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Developing a car to run on H2O

Dragos CARP

Hi,

The new crisis brought up an old thought back in my head. 

10 years ago I was living in a different country, and me and a few friends of mine tried to "build" a concept vehicle that could run on H2O, obviously not directly and not that simple, but, to create an electrolysis chamber and install it on a car, maybe even with an extra battery.

The main thinking here is that if this car would be constructed, even if it wouldn't be as efficient as a petrol or diesel car, because of the lower H concentration. At the same time, there are lots of cars that have been converted to use LPG, that has a combustion formula 100: C3H8+5O2  - > 3CO2+4H20, witch clearly suggests that it will "burn" the H and O giving a "residue" 3xCO2 and 4 molecules of H2O.

If instead of this we will supply the engine with H and O the burn should simply give a clean H20 residue. 

Yes, the problem appears that the LPG has 8 to 10 H, and petrol has 12 to 32 H and diesel has 20 to 28 H. But also these fuels have a high concentration of carbon.

It the electrolysis scenario we would burn pure Hidrogen and the burn could be cleaner for the environment and also the water doesn't need any modification.

There might be other costs involved, like the cleaning of the hydrolysis tank and electrodes, but that would still be cheaper than the constant purchase of fuel. 

Anyway, I digress... This came back to my mind, but, unfortunately, I'm not a car mechanic. I was thinking to buy a cheap car as start working on it and see where I get, but like I said, I'm not a mechanic and I don't have all the required knowledge. I already designed the electrolysis tank, and I'm confident I can build a big enough version to fit a car for this purpose. 

I guess my questions are:

What would be the simplest car that I can/should use so I won't fail from the wrong reasons?

Did anyone worked on a problem like this before? 

Are there any issues that I'm not aware of? 

Any advice? 

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    But splitting the hydrogen doesn't require so much energy... 

    And on the running stage the alternator should provide enough power to keep the electrolysis going. 

    I think you'll need to do a bit of fundamental work on that bit.

    But if we look at a hybrid car, the alternator provides enough power to charge the battery so the car can run on electricity.

    A mild hybrid draws off some power from the powerchain (usually from a dedicated motor/generator) to charge a traction battery - but only during deceleration or breaking, and can then return that power for short periods during acceleration, which saves fuel. Plug in-hybrids need the battery to be charged from the mains if they're going to go any reasonable distance in electric mode. There may be pure hybrids - where the ICE just drives just a generator which in turn drives an electric motor (much in the style that diesel railway locomotives have done for generations) - which gain efficiencies by running the engine in its most efficient speed/torque range regardless of  demands of the wheels, but all these things are either about harnessing existing waste energy or improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. None can ever provide more energy out than went in in the first place.

       - Andy.

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  • 0

    But splitting the hydrogen doesn't require so much energy... 

    And on the running stage the alternator should provide enough power to keep the electrolysis going. 

    I think you'll need to do a bit of fundamental work on that bit.

    But if we look at a hybrid car, the alternator provides enough power to charge the battery so the car can run on electricity.

    A mild hybrid draws off some power from the powerchain (usually from a dedicated motor/generator) to charge a traction battery - but only during deceleration or breaking, and can then return that power for short periods during acceleration, which saves fuel. Plug in-hybrids need the battery to be charged from the mains if they're going to go any reasonable distance in electric mode. There may be pure hybrids - where the ICE just drives just a generator which in turn drives an electric motor (much in the style that diesel railway locomotives have done for generations) - which gain efficiencies by running the engine in its most efficient speed/torque range regardless of  demands of the wheels, but all these things are either about harnessing existing waste energy or improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. None can ever provide more energy out than went in in the first place.

       - Andy.

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