Water fuel cell
The
water fuel cell is a
perpetual motion 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 and was later found to be a
hoax. The purpose of the hoax was likely to attract gullible investors, selling them licensing rights for a "revolutionary" technology. The inventor, Mr.
Stanley Meyer (died at
March 21,
1998[Infinite Energy 19: p. 50â€"51 (1998). [1]]), was later successfully sued by some of these disgruntled investors, whom he had sold "dealerships", and convicted for "gross and egregious
fraud".
[Sunday Times Innovation 1 Dec. 1996. [2]] |
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 has 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.
[Wireless World January 1991. [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. 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.
It should be remarked that neither Meyer, nor Laughton, nor Griffin, nor Hindley have published any peer-reviewed research papers in the scientific literature (as far as can be reviewed on
ScienceDirect), which is detrimental to their credibility. Mr. Laughton wrote a generic "Executive summary" about
Combined heat and power in the journal of Applied Energy, but no original research is presented. (An unrelated Anthony Griffin, from
Ontario,
Canada, can appear in searches).
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.
Stanley Meyer
*: Process and apparatus for the production of fuel gas and the enhanced release of thermal energy from such gas
*: Method for the production of a fuel gas
*: Controlled process for the production of thermal energy from gases and apparatus useful therefore
*: Gas generator voltage control circuit
*: Electrical pulse generator
*: Gas electrical hydrogen generator
*: Start-up/shut-down for a hydrogen gas burner
*: Hydrogen gas burner
*: Hydrogen gas injector system for internal combustion engine
*
Collection of information about patentsOther
* - Method for producing orthohydrogen and/or parahydrogen, Stephen Barrie Chambers
*
Fuel cell*
History of perpetual motion machines*
Electrolysis*
Pseudoscience*
Fuel*
Electrical resonance*
Electrolysis methods for cars running on water*
Stanley Meyer Bio from waterpoweredcar.com*
Stanley Meyer: Water Fuel Cell.
*
End of road for car that ran on Water - Text of the article of the London
Sunday Times.
*
Fuel for fraud or vice versa? (On Stanley Meyer)—summary of the article in New Energy News.
*
Meyer's rebuttal letter to New Energy News.
*
Interview with Stanley Meyer from the 1995 film, 'Equinox: It Runs on Water'*
A separate incident of someone claiming a water-powered car and taking $100,000 from investors*
Successful replication of Meyer's Water Cell by Dave For a detailed report, please click here[
4].
