HydroPhi Car, competing for Automotive X Prize - runs on water!

[bik0]

This could be a game changer...

While past years of research have borne witness to the expenditure of a great deal of time and great sums of money to develop an alternative fossil fuel source, HCE’s research and development team will soon prove whether it has, indeed, found a “Holy Grail” solution. HCE is participating in the worldwide Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize Competition -- sporting a $10 million prize. The challenge is to “design and build production-capable, 100 MPGe (miles per gallon energy equivalent) vehicles that people will want to buy and that meet market needs for price, size, capability, safety and performance.” A total of 117 companies filed to compete, of which 43 participated in a technical summit at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas in early November.

SEMA is the world’s premier automotive specialty products trade event, drawing the industry’s brightest minds and hottest products to one place. Of 43 participating teams, only twelve, of which HCE was one, were invited to exhibit their cars/technologies at SEMA. Peering under the hood of HCE’s Ford 500, SEMA attendees were astonished to find no engine! And, unlike the smaller size car frames of HCE’s competitors, HCE does not sacrifice passenger comfort. A POPULAR MECHANICS reporter attending the show observed HCE “will be an interesting entry to watch.”

HCE incorporates a “unique application of a power-on-demand regeneration system (which) allows for re-charging of a Battery Electric Vehicle while operating WITHOUT HAVING TO PLUG IN…(It) minimizes the carbon footprint and allows a production vehicle to attain over 100 MPGe in fuel efficiency.” When the final phase of the X Prize Competition begins next May, the plan is to have HCE technology power a vehicle 3000 miles across the US -- without refueling.

background...
http://autoblog.xprize.org/axp/2009/11/team-hydrophis-investors-look-to-strike-water.html

website...
http://hydrophi.com/Hydro_Phi/HydroPack.html

Fujitsu interested...
http://hydrophi.com/Hydro_Phi/Fujitsu_Letter.html

[kristopher]

1. Do you really think it "runs on water"?

Really?

[bik0]

3. Don't really understand their tech but we'll find out in April

Mich. hosts race to make 100 mpg car
David Shepardson / The Detroit News

Washington -- Michigan's economy, and its self-image, could get a big boost from a $10 million competition this summer to build a super fuel-efficient car.

Contest organizers and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. will announce Tuesday in Detroit at the North American International Auto Show that the Progressive Automotive X Prize competition -- 41 international teams trying to build a vehicle that gets 100 miles per gallon -- will be held at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, starting April 26. The finals are set for late July.

Organizers initially considered a staged race across the United States, but decided instead to hold the event where the modern auto industry was born.

http://detnews.com/article/20100111/AUTO04/1110372/Michigan-hosts-race-to-make-100-mpg-car

[TxRider]

7. Actually it runs on Hydrogen

Here's a rundown.

He has a module that produces hydrogen through eltrolysis from water.

We all know that takes a lot of energy. But you can also seperate hydrogen through sound waves of the proper frequency and strength.

So what he is doing is applying the sound waves to the electrolyte of water in the electrolysis unit to increase it's efficiency.

Ok, I can see that maybe working very well, heck it could increase the hydrogen produced by a large factor. Maybe even both of these used in combination would ten times more efficient than either process used alone.

But here's the rub. He's using power generated by the car's physical rotating drive parts through a connected alternator to power the hydrogen generator, and then burning the hydrogen/oxygen in the internal combustion engine to power the car.

I can't see any way he could be getting enough efficiency from the hydrogen generator to produce enough hydrogen to power both the car and the generator. Not quite a perpetual motion machine, as you have to add both water and enough electrcity to start it going, but close enough that I doubt it will pan out.

However, using his electrolysis with added square wave sound agitation to significantly increase efficiency could well be an approach that would be good for maybe a stand alone solar powered hydrogen generator for generating hydrogen for storage. As night time backup for a home solar system maybe?

[kristopher]

9. Yeah, I know...

HCE - Greening Fossil Energy

That is their motto.

About HCE

The HCE Company is an energy business formed in 2003.

HCE's "mission objective" is to combine Company-owned inventions with a pool of marketing, legal, and technical resources and thereafter raise the necessary capital to develop, prove and commercialize these inventions.

HCE's energy processes are very closely aligned with national energy, economic and environmental goals. Initial efforts are being directed towards introducing the concept to the government.

HCE is in various stages of United States and International patent applications for its processes.

Our staff has been actively involved in technical presentations, introducing product concepts to energy conversion market stakeholders.

http://www.hceco.com/about.html

You should have directed that response to the OP.

[madokie]

2. Don't bet on it

methinks someone wants your money, every bit of it someone will send them.

[Speck Tater]

4. Con men are coming out of the woodwork these days. nt

[TxRider]

5. Hmm

He does have a novel approach to a modified hydrogen electrolysis method.

Haven't quite seen this approach before. Combining standard electrolysis hydrogen production with ultrasonic hydrogen generation in one module so that the ultrasonic aspect multiplies the electrolysis production of hydrogen (or vise versa).

Still too close to a perpetual motion machine for me, we'll see if it does ok in the race.

[GliderGuider]

6. Here's how it works...

Any questions?

[phantom power]

8. I worked for a company a lot like that.

Founded around the same time those were published, I'm pretty sure.

:toast: