A Japanese company is trying to convince that cars can be driven in water. Is there anything to it?
The Japanese company Genepax is a hot name, as of today, on the gray fringes of the alternative energy industry. About four months ago, the company hosted a press conference in Osaka, Japan. The company's president presented a revolutionary technological development: a car engine that runs on water. Standing next to a small blue car in which the 'water energy engine' (WES) was installed, the buttoned-up manager told about the features of the invention.
The motor is capable of producing over 500 watts of electrical energy (although a system producing only 300 watts was demonstrated at the display, due to technical considerations), and it requires only water for its operation. In a short video by Reuters, the company's employees demonstrate how a small amount of water is poured into the engine - and the car silently pulls out of the parking lot and drives down the street.
Five hundred watts is not a very large power (an average home computer consumes about three hundred watts) but according to the president, the WES can be easily upgraded to much larger powers. The water, as described in the article, can come from any source: sea water, fresh water, even tea! The company's website states that- "The facility is completely safe, and can be installed anywhere - even indoors. It does not emit carbon dioxide, and has no impact on the environment."
Is the ground shaking under the feet of the oil companies? Not sure.
Attempts to extract energy from water are not new. Stanley Meyer, an American inventor, claimed to have succeeded in designing a car engine based on water back in 1989: about eighty liters of ordinary water would be enough, according to his theories, to cross the United States from coast to coast. John Keeley, also an American, demonstrated back in the late 19th century water-based engines capable of bending iron rods like toothpicks and tearing thick ropes as if they were sewing threads.
Why, then, do we still visit gas stations instead of bringing water bottles from home? Science rules out the possibility of producing energy from water. Let's understand why:
Chemical energy is stored in the bonds between the atoms within the material. In natural gas, for example, the atomic bonds are weak and only a tiny electrical spark is required to break them and 'harvest' the resulting energy. In water, on the other hand, the bonds between the atoms are very strong, and do not break easily. Energy must be invested to break the bonds between the water atoms.
This is probably why all previous ideas for driving cars in ordinary water have failed. Stanley Meyer was convicted in court of defrauding investors and passed away in 1998. Keeley died in 1898, and in his house were found double walls containing compressed air pipes that were the real power source for his fake machines.
Hence, one should not develop high hopes for the engine of the Ginfax company. The company refuses to reveal details about the mysterious technology behind the invention, only releasing hints that it is an improvement of an older technology: metal hydride. Certain types of metals are able to break down the water into oxygen and hydrogen naturally, and then the two gases can be ignited and energy can be extracted from the mixture. The catch is that metal hydride does not exist in nature, because the water decomposition process causes the metal to oxidize (in other words, it rusts) and energy must be expended to remove the rust. If this is the basis of the Ginfax company's technology, then the descriptions in the press conference are false: water alone is not enough to move the car. It must also be 'fueled' with metallic hydride, which is currently more expensive to produce than gasoline.
In short, don't want to sell the car - and don't be tempted to invest in companies like Ginfax. There are no free meals.
(The author is the author of the book 'Perpetum Mobila: On Physics, Eternal Machines, Charlatans and everything in between.', published by 'Maariv Library', and hosts the podcast Making history!' on science, technology and history).
Editor's note: We recently came across an Israeli company that offers a similar service. We suggest to be careful of them.
19 תגובות
It seems to me that they just sewed a bag on him, he turned out to be a fraud because of the part that it's not just water. He deserved to die, he made people commit suicide from their investment. Billions of dollars went to waste, trends lost all their money because of such a big scam. But what they wrote on the air pipes inside the walls is not nice because even if there were pipes there is no connection between the vehicles they just wanted to inflate
The article is unprofessional and irrelevant, how can the reporter warn about something he doesn't know. That there have been charlatans and frauds throughout history does not mean that they are all like that. And besides, it has not been proven that a tertiary substance like hydride was used.
By the way for your information. I built a car where the rear wheels are bigger than the front ones exactly in a ratio of 1:3.14 (pi) and theoretically it works.
The explanation: the car is always going downhill.
I tried to register a patent, but the patent office denied it and explained to me that there is a similar invention in the USA.
By the way, that's true. An application was submitted this year for a "Leading Perpetum" and it was approved by the American Patent Registrar. When asked, he argued that the inventor does not have to show his invention works.
The whole idea is cheating for its own sake. Any discussion on the subject is inappropriate, except for one thing. This is cheating and should be treated accordingly.
You have seen the treatment of serious people on the subject.
Gentlemen, please move on to another, more serious topic.
light:
You didn't understand Sion's wise words.
An engine that decomposes water and then produces energy from its re-creation from its components is not possible just as no moving perpetuum is possible.
If the creation of the water produces X energy, then even with an optimistic and unrealistic assumption that no energy is lost, exactly the same X must be invested in breaking it down into its components.
Therefore there is no energy left to drive the car.
