Reply #3: Logically, I am not entirely sure how this would be done. [View All]

[Worst Username Ever]

Water needs to be separated into oxygen and hydrogen molecules in order to create combustion. This is easy to do, all you have to do is run and electircal charge through it and the atoms split, forming separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules (we did this in high school physics). These gases would be used to create the combustion required to move a piston or turbine. The problem is getting enough energy to not only drive the wheels of the car, but also to create enough of a charge to continue the electric current, needed to separate the hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The amount of the electrical charge required to produce enough hydrogen to do this would be MASSIVE. This would probably require an additional charge, likely through use of batteries. These would need to be recharged regularily... requiring most likely an electric plug-in (which most likely uses coal to manufacture the electricity).

I would be interested to see someone combine this water-separation technique with perhaps a solar panel to create additional electricity.

I could be completely wrong, any physics majors have any ideas?

On edit: another issue is the impurities in tap water. Likely for this process to work correctly, the water would have to be almost 100% pure. All those other gasses and minerals would muck things up pretty quickly. Perhaps "refined water" would be the next big money fuel industry. I think they'll get us at every turn.