Forget about the price of oil - this car runs on water.

Curiosity wrote:

I did read the article, and let me assure you, in his town McDonald's is still giving it away for free.

Here's a quote from the article, which proves my point that some places still give it away:

"The City of San Francisco has its own grease recycling program run through the Public Utilities Commission called SFGreasecycle, which collects discarded vegetable oil from city restaurants at no charge and recycles it into biodiesel for use in the city fleet.

I'm sorry you don't believe me.

Oh, I believe you. It's just that if a non-profit organization like SFGreasecycle collects the oil, the donators probably get a healthy tax write-off, equivalent to the market value of the oil, i.e., $2.50/gallon. If your friend gets the oil for free, then it's a gift from McDonald's. But it's meaningless as a possible fuel solution for the vast majority of potential users.

so what's our only source of energy that doesnt hurt us in some way? Solar power? Is solar power being worked on?

Wish I had the brains for materials engineering and physics. Some of the shit you hear about what Japan is doing is absolutely mind boggling. Like they apparently are tracking in real-time, the movement of every North Korean, Russian, Chinese, and U.S., nuclear and conventional missile, ship, military vehicle, artillery and mortar piece, etc. thru the use of spy satellites, with ground penetrating radar, advanced imageing, etc. Japan can produce an inventory list of large munitions and miltary equipment more accurate than the Pentagon can for our own forces. When I hear in the press about Japanese LiON cars rolling off the production line in 9 months, 100Mbps wireless metropolitan HDTV video phone service for $20/mo in one year, and now H20 cars for $5k, it doesn't surprise me a bit.

LANL wrote:

Wish I had the brains for materials engineering and physics. Some of the shit you hear about what Japan is doing is absolutely mind boggling. Like they apparently are tracking in real-time, the movement of every North Korean, Russian, Chinese, and U.S., nuclear and conventional missile, ship, military vehicle, artillery and mortar piece, etc. thru the use of spy satellites, with ground penetrating radar, advanced imageing, etc. Japan can produce an inventory list of large munitions and miltary equipment more accurate than the Pentagon can for our own forces. When I hear in the press about Japanese LiON cars rolling off the production line in 9 months, 100Mbps wireless metropolitan HDTV video phone service for $20/mo in one year, and now H20 cars for $5k, it doesn't surprise me a bit.

But, then again, if you did have the brains for materials engineering and physics, you'd realize that most of what you wrote above is nonsense.

Please, Please Explain wrote:

Will someone please explain this to me because it sounds like a scam? It seems they are saying they can take water, separate hydrogen from the oxygen. Then burn the hydrogen so that it recombines with oxygen to produce water. And somehow in this process energy is gained and not lost as thermodynamics would predict?

You don't need any further explanation. You've already answered your own question. It is indeed a scam. Electrolysis scams are quite common, and there are people in the US claiming to have invented the same technology. Homer S. hit the nail on the head.

I hope not because that's how we now track NK and verify RUS complicance. LiON cars have been announced by Toyota. NTT Docomo 3.9G HDTV phones are building-out/deploying in Japan now. The only question is how will this H20 car pan out ? Keep us posted will you.

Most important thing is in these comments:

There seems to be a lack of elementary redox chemistry knowledge in almost all of the press releases surrounding the Genepax car. To convert the water to hydrogen and oxygen gases using a fuel cell you need to drive this reaction with an external energy source… e.g. plugging the car into mains power. If the decay of water naturally produced energy don’t you think it would be flammable? Water is the final product of combustion.

I consider the lack of mention about a power source in the Reuters press release irresponsible and sensationalist.

I hope not wrote:

The only question is how will this H20 car pan out?

Probably about as well as all of these (from the first page in a Google search):

They're a dime a dozen with no shortage of suckers to fall for them.

From Wiki:

"Claimed water fuelled engines often obtain hydrogen by electrolysis of water. The electrolysis cell must be powered electrically. The hydrogen and oxygen obtained by this electrolysis can then be burned but more energy is required to drive the electrolysis cell than can be extracted from the resulting hydrogen-oxygen mixture. Otherwise, such a system would be equivalent to a perpetual motion machine."

"There are currently no commercially available products based on these technologies, and several have been shown in court to have been fraudulently used to solicit investment funds."

I hope not wrote:

I hope not because that's how we now track NK and verify RUS complicance. LiON cars have been announced by Toyota. NTT Docomo 3.9G HDTV phones are building-out/deploying in Japan now. The only question is how will this H20 car pan out ? Keep us posted will you.

Sure, I can do that right now.

1. The poster wrote that the Japanese "are tracking in real-time, the movement of every North Korean, Russian, Chinese, and U.S.... military vehicle, artillery and mortar piece, etc." That is utter nonsense.

2. Cars using lithium-ion batteries are on the market today, and they are not Japanese.

3. The poster wrote that Japan would have "100Mbps wireless metropolitan HDTV video phone service" for $20/month. I doubt the economics of the system will allow that kind of market pricing by next year, but the technology will get there eventually.

4. On the other hand, the water-powered car is a sure thing today. All you need is a "Mr. Fusion" sitting on top of your DeLorean.

Just a thought. I believe I remember hearing in science class in high school that it was either impossible/very very difficult to make water.

That said, it sounds like this car breaks apart the cellular structure of the water. Wouldn't this create the same problem in the long run and instead of wasting gas (which is not necessary for our survival) it would waste water (which is).

gas to water? wrote:

Just a thought. I believe I remember hearing in science class in high school that it was either impossible/very very difficult to make water.

That said, it sounds like this car breaks apart the cellular structure of the water. Wouldn't this create the same problem in the long run and instead of wasting gas (which is not necessary for our survival) it would waste water (which is).

It is neither impossible nor very difficult to make water. All you need to do is combine hydrogen and oxygen - as is done routinely in a fuel cell. The problem is the hydrogen - making hydrogen requires a lot of energy.

And no, this car is no threat to our water supplies. Mostly because it doesn't work.

It's true. The Japs caught the NKs moving fuel rods by satellite based particle imagers. That's what caused Rice to go on a hissy fit in 2003.