Sivan - using the product of the process for its continuation is the basis for a concentration cascade, and it takes place in various phenomena:
A. A nuclear explosion, with each fission releasing energy that accelerates the fission of more nuclei.
B. Mitosis (division of a cell without gametes) - the enzymes responsible for the movement of the cytoskeleton stimulate other enzymes, like them, so that the beginning of the process fuels its continuation.
third. The heat of combustion provides the energy needed to continue the combustion process.
I provided examples from three different sciences - physics, biology and chemistry. I believe this is sufficient evidence.
It is an unprecedented phenomenon that Reuters was able to fall with these crooks.
What is even more amazing is that in nrg the original article is still displayed.
Can't these newspapers afford to hire writers with at least a basic background in science?
One thing is absolutely certain from the article:
Even a carriage can drive down a road.
The idea is fundamentally flawed - to use the product of the process as the raw material for the process!
As if the law of conservation of energy never used!
Soon someone will report that he invented an engine that runs on carbon dioxide...
to someone -
It seems to me that you confused between nuclear fusion and nuclear fission: in fusion you take two hydrogen atoms and create a helium atom, you don't need neutrons to continue the process because the hydrogen atom is not broken down (there is nothing to break down!).
Or did I not understand you correctly?
Yes, it also surprises me how the scientists did not "attack" with all their might on finding a way to implement nuclear fusion as a way to produce energy:
1) It also produces more energy than any other way known to mankind (in terms of energy per unit of fuel).
2) It is also almost completely green energy (correct me if I'm wrong, but the products of hydrogen fusion are almost non-radioactive?)
3) And the fuel materials are also abundant.
This will solve humanity's energy problems until the end of all generations...
The problem is just finding a way to do it in a controlled way. Could it be that the problem seems so big that they gave up in advance? Because I haven't heard that attempts are being made or any progress on the subject...
To Ben Ner: You must have meant deuterium and teritium (both isotopes of hydrogen),
Since without neutrons (ie: normal hydrogen) there will be nothing to break up the hydrogen atoms
the following - and there will be nothing to continue the process with.
Correction of an error from my last response:
The last line should have written:
"Deuterium and hydrogen atoms to be produced from sea water"
And what about nuclear fusion?
The author is (probably) right about the production (or rather - the non-production) of energy from the water that originates from the chemical bonds of the components of the water molecules, and the fascinating evidence is that, from time immemorial to the present day, the water is used for cooling, cooling and extinguishing fires...
However, quite surprisingly it seems that, in the medium and distant future, most of humanity's energy consumption will be based on energy produced...from water.
How?
This is of course referring to nuclear energy produced in a nuclear fusion process and a source
Its energy will be deuterium molecules and water produced from seawater.
I mean five hundred watts, not five watts. Thanks for the correction, Yogev!
Ran
Last week there was a solar energy conference and for three days at the Desert Research Institute in Sde Boker we discussed energy issues. One of the invited lectures was "If the leaf can, so can we" and discussed the protein complex that produces oxygen from water in a photosynthetic system that obtains its regenerative power from water and light energy that is harvested by chlorophyll.
For many, many years man has been trying to understand the mechanism with many methods. Magnetic resonance and crystallography, gene silencing and isotope experiments and on and on and on... no one knows for sure how this process occurs. We know about a complex that contains 4 molecules of manganese and we know more or less what the spatial structure of this system is. Some will say that they know exactly the structure. Nevertheless, with all the many years, research and effort - there is no unequivocal and clear answer as to how this happens. If someone searches on Wikipedia or in this or that book, they may find an answer, but this is based on a single opinion and is not agreed upon in the scientific community.
It seems that after several billion years of evolution and constant improvements of the photosynthetic technology, the supreme plant has reached some not bad optimum where it theoretically succeeds in reaching 4.5% of energy utilization under optimal greenhouse conditions. Today the approach is to try and isolate the system from the plant, in order to increase the produce and the efficiency. Under laboratory conditions, it is possible to scrape off 10% or maybe a little more. The next step is to isolate the same complex that breaks down water into oxygen and hydrogen and remove it from the complete and cumbersome photosynthetic system and try to produce much higher utilizations of the process. Another vision for the time and although we are not groping in complete darkness, our glasses are not yet sharp enough to see and understand the whole picture.
The Earth's energy consumption for a year is equal to 14% of the energy flux it receives from the sun in one day, according to the distinguished lecturer. It seems to me that the future of the human race lies in the water molecules on which all life is based. I don't know if I will get to see this vision unfold during my tenure in the Corridor of Life, but I believe that therein lies the key to the continuity of the human race and its spread throughout the universe.
Greetings friends,
Ami Bachar
Energy produced from water (decomposition of water, not hydroelectric turbines by gravity), that's my wet green dream, hahaha
"The engine is capable of producing over "five watts" of electrical energy (although a system producing only 300 watts was demonstrated in the display, due to technical considerations)"
I'm sure you mean "five hundred watts" and not "five" 🙂