There have been several supposed water-fuelled cars over the last four decades, generally said to operate by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen with the aid of clever catalysts. Stanley Meyer, who died suddenly in a restaurant in 1998, was probably the best known of the would-be innovators. Whether he was a world-changing visionary who was smeared and then murdered by savage corporate interests or a pseudo-scientific con artist who died of an aneurism depends entirely on how prone you are to indulging in conspiracy theories. As Meyer described his process, it would seem to violate the first and seond laws of thermodynamics, but he didn’t really give enough information to be sure.
Claims for a water-fuelled engine have come around again. This time the company in question, Genepax, is Japanese. They have been quite widely reported demonstrating a water-fuelled converted electric G-WIZ car. Reuters took it seriously enough to devote an uncritical article to; whether that’s a recommendation or not will depend on how you feel about them as a news organisation. Genepax have not gone into any details so far, although suggestions of requiring a ‘hydride’ in addition to water may actually mean that the process is scientifically feasible. Even so, their website is just a ‘no site here sorry’ page, and I doubt that the oil barons are quaking in their stylish-yet-affordable boots. Still, you never know…
My concern with a water-fueled car is that water is already a scarce resource; it doesn’t seem to be any better an idea than using a food source–say, corn–as fuel. It’s one of the necessities of life, so I hate to think of it being controlled and priced for profit when it should be a public utility. An intriguing idea….