Water Car
 

It's small and ugly but it runs on water and air.
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english...=english_PRINT

Re: Water Car
 

Yeah, that's great! Now, image millions of cars running on water, when we already have shortages. Water will be worth more than oil.

Re: Water Car
 

River water from my backyard = free vs. gas from OPEC = $4.00/Gal. and rising. Not a hard choice once the technology is affordable. :)

Re: Water Car
 

If they came up with something that allowed the use of salt water in this car....

Re: Water Car
 

My concern over this has also been the shortage issue. Already states have been fighting over water rights.

Take for instance the southwestern states seriously looking into taking water from the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes states had something to say about that.

Last year Florida, Georgia, and Alabama were in serious contention over water rights. Droughts will do that.

Re: Water Car
 

Trouble is the more I check this article out on the internet the more it sounds like a "perpetual motion" machine which would make it a hoax.

Re: Water Car
 

intriguing idea, assuming it's genuine. fix for water shortage would be looking at efficient methods for purifying seawater, but how much of that can we be doing before the oceans start to suffer the consequences and how much will the super corporations start charging for it.

Methinks it would have been easier to live in the middle ages. Sure, you were lucky if you lived past 40 (heck, lucky if you lived past infancy), but at least life was relatively simple.

Re: Water Car
 

It's genuine. Add air and baking soda to that mix. I have a friend whos car has been running on converted air for over a year now.

Re: Water Car
 

I do remember seeing some prototype cars are some discovery channel program that ran on compressed air. Key problem aside from the need to fuel an air compressor(how, where, etc.) , it had absolutely no amenities at all.

Re: Water Car
 

AFAIK that's what he uses. It converts the air into something else (hydrogen something or other) and it requires water too but in a seperate pump. It basically sits under his car and runs. He disconnected the fuel tank and all - apparently the device burns really hot but he's a mechanic and knows how to maintain it. He tells me it's illegal to use, so he is always wary. I see him driving around every so often and can't help but envy him as he hasn't been to the gas pump in ages, lol.

Re: Water Car
 

If it helps me on saving on fuel spending. I'm all for it. Wonder when it'll be on market though lol.

If it still far away in the future, I might be tempted to using NGV.

Re: Water Car
 

I'd say we should hit up the oceans for fuel conversion. At least it'd take care of that whole 'polar icecaps will cause mass flooding' problem :P

Re: Water Car
 

I'm not even bothering to read this article. If it was true to the point of being a viable alternative (or even a possibility of one) it would be the front page of every newspaper in the world and all over every tv channel. Not on some co.jp website with a web address reading 'forwardslash, backslash, Rah, Rah, Rah'.

Re: Water Car
 

I concur, Beau. From what I heard in a lecture, there are cars that can run on water. Their problem is, they can't go very far without needing to be refilled. That's just what I heard, though. *shrug*

Re: Water Car
 

Uhuh. I remember someone *ages* ago posting a video of a man who'd managed to make water combust via 'some-technique-that-I-know-nothing-of' and it was advertised as the biggest break through since the waffle iron. Year or so later, I've heard squat. If it was possible the government would be researching it themselves. It'd be the new space race, given the state of oil prices. £1.30 ($2.5) per litre in England at the moment. Gah.

Re: Water Car
 

Agreed. It sounds like a gimmick at best.

And yes, I do remember reading that 'burning water' BS that was advertised as well.

Re: Water Car
 

But this attitude is what hinders these things. Our reliance on the media for accurate coverage of anything groundbreaking is naive at best. I mean, media outlets like NBC and CBS already admitted in the USA for example, that their coverage of the Iraq war was less than accurate and that certain stories were not reported from a nuetral perspective or not reported at all.

Let's not assume that just because it's not on the news that it means it does not exist. But let's also not assume everything they say is untrue. Instead, take the middle road and go research it. A swift judgement about obscure websites equals falsehood is hardly enough. Go research, ask questions, find out.

For example, a quick search on youtube resulted in many videos

http://youtube.com/results?search_qu...rch_type=&aq=f

I am not saying that I know yet whether a car can run on water, but there is indeed something to it that deserves at least a little more than an afterthought. I wouldn't have beleived a car could run on air until I saw it myself and drove in the thing.

Re: Water Car
 

I have to agree there, just because it gains news coverage doesn't mean it's accurate, likewise just because you didn't see it in the news doesn't mean it never happened, or that it's a hoax.

Re: Water Car
 

I never said the news was <i>accurate</i>. But if someone had truely solved how to use water as an efficient fuel source, it WOULD be covered. This isn't celebrity gossip - it'd be world changing.

