Run your car on pure water! Or in some cases it will still run on fuel but some incredible device that uses water to create hydrogen will help you ‘save fuel’ and ‘increase engine power’. Does that sound too good to be true? Damn right it is!
Back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s a Filipino inventor made news all over the world when he claimed that he had built a Toyota Corolla that runs on 100% pure water. There are several videos on YouTube that show his supposedly incredible demonstrations. The car was basically stock, except of a battery sized device that generated Hydrogen gas from the water to power the engine. It’s all smoke and mirrors though as he never revealed exactly how his invention worked. The DOST eventually labeled it as a hoax and it all ended in 2008 when Dingle was convicted of Estafa. Dingle died in 2010, however while I wish he took his ‘invention’ with him to the grave, it lives on in many similar ‘powered by water’ devices that are being marketed by enterprising businessmen.
There are many conspiracy theories that say the giant petroleum companies and even governments are behind all sorts of shady dealings in order to prevent these innovations from being available to the public. However, the reality is that these things really just do not work. The gas created by running an electrical current through water is called HHO or Browns Gas. It is basically two atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen. This gas is supposedly the magical fuel source that will free us from our dependence on fossil fuels. The problem is the energy required to split water into its component atoms to create the HHO gas is so high that you will use more energy creating it than you will get to power the car. If you paid attention in Science class back in High School, the First Law of Thermodynamics will see to that. So, not only is it impossible to run a car on pure HHO gas, if you tried to use it as a fuel saving device, you will actually use more fuel because your cars electrical system will be working more to make the electricity to split the water. If you want to read more about this in greater detail check out this very well written article by the Aardvark.
Honestly, I spend a hell of a lot of money on fuel. I’d be the first person to wish things like these were true, however, the Science behind it says otherwise. Economics too, because when you think about it, it's nice now that water is cheap and sometimes free. But once water becomes a fuel the price will also go up. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand; there will be a lot more demand for water and with a supply that is pretty much fixed (hey, it's even hard to get water in some places!). Then imagine how much worse it will be, because not only will it be still expensive to fuel your car, it will also be expensive to get a glass of water to drink too!
