Why is water incapable of being a combustible fuel?

Answer 1

Technically, there already IS a way for water to be a combustible fuel.

I'm talking about HHO gas (Oxy-Hydrogen). This gas is made DIRECTLY FROM WATER by a very specific electrolysis process (enough so to get a patent – though there is some controversy as to who deserves that patent).

It is used for high-heat industrial torches because of its clean burn (produces only water and oxygen as byproducts!), and its high temperatures (5000-7200 deg F). In torches (as most HHO applications), the process is usually conducted on the fly (as the gas is highly unstable and water is not), so it seems that you are burning water.

The reality, though, is that the HHO gas is the fuel, so saying water is a combustible fuel is like saying corn is a combustible fuel because ethanol is made from it (though HHO is made solely from water and electricity).

There have been reports of researchers using modified electrolysis HHO generators to power a car, etc., but the truth is it takes MUCH more energy (electricity) to create the gas than the energy the gas creates via combustion, making it a nice novelty, but not very practical as an alternative fuel (maybe in hybrid some day).

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

NASA has in fact found several ways to use water as a fuel and one has already been mentioned here - electrolysis!

Rockets use 2 tanks of hydrogen to one tank of oxygen so taking water and splitting it into 2 parts hydrogen to one of oxygen is in theory a good way to go. But that and the several other ways of using water are very expensive to do and not cost effective.

Combining water with the power of a nuclear reactor might in theory work.

NASA is still looking very closely at water as a fuel for the simple reason that water on planets is likely to be easier to get and use than other fuels.

Some vehicle engines here on good old earth actually use water as an additive to fuel. Small amounts sprayed into petrol or diesel engines turn to steam and help the fuel to atomise better and thus give better combustion.

Answer 3

It isn't. When an electric current is run through water, it releases the hydrogen and oxygen, which are both combustible. The problem is that breaking up the water uses more energy then the hydrogen and oxygen provide. Besides, we have a shortage of clean water already- we need to keep it!

Answer 4

Water is already "burned", since H2O is the by product of hydrogen combining with oxygen.

Some people have proposed using electricity, such as from batteries, to break down water back into hydrogen and oxygen, and using this free hydrogen to power a vehicle by burning it back into water. But the electricity has to come from somewhere. It is not free.

Answer 5

Water (H2O) is already an oxidized thing, i.e., Hydrogen.
To recover the 'burnable' portion of water, the hydrogen, one must break the bond between the oxygen and hydrogen. Doing this would free the hydrogen to be oxidized again and the oxygen to oxidize something.
BTW, it takes more power to break this bond that the restoration of that bond produces.

Answer 6

combustible fuels react was oxygen, water already has all the oxygen it needs (2).

Answer 7

it has been used in the past as a test on the army multi fuel engines in the deuce and half (2 and a half ton troop transport truck) it ran but could not produce enough power to do anything.

Answer 8

It is combustible if it is decomposed to hydrogen and oxygen. It is not flammable when it is combined.

Answer 9

Well combust means to burn up. And water is not flammable...

Answer 10

It can be One part Oxegyn and One part Hydrogen