What about oxygen as a fuel for motor vehicles? Cheap and abundant! How about that, oil companies?

Question

Use of oxygen - gas or liquid as alternative to fossil fuels: cheap, plentiful. Certainly, someone could invent an engine that will burn 02!

Answer 1

everything I know (which isnt much) includes the fact that O2 is an accelerant, not a "fuel".  This is how top fuel dragsters and other engines that need more power get it...thru a mechanical device called a "blower".  In order to create energy, the O2 would have to accelerate the burning of something.  The fire tetrahedron (for combustion to take place) requires fuel, heat, oxygen, and an ignition source.

Answer 2

The internal combustion engine runs on oxygen, as long as you supply a reducing material such as a hydrocarbon.

You can imagine using compressed gas to propel a car, but somewhere you have to power the compression. And extracting oxygen from the air is not without energy cost.

It might be more economical to use a mixture about 18% oxygen, 91% nitrogen, under high pressure.

Answer 3

News flash  Oxygen does not burn.

Combustion or burning is a complex sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat

oxidant  is Oxygen

The fire triangle or combustion triangle You must have "fuel" , heat and Oxygen.

Answer 4

Oygen is already used by motor vehicles.  If you use pure oxygen, you will end up with very high temperatures that will destroy your engine.  Oxygen alone does not produce any energy, it must combine with some other fuel to release heat.

Answer 5

they already made a car that runs on compressed air...

Answer 6

since oxygen is an oxidizer and not a fuel, you cant power anything on pure oxygen. however add hydrogen to the mix, in a combustible mixture, and now you have an explosive compound that can power an internal combustion engine.