john@hp-pcd.UUCP (john) (03/08/86)
<<<< < < A while back I heard something about cars that would run on water. They < were fast enough and had enough range to be practical. Has anyone < heard anything about these?? I'd love them to cut down the pollution! < One of the major oil companies was testing gas/water mixtures to see how much they could dilute their gas before anyone noticed. It turned out that this was the same company that years ago had purchased all the rights to the 100 MPG carburetor and kept it out of production. Well they tried the diluted gas with this carb and found that it still ran even when the mixture was 100% water. Needless to say these findings were not published. :) John Eaton !hplabs!hp-pcd!john
throopw@dg_rtp.UUCP (03/11/86)
>>First you separate the water into hydrogen and oxygen, then you super-cool >>the hydrogen, and then you use it as fuel. The energey required to do >>the super-cooling made them impractical. > If you think gasoline makes pretty explosions you'll really be excited > by what a hydrogen fueled auto does in an accident. Did you catch the > last launch of the Challenger? The examples of hydrogen-powered experimental cars I saw several years ago (via tube... some random PBS program-or-other) didn't use liquid hydrogen. They used highly compressed hydrogen gas, or hydrogen bound by surface adhesion of some sort in metal sponge matrix in a pressurized tank. Both of these alternatives are considerably less dangerous than current gasoline tanks, since neither of them allow the accumulation of oxygenated vapors in half-empty tanks. A particularly impressive demonstration (in an attempt to demonstrate the safety of the idea) was to shoot a bullet through a half-empty hydrogen tank, and through a half-empty gasoline tank. The hydrogen tank developed an intense blue flame from both holes that lasted many minutes until the hydrogen was exhausted. The gasoline tank exploded in a truely spectacular display of pyrotechnics, spewing burning gasoline all around the scenery and effectively napalming everything in sight. -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw
kaufman@uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU (03/11/86)
> A while back I heard something about cars that would run on water. They > were fast enough and had enough range to be practical. Has anyone > heard anything about these?? I'd love them to cut down the pollution! Sure. Mine runs on water. It's called hydroplaning. Ken Kaufman (uiucdcs!kaufman)
jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman) (03/11/86)
> > There was, however, a problem with the fuel supply. It wasn't really > necessary to super-cool the hydrogen, all you do is compress it into > the tank and let it soak into the 'gravel'. The only problem is that > the energy given off here comes from the hydrogen and oxygen joining, > exactly the same amount of energy required to crack 'em apart. In > both processes, we have wasted energy as well. Now, we have to supply > energy to the process to crack the molecules. Where does it come from? > Simple - electrolysis. (There are probably other methods that I'm not > aware of, but the problems are similar.) Where does the electricity > come from? Coal, water, nuclear, dams, you get the idea. (Did I say > 'clean burning'? Oh my. My apologies.) > > ---Duck I have heard that some types of algae give off hydrogen as a natural by-product of their feeding process. I believe there has been research into the use of these algae to produce fuel. -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) "Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..." {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff
peterb@pbear (03/19/86)
... If memory serves me correctly, NASA did one of these when they bouilt there ultra-efficient house projects. The vehicle used hydrogen sulfide to hold the hydrogen radicals. The research group placed the sulfide in a pressure tank and used the exhaust to heat the tank just enough to raise the tank pressure. The researchers were concerned about the presence of free hydrogen in an accident, and decided to test the idea. The researchers started up the engine and let the system heat up to equilibrium then blasted the cylinder(from a distance) with a deer rifle. No explosion, only a free base fire that burned very slowly. So the researchers did (apperently) discover a way to safely store the hydrogen. Peter Barada ihnp4!ima!pbear!peterb