Stanley Meyer's water fuel cell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Perpetual motion machine: Water fuel cell |
|
 The water fuel cell, as described in Meyer's patents. |
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| Disciplines | Physics and engineering |
|---|---|
| Core Tenets | The device is designed to produce hydrogen and oxygen, from water using electricity, by a method other than water electrolysis. |
| Year Proposed | 1989 |
| Original Proponents | Stanley Meyer |
| Current Proponents | unknown |
| Theory violation | First law of thermodynamics |
| Water fuel cell is reportedly a perpetual motion machine. Such machines violate the known laws of physics. Claims of the development of such devices are considered pseudoscience by most scientists. | |
The water fuel cell is a device invented by American Stanley Meyer, which he claimed could convert water into its component elements, hydrogen and oxygen, using less energy than can be obtained by the subsequent combustion of those elements, a process that results the reconstitution of the water molecules. Thus, if the device operated as claimed, the combustion cycle would start and end in the same state while extracting usable energy, thereby violating the first law of thermodynamics and allowing operation as a perpetual motion machine. Meyer's claims about the Water Fuel Cell and the car that it powered were found to be fraudulent by an Ohio court in 1996.[1]
Similar devices have been promoted by others (see Water-fuelled car): there is no evidence that any of these devices operate as claimed.
Contents |
Construction
Meyer's device 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.
Its name not withstanding, the water fuel cell is not a true fuel cell. It would be an electrolytic cell, as it is claimed to produce hydrogen from water and not the opposite.[2]
Meyer's water-fueled car
It Runs on Water is a video with Stanley Meyer which purports to show a car powered by this fuel cell.[3] Meyer claimed that he could run a 1.6 liter Volkswagen dune buggy on water instead of gasoline.[1] He replaced the spark plugs with "injectors" to spray a fine mist of water into the engine cylinders, which he claimed were subjected to an resonant frequency. The fuel cell would split the water mist into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which would then be combusted back into water vapor in a conventional internal combustion engine to produce net energy.[1]
Meyer demonstrated his vehicle for his city's local station Action 6 News and estimated that only 22 US gallons (83 liters) of water was required to travel from Los Angeles to New York.[4].
In an article about claims of burning water, Philip Ball wrote:[5]
It's not easy to establish how Meyer's car was meant to work, except that it involved a fuel cell that was able to split water using less energy than was released by recombination of the elements.
None of Meyer's claims about the car have been independently verified.
Lawsuit
In 1996, inventor Stanley Meyer was sued by investors to whom he had sold dealerships, offering the right to do business in Water Fuel Cell technology. According to The Times, Meyer claimed in court that his invention "opened the way for a car which would 'run on water', powered simply by a car battery."[1] The car would even run perpetually without fuel since the energy needed to continue the "fracturing" was low enough for the engine's dynamo to recharge the car's battery.[1] His car was due to be examined by the expert witness Michael Laughton, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. However, Meyer made what Professor Laughton considered a "lame excuse" on the days of examination and did not allow the test to proceed.[1] The Water Fuel Cell, on the other hand, was examined by three expert witnesses in court who found that there "was nothing revolutionary about the cell at all and that it was simply using conventional electrolysis".[1]
On the basis of the evidence the court found Meyer guilty of "gross and egregious fraud" and ordered to repay the investors their $25,000.[1]
Death
Stanley Meyer died at the age of 57 after eating at a restaurant on 21 March 1998. An autopsy report by Franklin County, Ohio coroner William R. Adrion concluded that Meyer, who suffered from high blood pressure, had died of a cerebral aneurysm.[6] Conspiracy theories persist, however, that he was poisoned, and that oil companies and the United States government were involved in his death.[7][8]. It is argued that this was done to suppress the technology, in spite of the fact complete plans remain available online[9]. To date, no one has used them to produce a working prototype.
Patents
- U.S. Patent 5,149,407: Process and apparatus for the production of fuel gas and the enhanced release of thermal energy from such gas
- U.S. Patent 4,936,961: Method for the production of a fuel gas
- U.S. Patent 4,826,581: Controlled process for the production of thermal energy from gases and apparatus useful therefore
- U.S. Patent 4,798,661: Gas generator voltage control circuit
- U.S. Patent 4,613,779: Electrical pulse generator
- U.S. Patent 4,613,304: Gas electrical hydrogen generator
- U.S. Patent 4,465,455: Start-up/shut-down for a hydrogen gas burner
- U.S. Patent 4,421,474: Hydrogen gas burner
- U.S. Patent 4,389,981: Hydrogen gas injector system for internal combustion engine
See also
- Fuel cell
- Electrolysis
- Pseudoscience
- Water fuelled car
- John Kanzius
- Zero-point energy
- Cold Fusion
- Gasoline pill
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Edwards, Tony. "End of road for car that ran on Water", The Sunday Times, Times Newspapers Limited, 1996-12-01, p. Features 12. Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
- ^ The "The Columbia Encyclopedia", Columbia University Press 2004 defines fuel cell as an "Electric cell in which the chemical energy from the oxidation of a gas fuel is converted directly to electrical energy in a continuous process"; and electrolysis as "Passage of an electric current through a conducting solution or molten salt that is decomposed in the process.".
- ^ Coverage of Stan Meyer's invention on "Action 6 News"
- ^ Water Powered Car - Fact and Fiction.
- ^ Ball, Philip (September 14, 2007). Burning water and other myths. Nature News. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
- ^ Narciso, Dean. "The Car that Ran on Water", The Columbus Dispatch, July 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
- ^ Water Powered Car report on Meyer's death states (as of January 2007), "It was a shame to hear that he was poisoned .... He died in the parking lot of a restaurant in his home town of Grove City, Ohio. Sharks came a week later and stole the dune buggy and all of his experimental equipment, according to his brother, Steve. Stan said while he was alive, that he was threatened many times and would not sell out to Arab Oil Corp."
- ^ Ball, Philip (September 14, 2007). Burning water and other myths. Nature News. Retrieved on 2007-09-14. “He died in 1998 after eating at a restaurant; the coroner diagnosed an aneurysm, but the conspiracy web still suspects he was poisoned.”
- ^ Stan Meyer's Files
