Can Saltwater Replace Gasoline?

[cabinetman]

Maybe soon, you'll be filling your "gas" tank with saltwater. This could be interesting.

[germdoc]

That's funny. In Menard's last week a guy in a Harley outfit just came up to me out of the blue and said, "How would you like to heat your home using energy from saltwater?" He went on for about 3 minutes, then said, "Hey, that'd be pretty cool, wouldn't it?" and walked on.

I thought he was a nut who had missed too many doses of his lithium, and didn't have the gumption to tell him we live 1500 miles from the nearest source of salt water...

But hey, maybe the joke's on me?

[cabinetman]

That's funny. In Menard's last week a guy in a Harley outfit just came up to me out of the blue and said, "How would you like to heat your home using energy from saltwater?" He went on for about 3 minutes, then said, "Hey, that'd be pretty cool, wouldn't it?" and walked on.

I thought he was a nut who had missed too many doses of his lithium, and didn't have the gumption to tell him we live 1500 miles from the nearest source of salt water...
But hey, maybe the joke's on me?

See what you get for stereotyping.
.

[LCHIEN]

Seems like water ( the primary constituent of saltwater) is already composed of burned, oxidized or combusted hydrogen, so to speak.

To dissociate the hydrogen and oxygen to its constituent parts so it can be burned again, the RF energy (or any energy source) you put into it has to be more (because of inefficiencies) than what you would get from burning it again.

So if it takes maybe 1200 watts of RF energy to produce a quantity of Hydrogen and oxygen that will yield 1000 watts of heat energy when burned... how is this going to work?

Oh, right, we lose 20% on every kilowatt we produce but we'll make it up in large scale volumes....

[ragswl4]

What Loring said. I think the energy required to produce the RF energy would far exceed the energy produced from the salt water. There is also the cost of the microwave equipment (not cheap) to radiate the material.

I think this is kinda like the little gizmo you strap to your gas line in you car that increases your fuel mileage and perpetual motion. Look beyond the theory.

[gsmittle]

Reminds me of a "That 70s Show" episode. During Circle Time, Hyde says, "There's this car, man, and it runs on WATER...."

Just having a flashback to my youth....

g.

[cwsmith]

I agree, while the initial idea of the story is interesting, one then has to ask, "Okay, that's cool, but where's the electricity coming from that's running your RF transmitter?

Unfortunately, you just can't get something for nothing... thus far, such technology requires more energy than it produces.

CWS