Salt water as Fuel? neato ^_^

[Aoie_Emesai]

Just recently found this rather innovative concept of burning salt water for fire. (though i'm not sure this is true, I think it's still good to post this up)

Article Link --> http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1570

movie link --> http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/001312.html

While the concept is really neat and interesting, energy to energy it's not "economical" to use this as a energy crisis replacement.

[User65554]

Already saw this, certainly sounds interesting.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Considering how we may soon become Waterworld (what with the North Pole's ice cap at its smallest recorded extent tihs year), this seems like quite a neat idea indeed. Provided that there is still enough land around to build the power plants that would burn salt water.

[Sephi]

That is nice, now if they would be so kind to give info about how much energy is needed to create those radio-frequency that makes the salt burn we might actually have something useful here. It might not be so useful if the radio frequency requires more energy than burning salt water itself provides.

[Loniat]

This is one of those cases where proper schooling makes people get excited about obvious things that are misinterpreted.

[Amry]

Chemistry is not my strong subject, but if I'm not mistaken, aren't the hydrogen - oxygen bonds in water molecules exceptionally strong? I don't think this is a viable alternative. You'll use up more energy generating the radio waves than you'll gain by "burning" salt water.

(and salt weakens the said hydrogen - oxygen bonds? I didn't know that... but I don't think the effect will be strong enough to negate the energy expenditure)

tl;dr: nuclear power ftw.

[Slice of Life]

Water doesn't burn, it's already the "ash" of burned hydrogen. Separating water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen just to let them react again means a net energy gain of zero. Theoretically. Practically it's less.

I wouldn't buy stocks of Mr. Kanzius' company just yet.

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by Sephi

That is nice, now if they would be so kind to give info about how much energy is needed to create those radio-frequency that makes the salt burn we might actually have something useful here. It might not be so useful if the radio frequency requires more energy than burning salt water itself provides.

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

Water doesn't burn, it's already the "ash" of burned hydrogen. Separating water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen just to let them react again means a net energy gain of zero. Theoretically. Practically it's less.

I wouldn't buy stocks of Mr. Kanzius' company just yet.

As it was stated on the article, the energy used to create the radiowave already use more energy to produce it then the output of the fire from the salt water.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

I'd think we'd be better off researching nuclear fission than wasting time on a net-energy gain of 0. Nice idea, not practical in the least.

[User65554]

^It wasn't really a waste of time as the guy came across it by accident when researching cures for cancer.
Its still interesting to know...

[Spectacular_Insanity]

There are better alternate forms of energy, which I won't go into. However, I think his time would be better spent researching cures for cancer, and not alternate forms of energy. I think he was on to something good with the cancer bit, but leave alternate fuel sources to those biochemists out there that understand the fundamentals of biotechnology better.

[Takeru]

I agree, there's no use researching with a net gain of zero. Plus, why waste more water? I still prefer hydrogen (no matter that production as of now is really expensive) because it's byproduct is water.

Of course, then again, we'd all have nuclear powered cell phones right now if my mom's friend hadn't sold his patent to Motorola. And who knows where that might have led us to. =/

[Papaya]

Yes, my friends. One day you will be able to pee into your car and power it.

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by Papaya

Yes, my friends. One day you will be able to pee into your car and power it.

Well... at least before that, we should at least get flying cars

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Papaya

Yes, my friends. One day you will be able to pee into your car and power it.

Not as far-fetched as you think. Behold: urine-powered batteries (developed in Japan, of course).

And to all the people saying "he should research cancer and not waste time on these other energy methods," this is how science works. Information and ideas are mixed and spread. This may not be an end-all solution to the world's energy problems, but it may have applications elsewhere that neither you nor I could even imagine right now.

[Ziv]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

Water doesn't burn, it's already the "ash" of burned hydrogen. Separating water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen just to let them react again means a net energy gain of zero. Theoretically. Practically it's less.

I wouldn't buy stocks of Mr. Kanzius' company just yet.

We still don't know what the salt has to do with it though.

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by Ziv

We still don't know what the salt has to do with it though.

Yeah, it was never explained into much detail anyway. It must have some kind of significance if the title had "saltwater" in it. Though it was never stated that fresh water couldn't result in the same effect.

Lets just assume for discussion sake it only works with salt, then the composition including the salt is necessary for the effect to take place.

First of all we just have to do some diagnostics on it.

Salt = Sodium and Chlorine, which can both burn
Water = Hydrogen and Oxygen, Hydrogen + Oxygen = explosion in the right mixture

I have no idea where the radio waves come into place here.

If you can separate all the elements there then you have 3 flammable substances and a fuel to make it burn hotter.

[User65554]

The radio waves presumably weaken the bonds to allow combustion. But yeah, I can't find many sites that go into much detail on this...

[felix]

I don't think it can be radio waves... it has to be something else related to radio waves.

[Roselyd]

A new fire resource