Water is hydrogen ( combustible) and oxygen (aids combustion). ?

Question

If by electolysis water can be broken up into hydrogen and oxygen, hydrogen can be used as fuel in cars instead of gas and oxygen will help hydrogen to burn. this will be a source of renewable source of energy and will aid in controlling pollution

Answer 1

Dumb. Water is what's left after hydrogen burns (oxidizes). Turning it back into water and oxygen is like reconstituting oil from smoke. Electrolysis is marginaly efficient...you end up losing a lot of input energy in the form of waste heat. You'd be lucky to net half as much energy as you put in.

The stuff you read on the net about brown's gas, monoatomic elements, etc is just nonsense. They hydrogen economy depends on something other than hydrogen as fuel..hydrogen is only envisioned as a transport mechanism, and an inefficient one at that.

Answer 2

Some companies are currently developing hydrogen-on-demand systems by either electrolyzing water or by using a hydrogen-rich compound such as sodium borohydride. The ones using electrolysis of water are also using some sort of catalyst, such as aluminum, magnesium or some other compound that helps the process use less energy to crack the water. These systems are using the car battery and alternator to supply the power for their hydrogen-on-demand systems.

http://www.hydrogen-cars.biz/hydrogen-on-demand.htm

There are also a few companies that have created hydrogen-boost systems that are currently being commercially marketed to electrolyze water and add hydrogen as a fuel additive in the vehicle’s intake system in order to increase performance, lower emissions and save in fuel costs.

http://www.hydrogen-cars.biz/blog/2007/01/hydrogen-boosting-technology-thrilla.html

The naysayers will tell you this is not possible, but there are companies such as GetHydroPower, Hydrogen Power, Inc., and HyPower, which are doing this very thing right now.

Answer 3

Because when combined. The resulting molecule is totally different. Here's somethin else for you to ponder, if oxygen and hydrogen are both gases, why is water naturally a liquid? Or another, why does water expand when it freezes? Everyone knows that the colder something gets the more dense it gets, but not so with ice...ice is less dense than the water which is why it floats. Yet it is colder than the water so it should be more dense....oh the interesting questions chemistry raises.

Answer 4

No. it will take as much of energy to break water into hydrogen and oxygen, as the energy liberated by the same amount burning hydrogen and oxygen. So , its not profitable.

Answer 5

One of the laws of thermodynamics is that "you can't break even".

It actually takes more energy to electrolyze water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas than you get back when you burn it. Makes it a losing proposition every time. the only way to make that process even marginally economical is to have hydrogen fusion generating your power -- and that's a long way off.