
Originally Posted by
AndyK5
That has nothing to do with the laws of Thermodynamics. The laws state that you cannot have a perfect engine. Best you can have is around %50 range. After waste, friction etc.. the average efficiency of a gasoline engine rests about %15. That number by the way is considered very good, among other engines we can build. The reason for that is the fact that Oil is an amazing subject and when exposed to proper conditions it releases much more energy than it takes to create the situation. The difference is the net work you can do with that energy ( or waste). This guys system creates temperatures in excess of 1500 centigrade. Radio frequency's generators don't take much energy, so I think this may work, but the main problem lies with how to actually implement this in to a usable thing. I mean it would make very clean and efficient steam engines the way it sits, but that wouldn't be any use to us at this point.
It has everything to do with thermodynamics.
The three laws of thermodynamics in a nutshell:
#1 You can't win
#2 You can't break even
#3 You can't leave the game
Gasoline is an excellent source of energy because when you cleave the hydrocarbon bonds through rapid oxidation (burn it) those bonds release energy (any time you're breaking a covalent bond you're releasing a quantum of energy. Gasoline just happens to have a LOT of covalent bonds tied up in a structure that, with a little heat and extra oxygen, are easy to break). In order to use hydrocarbon fuels you don't have to break them apart first then burn them; burning them IS breaking them apart. You're not trying to put the hydrocarbons back together in your engine, you're only taking them apart. Putting them back together requires exactly as much energy as it takes to break them apart and is exactly what you're doing with electrolysis.
To burn the hydrogen in water, you first have to cleave the hydrogen-oxygen bonds and make HHO gas. That takes energy and the energy you get from burning the hydrogen will never -- because of thermodynamics -- exceed the amount of energy required to make the HHO gas in the first place. So the net result will always be negative. Which returns me to my previous point: Does the radio frequency generator utilize less energy than is obtained from the resulting reaction and of so, how?