Water Fuelcell-a panacea for energy problems?

Stanley Meyer, a freelance inventor from USA demonstrated a car that ran on water, according to an Equinox programme that was televised in 1995. Stane Meyer’s dune buggy ran 100 miles from 1 gallon of water. He claimed that water would be the fuel that could revolutionize the auto industry in America. However, his tragic death in 1998 brought the issue to a closure.  Many people and institutions are still trying to replicate his invention at least partly and claiming success.  He received a   number of patents based on his inventions. He worked nearly 30 years on his invention before he began to work on a book titled, “With the Lord, there is a purpose” describing his “faith walk” with the Lord to fulfill end-time Prophecy.  He continued with his speaking engagements throughout the world.  However, such ‘free energy’ devices are still not getting the approval of the larger scientific community as well as Government agencies for some reasons or other. According to Stanley Meyer, “the law of Physics establishes a proven function based on ‘Pre-set’ conditions…change any of the conditions and the Law no longer applies….A new law emerges in the consciousness of physics. Why? Because atoms possess intelligence—-Performing ‘what if’ logic function under different ‘preset’ conditions.” His claims were based on scientific principles and explanations.  Based on his invention, many of ‘Electrolyzing devices’ appeared in the market.  They supply Do It Yourself  kits that can be fitted into a car to cut Gasoline consumptions; but they do not entirely  substitute Gasoline like Stanley Meyer demonstrated. There are still missing pieces of information or claims. He was able to show and claim “Hydrogen fracturing process to disassociate water molecules by way of voltage simulation, ionization of combustible gases by electron ejection and then preventing the water formation during thermal ignition releasing a thermal explosive energy beyond ‘normal gas burns’ levels under control state… and such an atomic energy process is environmentally safe”.   He did not use ‘Heavy water’ called ‘Deuterium’ but normal water and controlled state and shown that the covalent bond of water can be broken using an electronic circuit using water as dielectric medium of a capacitor.  It uses a high voltage but a low current and the process is instantaneous.  It differs from the ‘Faraday’s law of electrolysis’ in a conventional sense. The scientific community seems to be a little more understanding with an open mind in recent times to such ‘free energy’ concepts and devices than in the past.  ‘Resonance electrolysis’ has been reported by few institutions and people as an alternative to ‘conventional water electrolysis’ to cut energy consumption. Decomposition of water into its molecules requires high temperature above 3000°C using a process known as ‘pyrolyis’ and a technique to separate the decomposed molecules from reunion for water formation.  Prof. Mizuna of Hokkaido University of Japan and his coworkers demonstrated ‘Plasma Electrolysis’ by an experiment which showed an evolution of anomalous amount of Hydrogen and oxygen sometimes as much as 80 times more than normal Faraday’s electrolysis of gas generation. Though such reaction requires a very high temperature they could not successfully measure the reaction temperatures during the experiments. They used a Platinum anode and Tungsten cathode and a provision to separate Hydrogen and oxygen gases. They concluded at the end of the experiment that the input voltage and the current efficiency were critical parameters.  On increasing the Voltage to several thousands, they said the current efficiency can exceed unity.  The anomalous release of gases indicates that the electrolysis is not a normal electrolysis but beyond that. (Ref:Mizuno, T., T. Akimoto, and T. Ohmori. Confirmation of anomalous hydrogen generation by plasma electrolysis. in 4th Meeting of Japan CF Research Society. 2003. Iwate, Japan: Iwate University) In all these experiments the gases coming out of the system are not at high temperature but at normal room temperature.  The chemistry of water molecule decomposition and plasma pyrolysis is not fully understood.  After all ‘Cold fusion’ seems to be plausible under certain conditions and it may be a panacea for the world’s energy problems.  When our energy requirement exceeds a limit due to a population explosion and industrialization then finding a solution becomes a daunting task. Mohandas Gandhi said: “There is enough for everybody’s need but not for everybody’s greed. Be the change what you wish to see in the world”.