WEBVTT - Could salt water fuel cars?

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know

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<v Speaker 1>from house stuff Works dot Com? Brought to you by

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<v Speaker 1>consumer Guy at Automotive we make garbine easier. Hi, and

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<v Speaker 1>welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer

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<v Speaker 1>here at how Stuff Works dot Com, with me as

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<v Speaker 1>always as my trustee edit Tricks. Candice Gibson. How's it going, Candice?

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<v Speaker 1>I gotta say I envy you a little bit there, Candice,

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<v Speaker 1>I haven't been so fabulous lately. My wallet keeps shrinking

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<v Speaker 1>and shrinking. Have you been to the gas pumps lately? Yeah?

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<v Speaker 1>I know what you mean. Those numbers keep climbing. But

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<v Speaker 1>it's not so expensive to feel my car because I

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<v Speaker 1>drive any seven. Well, I drive a big old Honkin

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<v Speaker 1>Volvo and it uses gas like you would not believe. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's think about this though. I mean, what if you

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<v Speaker 1>could put something else besides gas in your car to power,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, like sand or air, something that would be nice,

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<v Speaker 1>would be nice? What about saltwater? What do you talk about?

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<v Speaker 1>That's crazy? No, it's not crazy. Really. Have you heard

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<v Speaker 1>of this guy named John Kansias. You have okay, so

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<v Speaker 1>you have read the article. That's great, Thanks for that.

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<v Speaker 1>All right, well let's tell the people out in podcast

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<v Speaker 1>LAMB what we're talking about. This guy named John Kanzius

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<v Speaker 1>is this retiree in Florida. He's a retired radio broadcast engineer,

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<v Speaker 1>and he came up with this thing called a radio

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<v Speaker 1>frequency generator RFG is right, and basically what it does

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<v Speaker 1>is it takes radio waves and condenses them into a

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<v Speaker 1>beam and it's got all that has actually three applications

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<v Speaker 1>that they found so far, but one of them came

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<v Speaker 1>about when Kansias was tinkering with trying to desalinate water,

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<v Speaker 1>salt water, which could solve the global thirst crisis, right, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>because not everyone has access to clean water, actually to

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<v Speaker 1>the tune of about two billion people, I understand. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>Uh So he was trying to desalinate water using his

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<v Speaker 1>RFG and he had the little box trained on a

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<v Speaker 1>test Cuba saltwater, and he noticed that it sparked, which

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<v Speaker 1>is fairly unusual for water. Water does and burn. On

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<v Speaker 1>the contrary, water actually puts out fire exactly. So Kansis

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<v Speaker 1>has a little bit of this mad scientist spent to him.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, he's a very curious fellow, and he likes

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<v Speaker 1>the paper towel and turns the RFG facing the test

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<v Speaker 1>tube agin and he touches the paper towel to the water,

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<v Speaker 1>and rather than the paper towel being put out by

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<v Speaker 1>the water, the paper towel exactly it basically it caught

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<v Speaker 1>the water on fire. And on fire it was. It

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<v Speaker 1>was burning it about three thousand degrees fahrenheit. It was

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<v Speaker 1>a pretty serious flame. Actually, yeah, so well, how does

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<v Speaker 1>this convert to fuel for our cars? Well, I'll tell you. Basically,

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<v Speaker 1>what Kanzius did inadvertently was to separate water into its components,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecules. Basic science.

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<v Speaker 1>We're all there, and we've known for a while that

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<v Speaker 1>you can use hydrogen as fuel. You can create an

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<v Speaker 1>electric charge from it, or you can burn it in

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<v Speaker 1>a combustion. Is hold on because hydrogen fuel is potentially dangerous, right,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, look at the Hindenberg that exploded. Actually, the

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<v Speaker 1>Hindenberg has been kind of latched onto by people who

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<v Speaker 1>aren't all about hydrogen e g. The big oil companies. Uh,

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<v Speaker 1>that's that's kind of a fallacy. Actually, the Hindenberg explosion.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a blimp held aloft by hydrogen. The static

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<v Speaker 1>spark caught the hydrogen on fire um and thirty seven

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<v Speaker 1>people ended up dying. The problem is is thirty five

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<v Speaker 1>of those people died by jumping to their deaths. Most

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<v Speaker 1>of the people, actually all of the people who are

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<v Speaker 1>on board the passenger compartment who stayed aboard, landed safely

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<v Speaker 1>and unharmed. And that's because hydrogen is actually the most

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<v Speaker 1>lightweight of all the elements, and so it floated upwards.

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<v Speaker 1>It's lighter than air exactly, and it burned upward actually

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<v Speaker 1>too away from the passenger compartment. That's not to mention

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<v Speaker 1>that the Hindenberg's outer skin was coated in a rocket

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<v Speaker 1>fuel and a really highly flammable Yeah, that wasn't too conducive,

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<v Speaker 1>it was. So the Hindenburg is probably not the best

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<v Speaker 1>thing to point to to say hydrogen fuel's dangerous, right,

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<v Speaker 1>It's it's not that dangerous. The problem with this type

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<v Speaker 1>of hydrogen fuel, salt water fuel, essentially, is that it

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<v Speaker 1>has a negative net energy ratio, and so to create

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<v Speaker 1>this type of salt water fuel, you're actually putting in

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<v Speaker 1>more energy than what you're getting out exactly, and what's

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<v Speaker 1>the point. I mean, speaking strictly from an energy standpoint,

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<v Speaker 1>you might as well just use the gasoline that you

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<v Speaker 1>get this gas gallons worth of energy from, rather than say,

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<v Speaker 1>using a gallon to get a half a gallon's worth

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<v Speaker 1>of energy from. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.

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<v Speaker 1>You can't get something from nothing, And Cansius isn't the

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<v Speaker 1>only person to run into this stumbling block. Hydrogen could

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<v Speaker 1>be a really legitimate fuel. I mean, it packs a

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<v Speaker 1>real punch and its emissions are nothing but water vapor essentially. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>so it's probably the cleanest burning fuel. I mean, the

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<v Speaker 1>only other thing that's cleaner is electricity, and if you

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<v Speaker 1>follow electricity back to its origin, electricity is created by

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<v Speaker 1>burning coal. So really hydrogen would be cleaner. But there's

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<v Speaker 1>that negative net energy ratio and keeps stopping up. When

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<v Speaker 1>are we going to figure this out? I don't know,

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<v Speaker 1>but I've written a couple of articles on it so far.

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<v Speaker 1>One is a good salt water fuel cars and the

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<v Speaker 1>other is is hydrogen fuel dangerous? And they're both pretty interesting.

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<v Speaker 1>You can read on both on how Stuff Works dot

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<v Speaker 1>com dot com. And I was taking no guests to

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<v Speaker 1>Get there for more on this and thousands of other topics.

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