http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_carA
water-fuelled car is a hypothetical
automobile that derives its energy directly from
water. Water-fuelled cars have been the subject of numerous international patents, newspaper and popular science magazine articles, local television news coverage, and the
Internet. The claims for these devices have been found to be incorrect and some were found to be tied to
investment fraudsThe process of
electrolysis, discussed
below, would split water into hydrogen and oxygen, but it takes as much energy to take apart a water molecule as was released when the hydrogen was oxidized to form water. In fact, some energy would be lost in converting water to hydrogen and then burning the hydrogen because some heat would always be produced in the conversions. Releasing chemical energy from water, in excess or in equal proportion to the energy required to facilitate such production, would therefore violate the
first and/or
second laws of thermodynamics.
[Charles H. Garrett allegedly demonstrated a water-fuelled car "for several minutes", which was reported on September 8, 1935, in The
Dallas Morning News.
[9] The car generated hydrogen by electrolysis as can be seen by examining Garrett's patent, issued that same year.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OxyhydrogenFringe science and fraud Oxyhydrogen is sometimes referred to as "Brown's Gas" after Yull Brown who advocated such devices,
[12] or "HHO gas" after the claims of fringe physicist
[13] Ruggero Santilli.Oxyhydrogen is also often mentioned in conjunction with
devices that claim to operate a vehicle using water as a fuel. The most common and decisive counter-argument against producing this gas on-board to use as a fuel or fuel additive is that the energy required to split water molecules exceeds the energy recouped by burning it.
[14]