Is it true that you can use water as a fuel source?

Question

I heard that someone found a way to use water as a fuel source, is this true?

Answer 1

Yea, it was one of the first fuel souces known to man.  We used it briefly in Automotive History and I believe Jay Leno owns a vehicle powered by Water.  Oh yea it was called a Steam powered car!..............

Answer 2

Yes, that has been done before.

Answer 3

you can either

A.) Pass an electric current through it, and produce hydrogen gas.

or

B.) Superheat it and have it turn a turbine (also known as steam power.)

Answer 4

No, can't be done, it is simply not possible to use water as a fuel.  Water can be use as a heat transfer medium (as in a steam engine), or as a source of hydrogen (which can be burned), but some other energy source (aka fuel) must be involved in either process.

Answer 5

Sure you can use water but it takes more energy to change state to H2 and O2 so its not a free ride.   But once you do it you burn the H2 and get water back again.

Answer 6

Technically yes and no.  To use it as a fuel, you'd first have to use electrolysis to convert it into hydrogen and oxygen.  Then you'd have to use a fuel cell or some type of combustion engine (probably piston or turbine) to convert it into useable energy.  A fuel cell would convert the energy from the process into heat and electricity mainly.  A combustion process would convert the energy from the process into heat and mechanical energy mainly.  

However, if you apply the law of conservation of energy, the electricity you used to break the water down into hydrogen and oxygen would be as much or more than the amount of energy that you could get from converting it back to water through a fuel cell or combustion.  

So unless you get the hydrogen and oxygen from an electrolysis process that utilizes solar power or that utilizes some other chemical process to produce another chemical.  It doesn't make sense to expend all that energy when it'd be just wasting energy.  

The hydrogen and oxygen collected could be used like stored battery energy in a way.

Answer 7

Yes its been around for many years but has always been pushed down by gov and oil companies. I just read about a guy thats been doing it for years and the big meeting this year for the scientist to get together to talk about all this he was barred from going to show his new tech.

Answer 8

Yes it can techincally be used as a fuel source.  However it is very inefficient at this time.  The parts that convert water into hydrogen (and oxygen = H20) are very expensive... also the accompanying fuel cells are also very expensive.  

Technology is advancing and improving constantly though, but another huge problem is service for two following reasons: 1) the (hydrogen) fuel itself is not widely available (and thus is usually produced in one's garage) when travelling... and 2) repair service for the parts is costly and nearly impossible to find locally...

I won't go into the massive road blocks from the auto and oil industries also the EPA... but mainly time and money are the biggest problems.

Answer 9

Stanley Meyer was a con man, he was done for fraud

Answer 10

Even compressed air can be a fuel source, just think about releasing the end of an inflated balloon.  The problem is often to produce the fuel cheaply.  The dream is to separate water H20 into Hydrogen and Oxygen and to use hydrogen as fuel source.  The problem is it is currently expensive to produce Hydrogen, and uses more energy to produce it then if we just used that energy to directly power the vehicles.  It just means we don’t know how YET.  

Internal combustion engines that run on hydrogen have been around for decades, but what is being tried is to use fuel cells.  Hydrogen is released into one side of a membrane, oxygen the other side.  The two want to be together so when they pass through the membrane they produce electricity and once combined are just water.  The electricity then powers the vehicle.  

I have seen the Honda prototype, and now they have an improved one, and it works.  The problem is getting the hydrogen.  The May 2007 Popular Science was all about cars in the future.

Answer 11

Yes, water could be used as a fuel source.  Water is used in present day technology to help produce hydro for homes and buildings.  Water could be used for anything.  Water is the valuable source for life without it we don't exist.

Answer 12

i have heard this if your dehydrated i don't see why you couldn't use it as a fuel source

Answer 13

Yes, Stanley Meyer figured out a way. Check it out at the site below!

Hope this helps!!

Answer 14

Yes, definitely. It has been used as a fuel source for many years through hydroelectric power. The movement of water has been used to turn a turbine, turning a turbine creates mechanical work which can be converted into electricity . This is why we build dams. Steam has also been used to create mechanical work that is converted into electricity.  

In addition to the old hydroelectric power, reducing water into hydrogen and oxygen has been a focus of many scientific studies. The electrolysis currently available to reduce water into its components expends more energy than can be obtained. However, development is currently ongoing to create a way for sunlight to be used to reduce water. The beauty of this process, if they can find a way to do it, is that sunlight is used to reduce water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then combusted to produce energy and water. Thus, in this process, you put water in and get water out (as well as energy). The more interesting piece of this process is that the water you put in can be salty water. In fact, it's better if it is salty water, because the salt acts as an electrolyte and helps the water become reduced. But you get fresh, distilled water out of this process. So, you put in dirty water and get back clean water with energy to boot. Let's hope they find a way to do this.

Answer 15

After you break it up into Hydrogen and Oxygen.

Answer 16

The simplest way to say this is yes, because of the chemical bonds in H20. The bonds in between the atoms contain energy as with any other molecule, so technically, it could, though it is hard to use now

Answer 17

Currently it is not feasible what's more our water supply is limited and they predict in the next 50 yrs. (if population of earth increases as expected) that water will be the most precious resource   in other words it will cost a lot of money..

Answer 18

Yes there is. A lot of cities, including some in oregon, canada and russia have their public buses running on them. The problem is that you need a large tank in order for it to work because of the splitting and reforming process of the water molecules. The technology is getting better and a few car companies have developed the technology for individual car use

Answer 19

Sure if you propel yourself with a high powered stream of urine!

Answer 20

In  a sense, yes. Water is broken down into it's constituents (hydrogen and oxygen)The hydrogen is then used as a fuelcell.