Cars running off of water?

Question

I know the car company's are trying to find ways to make cars run on alternative fuels such as water. Do you think this is entirely possible and if it is when do you think it will be on the market for consumers. The next few decades?

Answer 1

Cars will never run off of water.  This is simply not possible.  I wish you kids would stop asking this question.  Please learn a little thermodynamics.

Answer 2

There is no way to run a car on water.

But each molecule of water consists of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom. It is possible to separate the hydrogen and oxygen from each other; you can use the hydrogen to make  a car can run. The problem is that it takes energy to separate hydrogen and oxygen. But if electricity is cheap enough you can come out ahead.

Answer 3

So much ignorance, it makes my head spin....

A scientist in Florida, I believe, recently figured out a way to very efficiently split water into hydrogen and oxygen using radio waves.  This development makes the hydrogen powered card much more feasible.  Hydrogen has always been attractive as a fuel because it contains a lot of energy and releases no pollutants when burned.  The drawback has always been developing a safe way to store it.  Hyrdogen is explosive under most circumstances.  Keeping a good supply on a car requires extreme safety measures.  

Splitting water to create hydrogen fuel on board neatly sidesteps that problem.  Batteries would power an RF generator which efficiently generates hydrogen as needed out of water.  The hydrogen then goes to the engine where it is burned to run the car.  No large store of hydrogen, no explosion hazard, just a tank of water.

It's a neat idea.  Note to all you Einstiens:  It is real.  I still like powering an electric motor directly, but it is one approach some auto makers are researching.

Answer 4

idk when we will be able to buy one but i sure hope it's soon. oh and i think it's wonderful

Answer 5

Water does NOT burn at normal temperatures!!

They either have to break it down into H and O (using electricity), and then burn it , or convert it to steam to drive either a turbine or a reciprocating steam engine.

Look up the Stanley Steamer!  It was not very efficient THEN, but with newer materials and technology, could be much more efficiently made NOW.

Answer 6

something like that wouldnt work in australia. We dont have enough water for ourselves at the moment.. let alone cars aswel. They say that adelaide (capital city in aust) will run out of its water supply in less than a year..... n thats with water restrictions...!

Answer 7

I don't know about running on water...It would be nice...Start investing in water companys..LoL...They would be expensive I am sure though...Probaly real small too...Would be great to have one though!

Answer 8

Water is not an alternative fuel! Any fuel must burn and any idiot knows water does not burn. If you are talking about using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and use the hydrogen as the fuel, then that uses more power to split the water than burning the hydrogen can produce.

To get scientific on you, it is a conservation of energy problem. You cannot create energy, only change it from one form to another. The potential energy of the chemical bonds in water is lower than the potential energy of the free hydrogen and oxygen atoms. To split the molecules you need to put energy from another source into the water molecule. When you burn the hydrogen, it chemically bonds with oxygen from the air and the energy lost by the formerly free hydrogen and oxygen atoms come out as heat. But it is exactly equal to the energy it took to split the water in the first place. And since no heat engine is 100% efficient, you cannot use all that energy, so the end result is that making hydrogen from water is just a waste of energy.

So take you pick of reasons, water does not burn or conservation of energy. Either way, water as a fuel is theoretically, physically, logically, actually impossible. Wondering how great it would be to use water as fuel is like wondering how rich we can be when mathematics discovers how to make 1+1=4 so you can double you money by adding two $1 bills to get $4. It is IMPOSSIBLE!

Answer 9

Yeah it is possible now. But I don't think companies want it out cause it will not help them make more $$$.

Which is just sad.

Answer 10

Anything is possible. as long as people get their head out of the current practices we have.

with so much smart kids right now, I think, just in a decades time.