Re: Water Car
 

Just for the record, I'm sure I heard once, an long time ago, that the worlds supply of water remains constant. Water evaporates from the oceans, rises into the atmosphere and creates clouds. Clouds rain on the land and eventually finds it's way back to the seas.

Now I could well be wrong on this, but if you give it a little thought, it seems entirely feasible.

Re: Water Car
 

Hmmm this could be another alternative...

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4133668.ece

Re: Water Car
 

co.jp means it's a japanese website. Which mean it's from japan. If it's from japan. The technology could be plausible.

However, I've check through the company, they seems to be quite unknown despite claiming to be 25 years in existance. Given that they haven't yet patented the technology (omfg!). And they haven't collaborated with a reputable car manufacturer. I say that this news could be doubted.

Re: Water Car
 

Yes I know that, I'm not stupid. My point is it wouldn't be buried in the folders of some otherwise unknown website.

There's a water cycle... and? That doesn't mean it can be used as fuel?

Re: Water Car
 

I think you'll find that someone posted earlier worrying that we might perhaps use up all our water if this was employed to run cars, mate. Merely illustrating that this is impossible, if in fact that is the case, because as I mentioned, I'm not sure if this is fact or just some crap that I picked up and is in fact useless information lodged away with the tonnes of it I have stored in my cranium. :-)

Re: Water Car
 

Anyhow, it can be. It's called a steam engine! :-)

Re: Water Car
 

Ahhh right, sorry. I missed that argument! :P No, you're right. We could never really run out of water.

Re: Water Car
 

That's not using the water as fuel though, is it? Hehe. If you could somehow get the water to turn into steam of its own accord, THEN we'd be on to something.

Re: Water Car
 

so far as currently applied technologies are concerned steam power is aquired via burning fuel, or using nuclear materials to superheat the water. So it's not using water as the fuel, so much as it's used to transport the energy generate by the fuel.

Re: Water Car
 

Honda begins production of hydrogen car


Japanese manufacturer Honda has started the first commercial production of a hydrogen-powered car.

The medium-sized four seater is called the FCX Clarity and has a top speed of 160 kilometres per hour.

The car runs on an electric motor powered by hydrogen fuel cells and only emits water vapour.

Honda will start leasing some of the cars to people living in southern California by the end of August.

------from the BBC website today

Re: Water Car
 

Now that I think about it, there could potentially be a huge consequence behind it. If we did convert salt water to fresh and used it to run cars with, that could potentially destroy the ecosystem in some parts of the ocean.

Price of convenience doesn't seem worth it eh?

Re: Water Car
 

Like that has ever stopped humans. Ocean ecosystems are already being raped and pillaged as it is.

Re: Water Car
 

Though whether it's too little too late or not, we're starting to learn from our mistakes. At the least to the point where we're recognizing them for what they are.

Re: Water Car
 

Only because it's hampering our conveniences. If the ozone wasn't being burnt through with a polluted magnifying glass, removing the earth's blood to fuel our cars, or constantly plundering the land for a new animal to butcher for a hamburger, everybody would still be leading their lives as wasteful human beings.

Not blowing it out of proportion or anything, but honestly, we only notice it now because we're destroying the planet and now nature's getting pissed. Icecaps melting, Tornado Alley is being raped by twisters, full on devastation from earthquakes in China.

Leaders of the world are just now saying "Whoops."

SM, btw, I'm aware we're already destroying the ocean's ecosystems, but what I meant was on a mass scale of doing it to fuel our machines the way we have with fossil fuels, if done to a certain degree, we could possibly destroy half of the world's food supply.

Re: Water Car
 

The laws of physics are different in Japan? The energy is going to be coming from somewhere, even if it isn't obvious. In this case it is obvious (at least it is if you notice the followup article). They react water with oxygen seeking metals. It's a perfectly valid reaction:
H2O + M -> MOx + H2
Where M is something like Sodium or Lithium. The only problem is that pure reactive metals take a lot of energy to make, and are going to be consumed by the reaction. They're effectively "burning" the metal to make hydrogen.

Re: Water Car
 

Japan.....Technology.....Does it ring a bell?

That's why I say it might be plausible.

Re: Water Car
 

I'm really surprised no one has jumped on this. Thanks for posting that, TDC. Ilander mentioned it to me earlier this week, and I think its an amazing discovery that could relaly help us in the energy crisis. At least until we are able to change to natural renewable energy sources.
So yeah, what I'm trying to say is that this is a really big deal. Mostly because it has more potential to be able to alleviate energy problems in a timely manner.