We have come to see the terms like “Car runs on water”, “a water-fuelled car,” “car that runs on water”, “car that drives on water or water powered car kit” on internet many times and often think is it possible to run a car on water?
Until now, it is claimed that hypothetically many times by the self-claimed experts that they have invented a water powered car kit that can drive its energy directly from water through the process of electrolysis. They have been the subject of a great number of ezines, magazines, articles, local news TVs and coverage. Do Cars run on water in 2020?
The Popular Claims For Running A Car on Water
Many of such claims have ended in vain being mere pseudoscience myths and many were found just investment scams. These scientists have claimed that there vehicles derive energy from water solely with no other fuel. One such self claimed engineer received much applause and was assured of Government funding to meet the country’s energy demands. Here are some of the most notable claimants to have run vehicles on water and air.
Charles Garrett’s electrolytic carburetor
Charles H. Garrett had demonstrated a car fulled on water that was the headline of the news papers back in September 8, 1935 in The Dallas Morning News. The car was generating hydrogen by the process of electrolysis according to Garrett’s patent that was issued the same year and showed a diagram of a carburetor just like an ordinary carburetor but with electrolysis plates added at the bottom and float is also shown for maintaining water level. Eventually, his patent failed to verify a new source of energy practically.
Stanley Meyer’s water fuel cell
Back in 1980s Stanley Meyer was all over the news when he claimed to have built a dune buggy that runs on water and gave incoherent justification for its operation. His claims varied as having said to have replaced the spark plugs with a “water splitter” mechanism while in an other claim he said that his mechanism works on a “fuel cell” that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. His fuel cell was subject to “electrical resonance” for splitting water mist into oxygen and hydrogen gases and then recombusted into vapors of water in an internal combustion engine for production of “net energy” to run the vehicle.
His claims failed to prove scientifically and in 1996 he was found guilty of fraud in Ohio Court. Soon after in 1998 he died of aneurysm but the conspiracy theories claim he was murdered.
Dennis Klein’s Water Fuelled Car
Lately back in 2002, a firm named Hydrogen Technology Applications presented a patent of an electrolyser design and even got trademarked the term “Aquygen” for a hydrogen and oxygen mixture production device and claimed that it can run car exclusively on water with aquagen. Dennis Klein the founder of company even said that they were negotiating with a US autombile manufacturer and the US government wanted to manufacture Hummers that will be powered by Aquagen. The company no longer claims that they can drive cars on water anymore, the aquagen was basically used to increase the fuel efficiency and making it Hydrogen fuel enhancement than water-fueled car.
Genesis World Energy (GWE)
GWE claimed in 2002 that they have manufactured a device that would extract energy from water through electrolysis of hydrogen and oxygen and then recombine them as well. They collected $2.5 million from investors in 2003, none of their devices were ever put in the market. In 2006 the owner of GWE Patrick Kelly was sentenced for five years imprisonment and also was ordered to pay back $400,000 in restitution for theft and fraud.
Genepax Water Energy System
A Japanese company “Genepax” claimed in 2008 that they have manufactured a car which runs on water and air. Genepax also said that they will not reveal the core part of the invention but their patent claimed that the mechanism uses an onboard energy generator for extracting the hydrogen by the use of a “mechanism which is similar to the mechanism by which hydrogen is produced through a reaction of metal hydride and water” and later the same hydrogen is used for fueling the car. The Popular Mechanics call Genepax’s claim “rubbish and bogus” because the method actually uses metal hydride for energy and that certainly is not water.
Daniel Dingel’s Water Fueled Car
Daniel Dingel an inventor from the Philippines claimed in 1969 that he has developed a mechanism which uses water as a fuel for running a car. After decades in 2000s he entered into a partnership with Formosa Plastic Group to put his invention to work and start manufacturing. In 2008 the partnership came to an end when Dingel was found a big fraud by Formosa Plastics and was sentenced into a 20-year-imprisonment at the age of 82.
Dr Ghulam Sarwar’s Car
A Pakistani doctor Ghulam Sarwar proclaimed in 2011’s December that he has manufactured a car that uses water for fuel. However, he also said that it uses 60% of water and 40% of Diesel for fuel and that he was working hard to make it work 100% on water by the end of 2012. He also claimed that his model car emits only oxygen instead of carbon for environment’s sake.
Agha Waqar Ahmad’s Water-fuelled car
An other Pakistani named Agha Waqar Ahmad claimed to have invented a “water kit” that uses water as a fuel for car in July 2012 that can be freely used for any automobile. The water kit has a cylinder Jar to hold water– a bubbler and a thin pipe that leads to the engine. He claimed that his kit uses electrolysis for converting water into HHO to be used as a fuel. He also claimed that he has succeeded because he has achieved much higher amount of hydrogen compared to the previous inventors. But many science and technology experts in Pakistan reckon Agha’s claim to be a fraud as it clearly violates the laws of thermodynamics. He failed to show up for an organized demonstration of his invention on a number of occasions.
Why They Failed And What is Water Scientifically?
The nature of water is fully oxidized hydrogen and is itself a high energy inflammable substance but during the formation of water its useful energy gets released as a part of the process as a results water will not burn. The electrolysis process splits water into separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules but it requires the same amount of energy to extract water molecule as was released for water formation during hydrogen oxidization. In the process some of it (energy) gets lost while converting water to hydrogen and for burning the hydrogen because the amount of waste heat always gets produced during the conversion. At the end chemical energy is released from water in a great amount more than or equal to the amount of energy required for the required production that would go against the second law of thermodynamics.
What does the 2nd law of thermodynamics state?
Energy is the ability to introduce a change or to do work. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that “in all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves the system, the potential energy of the state will always be less than that of the initial state commonly named as entropy.”
The 2nd law of thermodynamics in simple terms could be put as the energy changes its form from one to another, or if the matter moves freely, entropy or disorder in a closed system also increases and the variation in the density, pressure, and temperature is sure to even out horizontally after a while.
