Pennsylvania Man Claims to Burn Salt Water

[Prrkitty]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296395,00.html

I don't understand why this should/could/would be important so I will wait for one of y'all to help explain the principle behind this... further for me.

Please and thank you :)

[Beldaran]

I don't understand why this should/could/would be important

"The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel."

This looks more promising than most energy inventions, as he's actually done demonstrations and is meeting with the department of energy to discuss funding and the viability of the technology. (ie does it produce [enough energy?)

Hopefully it will work out. Ocean water is cheap.

[Prrkitty]

... as a fuel? To replace and/or supplement oil/natural gas/etc?

But Bel... at the moment maybe salt water is the most abundant resource on earth but if we start utilizing it for energy we'll run out of salt water too. Just like we're running out of oil, natural gas and etc.

Everything has a beginning AND an ending. So shouldn't we be looking into more renewable energy resources? I don't see salt water being renewable.

[phattonez]

It all depends on what this process turns the salt water into. But there is more than enough salt water for a very, very long time.

[mrz84]

Salt water is replenished just like non-salt water. Via rain and rivers. ANd underground river maybe. I thought this was some joke at first, but if it does work, then that would be kinda sweet I guess if it could be done properly in a way that won't drain the oceans and change the face of the planet in a negative way.

[gdorf]

... as a fuel? To replace and/or supplement oil/natural gas/etc?

But Bel... at the moment maybe salt water is the most abundant resource on earth but if we start utilizing it for energy we'll run out of salt water too. Just like we're running out of oil, natural gas and etc.

Everything has a beginning AND an ending. So shouldn't we be looking into more renewable energy resources? I don't see salt water being renewable.

Luckily for us, global warming will continue to produce extra sea-water for years to come. :)

[Beldaran]

If you read the article carefully, you can see they are not really burning the water. They are using radio waves of some kind to weaken the bond between hydrogen and oxygen, causing the hydrogen to be burned. So basically you're just burning hydrogen. And what do you get when you burn hydrogen? Water!

So what they are looking at here is a cyclical process wherein you constantly disassociate hydrogen-oxygen bonds and then reform them and try to profit from the bond energy of formation during the burning process.

Off the top of my head, I don't see this working. It seems like it would violate conservation of energy to use energy to overcome a bond energy, then try to profit from the bond energy of formation. I bet in the end there is a net loss due to the energy required to break the bonds in the first place. I bet that's what the department of energy will tell him.

Who knows, though. The article is scarce on details.

[Glenn the Great]

This retired chemistry professor is a fame-seeking crackpot. The things that tip me off to this are:

-He is too quick to claim his finding as the greatest discovery in a century.
-He specializes in "whole person healing"
-He specializes in "Christian sexuality"

Reading more into the article, it shows that people have pointed out that there would indeed be a net loss.

The energy production field has the unfortunate reputation of being a magnet for crazies and their pipe-dreams.

[rock_nog]

Yeah, from what I can tell, it's a sham. The fuel source and the product are the same thing - that should be a big tip-off right there. Personally, I'm thinking we should invest more in solar energy - ultimately, pretty much all of our energy originates from the sun anyway.

[Modus Ponens]

All I can say is that years ago I wrote a play about a bunch of mad scientists who enter a county science fair. One of their entries was an elaborate death ray that ran on "nothing but a thimbleful of salt water".

I deserve royalties.

[Yoshiman]

I heard about this a few weeks back on the news (I live in Erie, PA)

Scientific inconsistencies aside, if it saltwater was a reliable fuel source, there's no way big oil companies would allow this to go through. For years, we've been able to use cleaner fuel sources (electricity, sunlight), but we haven't switched over yet.

Same thing with the cure for cancer. There are rumors of it being developed, but the FDA would never approve such a blasphemous medication. It would hurt their money-making business of just treating cancer rather than curing it.

[erm2003]

Same thing with the cure for cancer. There are rumors of it being developed, but the FDA would never approve such a blasphemous medication. It would hurt their money-making business of just treating cancer rather than curing it.

You hit that right on. My mother used to work in the field and heard they made a breakthrough in research at Roswell Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. That wing mysteriously got shut down. She is convinced they already have cures for cancer or AIDS but they will never come out because of how much money is generated by treatments and medications.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

*puts on his best hippie voice*

So, there's this car right? And it runs on water, man. Water!


Far out.