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Water fuel cell

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Template:Perpetual motion machine The water fuel cell is a device that was supposed to function by breaking water into hydrogen and oxygen gases using less energy than that present in the bond itself. The water fuel cell was claimed to produce several times more energy than it consumed (for instance, by connecting it to an engine that would burn the hydrogen back into water), and a car prototype powered by a water fuel cell was assembled.

Since this concept violates the first law of thermodynamics and this apparatus has never been demonstrated to work and has never been reproduced, it was met with much skepticism. The inventor, Stanley Meyer, (died on March 21, 1998[1]), was later successfully sued by some disgruntled investors, whom he had sold "dealerships", and convicted for "gross and egregious fraud".[2]

Its name notwithstanding, the water fuel cell is not a fuel cell, even accepting it could work. It would be an electrolyser, as it is claimed to produce hydrogen from water and not the opposite.

Construction

The electrolysis "capacitor", as described in Meyer's patents.

Stanley Meyer was granted patents in the United States and abroad starting in 1989; patents, however, are not equivalent to peer review, and do not imply the findings have been confirmed and reproduced by independent parties.

The fuel cell consists of stainless steel plates arranged as a capacitor, with pure water acting as the dielectric. A rising staircase of direct current pulses is sent through the plates at roughly 42 kHz, which is claimed to play a role in the water molecules breaking apart with less directly applied energy than is required by standard electrolysis. The mechanism of this reaction is both undocumented and in contradiction with the first law of thermodynamics.

Meyer presented his fuel cell device to Professor Michael Laughton, Dean of Engineering at Queen Mary College, London, Admiral Sir Anthony Griffin, a former controller of the British Navy, and Dr. Keith Hindley, a UK research chemist.[3] According to the witnesses, the most startling aspect of the Meyer cell was that it remained cold, even after hours of gas production as his system appeared to operate on mere milliamperes, rather than the amperes that conventional electrolysis would require. The witnesses also stated:

The circuit used to drive the electrolysis device, as described in Meyer's patents.
After hours of discussion between ourselves, we concluded that Stan Meyer did appear to have discovered an entirely new method for splitting water which showed few of the characteristics of classical electrolysis. Possible Theory On How The Water Fuel Cell Works Confirmation that his devices actually do work come from his collection of granted US patents on various parts of the WFC system. Since they were granted under Section 101 by the US Patent Office, the hardware involved in the patents has been examined experimentally by US Patent Office experts and their seconded experts and all the claims have been established.

The claim about amperage appears strange, as amperage measures the flow of charge (and therefore electrons, which have a fixed charge), and the quantity of charge to be transferred between the electrodes to split water is fixed to two faradays per mole water (about 10,700 coulombs per gram). A reduction in the required energy to split water could have therefore only manifested itself in a reduction in voltage.

Meyer's water-fueled car

It Runs on Water is a video with Stanley Meyer demonstrating the water fuel cell in a car. Meyer claimed that he could run a 1.6 liter Volkswagen dune buggy on water instead of gasoline. He replaced the spark plugs with "injectors" to spray a fine mist into the engine cylinders, which he claimed were electrified at a resonant frequency. The fuel cell would split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which would combust back into water vapor in a conventional hydrogen engine to produce net energy. Estimates made showed that only 22 US gallons (83 L) of water were required to travel from one US coast to the other. Meyer also demonstrated his vehicle for his city's local news station Action 6 News. A video of the buggie in action can be found here.

The vehicle failed to work during a required demonstration of the water-fueled car in a 1990 court case. An Ohio court found Stanley Meyer guilty of "gross and egregious fraud" in a case brought against him by disgruntled investors. The court decided that the centerpiece of the car, his water fuel cell, was a conventional electrolysis device, and he was ordered to repay the investors $25,000.[2]

Stanley Meyer died after eating at a restaurant on the 21st March 1998. An autopsy report showed the cause of death to be poisoning, leading to widespread conspiracy theories[4] regarding the Oil companies' and the US government's involvement in his death.

Patents

Stanley Meyer

Other

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Infinite Energy 19: p. 50–51 (1998). [1]
  2. ^ a b Sunday Times Innovation 1 December1996. [2]
  3. ^ Wireless World January 1991. [3]
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