Use Salt Water As Fuel

It's been discussed here before. As an engineer I say it is BS - you can't beat the first law of thermodynamics.

GMCdriver said:

That is what I was wondering because they didn't discuss it in the video; How much electricty was used to get a flame that big out of salt water?

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Well I don't know the specifics, but you can't get out more energy than you put in. Water doesn't have chemical bonds that store energy the way gasoline does (and is easily released under high temperature).

hrcslam said:

Yes, but water is H20. There are two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen and both of these in there gaseous state are very powerful. Especially the oxygen. At least that is what I was taught. Is this wrong?

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You are right, hydrogen gas is very combustible. But when it burns, it combines with oxygen. The result is water, which is the "low-energy" state. (It's been a while since I took chemistry in college so I may not be explaining this very well.)

In other words, water is the result of the combustion, just as car exhaust is the result of gasoline combustion. Trying to use water as fuel is just like trying to use car exhaust as fuel. It can't be done because the energy has already been extracted.

In this case, he is using an energy input (radio waves) to bring the water to a high energy state so the molecules will break apart, and then the gases burn. There is no way for that to be efficient because you have to put in at least as much energy as you get out.

As wise men have said before me, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."