Cars Running On Water?

Source KXAN.com
May 24, 2006, 09:11 AM

With gas prices soaring higher and higher, local inventors are getting closer to making engines that run on water. Sound far-fetched? Well, it's not.

The pain at the pump is hurting us all, but believe it or not, there are many people out there working to eliminate our need altogether for that black gold.

"There will be alternative fueled vehicles that are being tested. Some of them will end up being great successes. Others will end up being failures," David Allen with the UT Department of Chemical Engineering said.

We met an Austin man determined to solve that problem, but let's start with a Florida man who says he's already done it.

Dennie Klein lives in Clearwater, Florida and says he's invented a machine that allows his old Ford Escort to use water for fuel instead of gas. Klein, who runs a company called Hydrogen Technology, believes his invention is a resounding success.

"We virtually open this valve and start injecting the Aquagyn into the engine," Klein said.

He developed a formula called Aquagyn -- a hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture that he says can make your car run instead of using strict gasoline. It's a new type of hybrid.

"So, as we drive down the road, it's making the gas from water on demand as we drive," Klein said.

Now, using water to power cars has been tried before, but the amount of energy needed to get hydrogen out of water was immense. However, Klein says he's solved that problem. Part of the solution is using the wasted energy from a car's alternator to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water.

"If you have excess electricity that is otherwise being wasted, one possibility is to make hydrogen out of that wasted electricity and then use that hydrogen," Allen said.

Allen is doing his own project with TxDOT and soon, possibly, the federal government. He and his team are also working to produce hydrogen-powered vehicles.

"It would be a fuel-celled bus. So you take a hydrogen fuel, you put it into a fuel cell and it generates water as the end product and electricity to power the bus," Allen said.

So, does all this mean we're going to soon pay a lot less to drive? Allen says it all depends on how much it would cost to adapt to the new technology. The Aquagyn produces oxygen, which can melt through brick and turn a brass ball into liquid metal.

The only problem is when that oxygen gets so hot; Allen says it could possibly burn the cylinders in your car, which could require you to get a car specially made to withstand the heat.

Klein says if you take a look at his old Ford Escort, with just eight ounces of water, he drove 100 miles.

There's a lot of competition out there to make the successful car of the future. One guarantee is that there will be cleaner, more efficient cars on the road soon and hopefully more money in your wallet.