Accipiter - 11 June 2008 01:23 PM

I don’t think that anybody here has said that you can’t make combustable gas from water.

I made a lot of it in my bedroom via electrolysis. Then I would take a soda bottle of it downstairs and out to the back yard to ignite. One time my mom saw me and this exchange occurred:

Mom: What are you doing?

Me: Taking hydrogen gas outside

Mom: Why is the bottle upside down?

Me: So it doesn’t pour out.

My whimsical sense of humor and my mom’s ignorance of science helped me dodge a bullet there.

good idea

I’m trying not to be gullible but I’m looking for some gas pump relief while I save up a down payment on a hybrid or my next motorcycle.

The story so far:
1.  It is possible to convert water to hydrogen and back again within the confines of your car with a little hardware.
2.  Doing so will cost money (loss of efficiency) over time (although this effect may be masked by a shortened trial).
3.  The only possible advantage is that in gaseous form nitrogen and/or fuel will be displaced, with a possible side-effect of increased temperatures.
4.  There are people claiming to have substantial fuel economy gains using this very method (and there are also people claiming to have seen the aliens at Roswell).

So, the remaining questions seem to be:
a.  Has there been any verifiable scientific study?
b.  Might the hydrogen act as some sort of catalyst within the combustion chamber (as I’ve seen claimed), thereby (at a cost) actually reducing the uncombusted waste by-products?  Note: this argument seems to have some poetic balance since a catalyst is indeed used in the muffler to remove some gunk.
c.  Where does the white go when snow melts?

Thanks for listening, I’m just thinking out loud I suppose.  (I try to think and nothin’ happens!)

Ed