why are water-powered cars still not in the market?

Question

water-powered cars have been invented for some time now but why are they still not in the market? i saw it featured in one local tv show and although it's not really perfect yet, i believe there will be a wide market for it. do the oil cartels have something to do with that?

noone,

did i not say that i saw it on local tv? am i claiming it to be true? if you really wanna research on it then do so. it's a local channel in the philippines GMA 7. one of their magazine shows featured it i think a couple of years ago. ask them. don't ask me for a patent number cos they didn't air it. someone here claimed that GM has one. why don't u call them and ask for a patent number.

guys, the reason why i ask this question is because i dunno the answer. i'm no geek who knows the answer to everything ok? (i was a cheerleader in high school---i feel i have to say that)

back to my question, it's obvious that it will eventually happen someday cos someone will be smart enough to figure out how it will work efficiently. science is continually pushing its limits. just look at the world now.

so to all the smart people who provided answers, thank you. and for the smart A**ES, you just need a life or a good lay. with ur condescending attitude, i don't think u have any friends.

Answer 1

Because water powered cars are not for real! If you meet anyone who tells you that they have a car that runs on water, keep your hand on your wallet.

The oil cartels have nothing to do with it, it's basic physics. "Water cars" are typically advertised as being able to get hydrogen out of the water to run the car, then use the hydrogen to make the car go. However it ALWAYS costs more energy to get hydrogen out of the water than the hydrogen is worth.

The reason for this is that when you use hydrogen to make energy, you oxidize the hydrogen and make water. Think of it this way: you get a certain amount of energy for every ounce of hydrogen, and that ounce of hydrogen ends up as part of a certain amount of water. If you could react water to make hydrogen, and then react the hydrogen to make water again and get more energy out of the process than you started with, you would have to end up with more water than you started with as well. Then you could react that water to make MORE hydrogen than you started with - and then EVEN MORE water.

So, if you could make a water-powered car like this that worked, the side effects would be that you would also be able to make an infinite amount of hydrogen and an infinite amount of water, for free. Can this be done? No. There is no water-powered car, your local TV show was fooled, and you were smart to ask about this so that you won't be fooled as well.

Answer 2

Just for the sake of argument let's say that in opposition to all the science out there you can actually power a car with water and make a perpetual motion machine. Where does all this water come from? There is lots of salt water in the oceans but that is not the water on the TV showing a car running on H2O. Getting the salt out is another expensive process. In China there is a clean water shortage already because of industrial waste which is further polluted by human waste. Think you can run an engine on that? The same is happening in India, Africa, and parts of South America. We as a planet do not have a bounty of fresh water.

Have we forgotten our high school history so soon? Most wars were fought over water rights. Water is more precious than oil. Drinking bottled water is more costly than gasoline. Why would we power a car with something more expensive and dearer than gasoline?

Answer 3

Cars running on water? Here's another group of scientists who say yes, it's possible. Researchers from the University of Minnesota and Israel's Weizman Institute of Science have figured out a way to use the element Boron to coax water into producing hydrogen gas. That, of course, is quite flammable and can be used to power an internal combustion engine or a fuel cell. And the only emission? Boron Oxide, which can be converted back into Boron and used again.

We've heard things like this before, to a hail of incredulous comments and cries of "bullshit!". We've also heard of a guy in Australia who actually showed his water-powered scooter running on Australian TV but wouldn't reveal how it was done. And here it is again, and now they're saying we'll see a prototype by 2009. This seems too good to be true. Will the oil companies buy this out and kill it? Is this another fable, a la David Mamet's The Water Engine?

Answer 4

There is no such thing as a water powered car. Your statement that they have been invented for some time now is not true. There is no chemical energy in water, so it cannot be used as an energy source in any kind of engine.

If you are talking about hydrogen powered cars, then the main problem is making the hydrogen. Hydrogen can be made from water, but only by using more energy that you get by using that hydrogen as a fuel an in engine.

I have seen the video of a guy who says he can power his car with water by using a regular car battery to release hydrogen gas from water and then use that hydrogen to make his engine run. He demonstrates it, getting the engine to run for one or two seconds. Well, two seconds of fuel is no use at all. To make 10 minutes of fuel would take many car batteries, and to make hours of fuel would take more car batteries than a car can carry. The idea that one small battery can make enough hydrogen gas to run a car as long as a full tank of gasoline could is just not true. That is why it has never been done. If it could be done, then you could just skip the hydrogen making part and just have a regular battery powered electric car.

So just remember, to make enough hydrogen gas fast enough to run a 100 horsepower engine, you need 100 horse power of battery power (more actually, because the process is not 100% efficient), and one small battery cannot make that much power.

Answer 5

Many years ago there were cars that used a form of water as one of the prerequisites for the creation of power the cars were called Stanley Steamers, the other (and real) fuel was wood or coal. I think most folks are losing sight of the fact that water is a main source of a composite that has to be broken down into different elements that in turn can be used as a fuel and they think hydrogen as one of the elements, so conversely water is not a fuel. There has to be additional energy to convert the water to hydrogen. This would render the concept mute.
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Answer 6

No kidding there would be a wide market for it!

Water is not a fuel.

You have to manufacture hydrogen from water by using huge amounts of electricity. The things that you see on local TV are shams. Go back to science class.

Answer 7

There are no water powered cars. You claim that they have been invented for some time now. Would you care to actually provide some documented support for this claim? A patent or two would be excellent (just give me the patent number, I can search it). If you cannot provide this back-up, kindly stop making such claims.

Answer 8

Because it isn't efficient. There are basically 2 ways to derive energy from water. The most common is to use electrolysis and generate hydrogen/oxygen. But, an electrolysis process that would generate enough hydrogen fast enough to run a car would be too bulky. It's far better to generate hydrogen elsewhere (in bulk), compress it, and sell it sort of like gasoline. The other way is absolutely impractical. One would be that water always contains tiny amounts of deuterium (heavy water). Theoretically, it would be possible to use this to fuel a mini-nuclear power plant. But, you would need millions of gallons of water to generate enough deuterium to be worthwhile.

Answer 9

Most of these schemes start out as pump and dump schemes for penny stocks.

Essentially a water powered car runs on hydrogen separated form water.

At 100% efficiency it requires approximately 35 kilowatt hours of electricity to produce one kilogram of hydrogen (2.2 pounds) That amount of hydrogen has the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline.

Currently the best equipment on the market operates at 70% efficiency. So for all practical prposes it takes about 50 kilowatt hours of electricity to make the amount of hydrogen with an energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline.

This is true whether you make the hydrogen through electrolysis or through a substance that reduces the water to hydrogen and oxygen.

Answer 10

There was a recent news item about a researcher at Purdue University (GO, BOILERS!!!) who has discovered a seemingly inexpensive and simple method to extract the hydrogen from the water utilizing an aluminum alloy. The name of the alloy eludes me now, but you can Google it.

So, the pieces for a water-powered car MAY be coming together, but it may take another decade to get them all in order. Who knows?

Like the other guy said earlier, keep you hand on your wallet should you ever hear someone who says that he has an answer.

Answer 11

Not another sucker falling for that old PERPETUAL MOTION scam.
It is a violation of the laws of physics .
If it were real, your exhaust would be water, you could pipe it back into the water tank and recycle it.
NO it doesn't exist
It takes far more energy to break H2O down into hydrogen and oxygen than you get out of it when you burn it.
If the device could be 100 % efficient mechanically, you would still loose because of the inefficiency of electrolysis.