H20 powered car from Japan.

http://www.reuters.com/news/video/popup?videoId=84561&pos=62.85&vol=100&popPlayer=true&videoChannel=74

This just doesn't seem possible - runs entirely on water with no external input ever other than water??

Surely there must be a big 'con' here or some sort of magic trick or else you'd think something like this would take the world by storm.

This just doesn't seem possible - runs entirely on water with no external input ever other than water??

Surely there must be a big 'con' here or some sort of magic trick or else you'd think something like this would take the world by storm.

That's what I was thinking too. There's got to be something we're not seeing.

Some sort of electrolysis to get the hydrogen from the water? It will take about 13kwh (probably more in real world) to convert 1 gallon of water to hydrogen. That's almost the capacity of the Volt battery. That thing has to have a huge battery that needs to be recharged.

Some sort of electrolysis to get the hydrogen from the water? It will take about 13kwh (probably more in real world) to convert 1 gallon of water to hydrogen. That's almost the capacity of the Volt battery. That thing has to have a huge battery that needs to be recharged.

That's what I was thinking but they claim no external input except water. That would be a huge lie if it requires nightly recharging.

Oh "mythical black box" type of powering huh? I will believe it when i see it.

It's hydro-electric dam style power. When you fill it up it goes and starts turning a turbine generating electricity. Then 10- 20% of that electricity is used to power a a pump to recirculate the water back through and start the cycle over and over again, eventually gathering enough energy to use on electric motors to move the vehicle.

It's the famous perpetual motion machine! It magically turns water to hydrogen with no power required to do so. Um, yeah, I have my doubts.

Im hoping and praying that this will come to pass and not just some gimmick.

This will be the only way gas prices will fall.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_23767.aspx

But they're in talks with Japanese automakers about the idea and hope it will one day water down your need to ever visit a gas station

IF this were for real, the article would read:

"Toyota Inc. is currently engineering a vehicle to run on this concept and has already purchased the rights to this technology"

It's hydro-electric dam style power. When you fill it up it goes and starts turning a turbine generating electricity. Then 10- 20% of that electricity is used to power a a pump to recirculate the water back through and start the cycle over and over again, eventually gathering enough energy to use on electric motors to move the vehicle.If that's true, I'm assuming it works on gravity. What happens when you try to go uphill? :p

It's hydro-electric dam style power. When you fill it up it goes and starts turning a turbine generating electricity. Then 10- 20% of that electricity is used to power a a pump to recirculate the water back through and start the cycle over and over again, eventually gathering enough energy to use on electric motors to move the vehicle.

You CANNOT get more energy out of a system than you put in. It's one of the fundamental features of our universe.

In the system you described, even if there weren't any propulsion involved, you would not generate enough power from the water turbine to pump 100% of that water back through the turbine. Additional power MUST come from somewhere.
I assume that's why they said all you have to do is add water, EXCEPT They didn't mention a turbine.

They said:

"an energy generator takes hydrogen from the water releasing electrons that power the car"

WRONG!

it takes electricity to split the hydrogen and oxygen in water. That's the electrolysis that has been mentioned. You do not gain electricity by splitting hydrogen from oxygen.

You can combine hydrogen and oxygen and get electricity as a byproduct... that's how hydrogen fuel cells work.

In any case, I'm betting that however their system works (if it does work), the price of the energy you use in terms of the potential energy stored in gasoline, is essentially $20 per gallon.

It's hydro-electric dam style power. When you fill it up it goes and starts turning a turbine generating electricity. Then 10- 20% of that electricity is used to power a a pump to recirculate the water back through and start the cycle over and over again, eventually gathering enough energy to use on electric motors to move the vehicle.

Close. I think it actually dumps most of the water out after it spins the impeller to generate electricity. ;)

Close. I think it actually dumps most of the water out after it spins the impeller to generate electricity. ;)If that's the case, why not just go with squirrels on a treadmill? :D

Yeah, undoubtedly BS as is presented. I can see some local news show getting suckered by such a story, but you'd think Reuters would do a little better job on their fact checking.

If that's the case, why not just go with squirrels on a treadmill? :D
That's probably what it is. That or a midget pedaling underneath. All he needs every once in a while is a bottle of water (and an unmentioned ham sammich). :lol:

I thought this thing used water to provide hydrogen for a fuel cell?

I thought this thing used water to provide hydrogen for a fuel cell?

I think that's what they're trying to imply, but as noted above it takes more energy to separate the hydrogen and oxygen than you get recombining them.

I thought this thing used water to provide hydrogen for a fuel cell?

In the real world there are only two reasonable ways to get hydrogen to power your car.


You can use electricity to get it out of water, but a battery is a cheaper and more efficient.
You can convert natural gas, but it is more efficient to just burn the gas in your engine and there is less new infrastructure required
.

The only thing hydrogen cars are good for is collecting government grants and sucker’s “investments”.

Its a curiosity at best for me, I'm perfectly happy with my gasoline ICE or as it seems some variation of alchohol and gasoline presently.