| Water fuel is old technology, now rediscovered, with | | | | While a mass amount of fuel cell slices are needed to |
| a real potential to help you live through the coming oil | | | | gain a significant enough amount of power, which |
| crisis. Its simple clean-burn technology can double | | | | equates to a large electrical source for the |
| your mileage, greatly reduce greenhouse gas | | | | electrolysis, advances in battery technology (such as |
| emissions and you get greater horsepower through | | | | the Lithium Ion batteries used in the 2nd gen. Pruis) |
| water power. | | | | and regenerative braking make it a nice alternative. |
| Basically his radio wave generator releases the | | | | In his paper describing the concept, Zubrin considers |
| oxygen and hydrogen in salt water and makes an | | | | using NSWR for a round trip mission to Titan, |
| intense flame. Since the world is mostly covered in | | | | Saturn's largest moon. The NSWR would be fueled |
| salt water this type of new fuel would be the best | | | | by 20% enriched uranium in the chemical form of a |
| type of clean fuel for the world. If you get a chance | | | | soluble salt (uranium tetra-bromide) dissolved in |
| check out this great clip on YouTube about salt | | | | ordinary water at about the same atom number |
| water fuel and probably one of the coolest inventions | | | | concentration as the salt in sea water. |
| ever made this century. | | | | Fissionable isotopes in such concentrations can easily |
| New Zealand inventor, Steve Ryan, claims to have | | | | produce great heat from fission reactions or even a |
| devised a method of using water used as fuel | | | | nuclear explosion. An uninterrupted volume of this |
| directly, in contrast to using water as a source of | | | | liquid massing a few dozen kilograms would reach |
| Hydrogen, which then serves as the combustible fuel. | | | | critical mass, massively fission in a sustained chain |
| More recently, the company has developed a | | | | reaction, and explode. |
| proprietary catalyst that enables water to mix with | | | | In Zubrin's scheme 41,000 kilograms (41 tonnes) of |
| waste oil to provide fuel. The mixtures are in process | | | | the salt water fuel are stored in a neutron-absorbing |
| of being tested by the EPA in the U.S., the results of | | | | fuel tank. The fuel tank would be made from long |
| which are expected in January or February of 2008. | | | | tubes of boron carbonate, a strong structural material |
| Green Fuel is made by "pressure cooking" low-rank | | | | that strongly absorbs thermal neutrons, preventing |
| coal to dehydrate the particles and release waxes | | | | the fission chain reaction that would otherwise occur |
| and resins, leaving the particles in a safe, high-energy | | | | in the fuel. The liquid fuel is pumped from the storage |
| state, and suspended in their originally extracted | | | | tank into a absorber-free cylindrical reaction chamber |
| water. The water is treated and then added back to | | | | which allows buildup of neutron flux to the critical |
| the dried coal. The end product is a thick liquid fuel | | | | point where sustained nuclear fission can occur. |
| that looks and ships like oil: Green Fuel. | | | | The inventor frequently emphasizes that his invention |
| While you can break water down to ignite there is | | | | is, a water-based fuel,(rather than the conventional |
| another way, and they do so in the form of a fuel | | | | electrolysis inferred on the web site). He also talks of |
| cell, however it's for an electric vehicle. It utilizes | | | | the "entrainment" of hydrogen in the water. In other |
| electrolysis but rather than using the hydrogen to fuel | | | | words, one can produce a continuous controlled |
| an engine, it's passed through a membrane which | | | | nuclear explosion in the region just behind the nuclear |
| strips it of an electron which is used for the vehicle's | | | | rocket. At this point the water of the fuel liquid |
| electric system but allows the hydrogen atom to | | | | flashes to very high temperature steam, expelling |
| pass through and recombine itself with the electron | | | | reaction mass with an estimated exhaust velocity of |
| on the other side, also bonding with oxygen atoms | | | | 66,000 meters per second (as compared with |
| creating an exhaust of water. | | | | perhaps 4,500 m/s for a chemical rocket). |