Water4Gas Charity Lens

There are a lot of wild claims on the Internet about using water to run your cars. Increasing gas mileage anywhere from two to over four times what you get now (depending on the vehicle). Cleaner air. Safer. Who wouldn't want that? But... we're skeptical, and the Multiple Exclamation Points and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS TO EMPHASIZE THE FEATURES ~ these are distracting. I just wanted the truth. And so I looked for it on places that aren't selling anything. Let's look.

I went to Ask.com to look for non-marketing answers about what water for gas is, how it works, if it works, and why we should believe the claims. The best answers were on sites geared to kids ~ science sites that explain things in simple terms so kids can be interested in and understand them. (That works for adults, too...)

On Pitara.com, I found this text answering the question, "How can we use water to run cars?"

"Actually, the idea is amazingly simple. Water is made out of hydrogen and oxygen. Scientists plan to make a cell (gadget which produces electricity by chemical reactions), which will break water down into its two components.

"Take a close look at any cell, you will see that it has two sides. One side is marked with a '+' and the other with a '-'. The side with the '+' is called the anode and the other is the cathode. The fuel cell is also like that. In this, the hydrogen is passed though the anode and oxygen through the cathode. With the use of a catalyst (something that enables a chemical reaction), hydrogen produces a stream of electrons. This stream of electrons is nothing but electricity.

"That is not the end of the story. When hydrogen reunites with oxygen it forms water all over again. Hence the end product of the electricity generation is pure clean water.

"Scientists plan to create a cell which will be able to convert water into water and in the process create electricity as well. They have named this cell, the fuel cell. Along with other uses it can also be used to drive vehicles. In fact General Motors has unveiled the Precept concept car which works on a fuel cell.

"Does that mean that we will soon be driving around in a vehicle that uses water instead of petrol to run it? Well, if so, then it will take a long time for this to become a reality."

Aside from the pessimistic opinion at the end of this text, the explanation is quite positive. It is what the marketed sites say, but in more detail and with greater authority.

In the course of my research, I found there is a patent on the technology of using water to fuel vehicles. This patent was granted in July of 1935! For reasons I will not speculate on here, the technology has been quietly hidden away, and our dependence on oil has been growing deeper and more intrinsically part of the fabric of our culture. Wow, 1935.

If you click here, you can read the newspaper articles of 1993 and 1998 that tried to bring this to light, as well as the patent itself. Much of the text is very chemically precise, including the pieces of text that explain problems with using hydrogen for energy, and how to solve those problems.

Bombardier ~ yes, the private airplane maker ~ has also created a fun new vehicle in response to the Segway. Cooler looking, to be sure, but also, this new mode of transportation, the Embrio, runs on hydrogen fuel cells.

For the complete article, click here.