water engine

The automobile sector was a revolution for humanity. Not only because of the possibility of moving faster, but because it would bring with it important technological advances. Industries arose around it that did not exist until then, as well as a series of inventions that questioned their existence as it was known One of them was the water engine, as technically complex as it is socially controversial.

His story is plagued with errors, confusion and chiaroscuro. As a result of all of them, we have reached the point where we are today: it is a forgotten technical advance that few venture to deal with. Nevertheless, this invention occupied the news pages of the newspapers for years of the world. Of course, it was not always because of its groundbreaking concept, but rather because of the problems that its inventors had.

Inventor of the water engine

The development of the water engine is difficult to attribute to a single inventor. Throughout history there have been several figures who have opted for him, although two have stood out in particular. On one hand there is the American creator Stanley Allen Meyer who worked on the development of the water fuel cell. His work peaked between 1985 and 1995, declining in 1998 when he unexpectedly passed away.

On the other hand, we cannot forget one of its great precursors and maximum defenders in Spain. We talk about engineer, born in Valle de la Serena (Badajoz, Extremadura), Arturo Estevez Varela. As he described his project, he devised a water powered engine though it really was a boron-powered hydrogen generator. With this mixture, he generated hydrogen as energy to move the vehicle he used in his tests.

Spanish water powered car

Arturo Estévez Varela created a vehicle powered by his water engine in 1977. It was not a car per se, since the time in which it was developed prevented him from transforming one. Instead, and before a notary, presented in the Plaza de España in Seville a motorcycle. This was adapted to move with its adapted engine. This took several years, as the country's authorities did not trust its creation.

Japanese water powered car

After the failure of Varela the idea of ​​the water engine was kept in a drawer for many years. It would not be until mid-2008 that a Japanese company would dust it off and present a new prototype. We talk about Genepax and its vehicle of questionable design and reduced size. As they explained to the press, it moved with water and air, although at first they did not offer more details about it.

It was later discovered that this vehicle used an internal power generator. It consisted of a set of membrane electrodes to extract hydrogen from water. It is a chemical process similar to that used to produce hydrogen from a reaction of metal hydride and water. So, hydrogen mixed with oxygen from the air generating oxyhydrogen (HHO) which would be the element that would move the car.

Taking into account the operation described above, Genepax would not have created a car powered by water. Specifically, when consuming metal hydride mixed with water, we would be facing a hydride vehicle, contrary to what the company claimed. Be that as it may, this idea, like all the previous ones, passed into oblivion since scientists around the world branded it a fraud.

salt water engine

The saltwater engine is a variation of the one developed by Estevez and Allen. Its basic operation is identical except for the composition of the liquid that feeds it. In this case, the salinity of the water increases its conductive capacity, so the electrolysis process is accelerated. Unlike fresh water, the separation of components adds one more, salt, benefiting the creation of electricity and its subsequent storage.

car engine running on water

Today there is a prototype that claims to work with salt water. Called Quantino 48Volt but in reality it does not work with this element, but through an electrolytic solution developed by the nanoFlowcell company and that is stored in the bi-ION batteries. This is stored in two 350-liter tanks and circulates through membranes that transform it into electrical energy to move the vehicle.

According to its creators the power density of the electrolyte is comparable to that of modern batteries of lithium ions, but its energy density is five times higher. The official presentation of this model took place a couple of years ago and since then nothing more has been heard of it. They only announced some data, such as that it had traveled more than 350 thousand test kilometers and that its consumption was very low.

Are water engines frauds?

The history of Arturo Estevez Varela y Stanley Allen-Meyer they have many similarities. Both spent much of their lives and money developing the water engine and both ended up the same way: in complete oblivion. The Spaniard did it involved in lawsuits and conspiracy stories starring Franco and the oil companies. But it is that his engine was a fraud, because it did not work as he explained.

According to later studies, the amounts of water and boron that Estévez announced were unreal. Apparently, to generate 5 kilos of hydrogen, 45 liters of water and 19 kilos of boron were needed. With this amount, the autonomy of the vehicle is similar to that provided by a gasoline or diesel tank of about 40 liters. However, its cost is very high, boron would be around 60 thousand euros, a figure much higher than that of conventional fuel.

For its part, the water fuel cell created by Stanley Allen Meyer would be cataloged in the same terms. According to this, the engine separated the components of water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. However, the scientific community understood that violated the first and second law of thermodynamics. Therefore, several investors sued him for fraud in 1996 and he was sentenced on this charge to return the money.

electrolysis water engine

Although they did not understand it that way, the electrolysis water engine it is the result, with some variation, of the investigations carried out by Estévez and Allen. Electrolysis is a process that separates the elements of a compound through electricity. So With the help of electricity, the water engine would separate the oxygen and hydrogen, but for this this compound cannot be distilled or one hundred percent pure.

If this were the case, it would not have any conductivity and therefore the components that make it up would not be obtained separately. From there a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is generated, called oxyhydrogen (HHO). In a second phase, this component would burn, supplying the vehicle with enough energy to electrolyze more water and therefore move.

However, being systems in which the energy created is equal to that consumed in the electrolysis stage, they begin and end in the same thermodynamic state. So, They are perpetual motion machines., which violate the first law of thermodynamics. This can be understood through its chemical equations, since the combustion stage is the opposite of the electrolysis stage, equaling both magnitudes.