrogen in our cars.

Answer 2

That is a very good question and it's interesting that my wife, who is a physician asked me the same question last week.

The simple answer to you question is Yes, it is possible; the catch is it takes more energy to break down the oxygen and hydrogen than you could get by the combustion you suggest.

That always tends to be the problem engineers run into, it you always loose energy in the process.

The other answers are correct and talk about different approaches. The answer concerning the use of solar energy as the initial power source is the one I find the most interesting.

Good idea though.

Answer 3

You're close -- if you can electrically separate the oxygen from the hydrogen in water, you can recombine them to make combustion. The way I've seen it done (in a junior-high science class back when we had to rub cats together to make electricity :-) was with a platinum electrode.

The problem is that it takes so much energy to split hydrogen and oxygen apart, that it isn't worth doing -- not without either a major breakthrough in electrical-power generation or a major breakthrough in separating oxygen and hydrogen out of water.

Go to your favorite search engine and look up the second law of thermodynamics. Or just click on the link in the Source field below...

Answer 4

There actually have been detailed descriptions of propulsion systems using water. They have been put to use for the past hundred seventy years or so. They're called "steam engines"!
Okay, I know, y'didn't ask for a wise crack. Couldn't resist, sorry.
In answer to your question, yes, it is theoretically possible to build a device that will do as you suggest. However, it has not been refined to the point where such a propulsion system would be truly practical. The hydrogen fuel cell has come wonderfully close. In reality, it will probably not be worth the expense to try and put an entire water-to-fuel plant in our cars, buses, power boats and airplanes, but rather do it as we do with oil: centrally-located refineries to extract the hydrogen and a worldwide distribution system to get the gas to local filling stations just like we do with motor fuels - gasoline, diesel - now.
Youse just drive up to the pump, swipe your credit card, and tank up. Just this sort of system has actually been demonstrated. Getting the world to go along with it is - well, there's the rub.

Answer 5

The Apollo moon rockets got to the moon and back by using the energy released when hydrogen mixes with oxygen to make water (and lots of explosive heat). Like others have said, it first takes lots of energy to purify hydrogen and oxygen so having a lake in your back yard is not as good as having an oil well.

Answer 6

The above are onto something - however, the general concept has been to use solar power to power the hydrolysis (separation of water) into hydrogen and oxygen, and then use the hydrogen as a portable fuel source (simply because good solar arrays are fairly fragile, and don't make good constant sources of power).

This is what we did in my highschool, powering a lawnmower and a GoKart off of hydrogen gained from hydrolysis.

Answer 7

Run electricty through a catalyst ( I beleive it is Platium) water will break down in to Hydrogen and Oxygen.

The catch is you need to use power to get to the hydrogen and oxygen. It is not a very cheap or easy thing to do.

Answer 8

Ask this type of question in Polls and Survey section. Experiments are being performed to apply as a gas, with the aid of blending another issues...watch for the consequence. As of now, NO>

Answer 9

I've heard about it too... but by making it possible would be more pollutant than by using ordinary fuel. Their materials would be the problem not the water.

Answer 10

Start working on it.