Courtesy Dan Lutz
Dan Lutz and Marc Anderson of Beloit , Wis. , are performing experiments to fire elevator car with H2O broken down into hydrogen and oxygen atom .
If your car did n’t guide entirely on fuel , imagine the environmental and personal encroachment of few emissions , depleted flatulence cost and improved gas mileage . Dan Lutz , fleet coach of the Department of Public Works in Beloit , Wis. , says this idea may be conceivable by using water as a supplement to fuel .
Dan Lutz and Marc Anderson of Beloit, Wis., are performing experiments to fuel cars with water broken down into hydrogen and oxygen molecules.
Lutz is look up to the long time - older scientific discipline of splitting water into hydrogen and O molecules through electrolysis and using atomic number 1 as fuel . Lutz and Marc Anderson , a University of Wisconsin applied science professor , are try out with H - ground fuel in some of Beloit ’s vehicles , including a police cruiser , several municipal pickup arm trucks and a garbage truck .
“ Everything now is observational , but we are getting some very good results , ” Lutz says . “ Enough that we ’re concerned in continuing and propel forward to further this technology . ”
The engineering science Lutz refers to is the mental process of breaking down pee ( H2O ) into hydrogen and oxygen molecules . Splitting H2O want energy , which fall from electricity furnished by a stamp battery and alternator combining .
When the direct current battery is connected to two electrode and a potential is apply , atomic number 8 is generate at the anode and hydrogen at the cathode .
“ These gases , in our case , are fed directly into the intake manifold paper of the vehicle , ” Anderson explains . “ The H is a cracking author of fuel , and the atomic number 8 is the oxidant — as is oxygen from the breeze , which you use in your car to sunburn the fuel . ”
The barrage is then recharge by the alternator .
In the experiments , Lutz and Anderson use the hydrogen and oxygen give rise from the electrolysis appendage in addition to the normal combustion of an internal burning engine .
“ The solution is a better burning mostly amend , somewhat , the fuel saving but drastically reducing emissions , ” Anderson enounce .
Lutz says these hydrogen admirer could eventually become mainstream with more research and experimentation .
“ There are a caboodle of company out there that are doing this . … The technology is out there . But for Grandma to go out and take the garden hose to sate up her railway car and go to the store is a tenacious way off . It ’s conceivable , but we ’re not there yet . ”
This article originally appeared in the January / February 2011 offspring ofUrban Farm .
