Free energy, HHO gas fuel and Michael Phelps
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Screw hybrid cars and biofuels! I’m going to learn how to run my vehicle entirely on fuel that the vehicle itself creates! I’m making a pollution-free, perpetual motion machine! I’m defying the laws of physics! I can’t stop using exclamation points! Whee!
Have you seen online ads that say: Tired of high gas prices? Want to run your car on tap water? Learn more now!
But before you “learn more” below, here’s a Wikipedia quote for all you conspiracy theorists afraid of Big Oil and lamenting the marginalization of alternative energy options: “Free energy suppression is a conspiracy theory that claims that advanced technology that would reshape current electrical generation methods is being suppressed by special interest groups. These groups are usually related to the oil industry, to whom current energy generation technology is profitable.”
Though I am fascinated by Nikola Tesla (and other allegedly suppressed inventors), at the moment I am more interested in Stanley Meyer’s water fuel cell and water-fueled alternative energy possibilities. Stan Meyer produced nine U.S. patents in the 1980s relating to his water-powered car. However, Meyer’s “water fuel cell” is reportedly a perpetual motion machine and thus could not have existed quite the way it was portrayed in the media. Such machines violate the known laws of physics.
But, say, what if you only wanted to improve your car’s efficiency with a hydrogen fuel system, not power your entire car? Well then, perhaps you’d like to convert your gas-guzzling beast into a water/gas hybrid vehicle using a hydrogen booster!
There are dozens of scammy-looking websites (and eBay auctions) out there clamoring to take your money in exchange for DIY conversion kits that show you how to build water-fueled devices to improve your automobile’s gas mileage. Most claim to sell a water conversion guide detailing how to use electricity from your car’s battery to separate water into HHO gas (a process of water electrolysis). The pitch is that HHO (also known as hydroxy gas or Brown’s gas or oxyhydrogen), burns effectively and supplies significant energy to help run your car, while producing only clean water as a by-product. Apparently, an HHO generator (that you build yourself using hardware-store parts) splits the hydrogen and oxygen out of water, via electrolysis, for use in internal combustion engines. The mixture of HHO gas is then supplied to the engine’s intake manifold or carburetor. The websites claim that HHO can be beneficially added to the intake airflow of a gasoline or diesel engine.
To a point, it makes sense that a decent electrolysis kit could improve your gas mileage. But, really, doesn’t the energy required to make the hydrogen and oxygen exceed the energy released by its combustion in the car’s engine? Being out of college chemistry and physics for 10 years now, am I missing how this doesn’t violate the first law of thermodynamics?
I guess the benefit of a hydrogen booster is conceivable if you think about the HHO as an additive in the fuel tank system—as such, it could improve gas mileage by cleaning up the fuel system and augmenting the actual combustion. Laws of physics intact, it does seem somewhat reasonable that an HHO fuel cell could enhance a vehicle’s combustion, lower the pollution, improve the efficiency of the engine, and lower fuel costs. But I should also note that I really don’t know what I’m talking about. I do know that hydrogen is highly explosive (see: Hindenburg), so any “safe” system should not be producing or storing much of this combustible gas at any given time. That would not be a good thing for do-it-yourselfers. I am curious about how viable this concept actually is and to what degree online scam artists and hoaxers are overrunning its level of usefulness with spam and pseudoscience. I have trouble believing that one of these HHO devices could improve fuel efficiency by more than 5-10%, at best. But I’d love to see evidence otherwise.
Here are some interesting related YouTube videos on alternative energy: CES: Horizon Turns Ordinary Tap Water Into Electricity (from TechWebTV), Water Power (from Fox 26 News), and Project Energy (a CBS program featuring “water fuel” and Stephen Meyer, who is Stanley Meyer’s twin brother).
Wait, Stan Meyer died of a cerebral aneurysm (or, according to shadow government enthusiasts, was poisoned) at a restaurant in 1998, but he has a twin brother Steve who is carrying on his water-fuel work? Really?
Back to the DIY water fuel cell: Apparently, even the Greenville Police Department in South Carolina is claiming that Water4Gas hydrogen generators improve their gasoline and diesel fuel consumption.
Eh, I think I’m going to go watch some more Olympics.
Last night, Michael Phelps completed his historic sweep of eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, setting seven world records in the process. An amazing feat, which eclipsed Mark Spitz’s seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games. Now Phelps has 16 medals from the past two Olympics and 14 of those medals are gold. No one else in modern Olympic history, ever, has earned more than nine gold medals total. The consensus seems to be that Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time, and that he saved the Games. Plus, he could easily return for a third and even fourth Olympics, as he’s only 23 years old.
Perhaps we can figure out how to modify our automobiles to run on press coverage of Michael Phelps instead? I’m pretty sure its an inexhaustible (or at least renewable) resource—per the criteria of natural resources conservationists.