Smoke and mirrors?: The extraordinary claims have sparked a frenzy of interest across the Internet.
Credit: iStockphoto
SYDNEY: A U.S. broadcast executive-turned-scientist has seemingly found a way to burn seawater. Though it has the air of a hoax, if true, it could be one of the biggest discoveries in chemistry in recent times.
John Kanzius, from Erie, Pennsylvania, blasted a test tube of salt water with high frequency radio waves, causing the water to burn like a candle, he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper. Chemist Rustum Roy from Pennsylvania State University told the same newspaper that he had confirmed the phenomenon by replicating the experiment himself.
Though the technique and results have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, they are sparking a frenzy of interest on the Internet, where video clips showing the technique are beginning to circulate (such as this one on YouTube).
"Enormous potential"
"Certainly it's interesting," physical chemist, Scott Kable, of the University of Sydney in Australia, told Cosmos Online. The technique is theoretically possible and has "enormous potential," he said. But without more information, Kable commented, the mechanism and role of salt and other electrolytes remains unknown.
Roy explained to the Post-Gazette, that the water itself doesn't burn. His best guess is that the energy from the radio waves breaks the bonds between the molecules, releasing hydrogen that can be ignited with a flame. The temperature of the flame was measured at 1,650 °C.
The accidental discovery came out of research Kanzius was motivated to undertake when he found out he had cancer. The TV station owner decided to use his broadcast knowledge to experimentally fry cancer cells using radio waves in a garage laboratory at his home. Kanzius added a solution of nano-sized gold and carbon particles into a test tube of tumour cells. He predicted that the particles would migrate to the cancer cells and act as an antenna for the searing heat produced by radio waves – in the process killing the cells. It's not clear how he planned to target cancer cells within the body.
However, when someone noticed condensation in the test tubes, Kanzius decided to try the technique for desalinating water. The subsequent blast of high frequency radio waves caused the water to seem to give off a gas that he was able to ignite with a match.
Future fuel
Kanzius now speculates that the technique could be used to burn water to produce energy – he says he has built an engine that runs off the heat produced by the flame. However, even if the claims turn out to be true, it remains to be seen if the energy produced could compensate for the radio wave energy required for the reaction.
Kanzius is seeking a patent on the technique and is currently tight-lipped on a more detailed explanation.
The most important potential application of the discovery is the safe production of hydrogen, said the University of Sydney's Kable. Presently, hydrogen is produced either from reacting natural gas and steam, which emits the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, or by sending an electric current through water. The highly flammable gas requires transport in tankers, a dangerous prospect. Kable says that the ability to produce hydrogen from water while it's already inside an engine would be an extremely useful and safe method.
But don't worry about setting fire to your cup of coffee in the microwave. Kable believes that the amount of energy required to break molecular bonds far exceeds the energy produced in the fire. This means any practical application is likely a long way off.


Could it be reasoned that
Could it be reasoned that the salt within the water is acting as a catalyst in this dissociation? It might go a fair way to explain why we have not seen this effect with normal water after all and would mean that with some experimentation we could feasibly produce a much more efficient process.
Just a thought.
What frequency
As the radio frequency would have been designed to resonate the nano particles injected into the cancer cells it may be possible to adjust the frequency to resonate the molecules of water more efficiently, as far as the salt is concernes it may be irrelevent, on the other hand, with the current frequency setup it could equally be important if it alterd the molecuar size of the water to a closer resonant size. It would be interesting to now the frequency the machine works at, so some independant experiments could be carried out. It would tie in with the Myers machine which fed high frequency d.c. to a stainless cathode and anode setup. The answer is out there and I have no doubt will be proven in the future, possibly when the governments find the best form of taxation to apply to it, without the possibility of tax avoidance.If everyone could run off free power, governments would collapse.
except....
there's no such thing as free power, the laws of thermodynamics forbid it.
Basically, the machine is using a ton of energy to crack water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen and hydrogen then burn, the product of which is... tada, water! You're going from liquid water to water vapor, wasting energy in the process.
If I use a machine to lift a weight, the energy I gain from dropping that weight won't be enough to power the machine to lift the weight again. The same concept applies here, but instead of gravitational potential energy we're considering chemical potential energy.
What frequency
Interested in sources of info, my Dad(Invented arcless relay) had idea's. Curious about possible frequency range.
Why so little Pub?
Seems like the President would have an address!!! It seems that the energy to produce the wave would be very low (unlike what they theorize in the report). This was a garage lab afterall. This better not quietly go away!! Surely he wouldn't sell to any corp that would vault the technology...like an oil company. That would allow the standard means of burning fossil fuels to continue and thereby cause more cancer, which is his primary reason for the research.
Several Objections
1. The Highest Amount Of Energy A Radio Wave In Creation Can Consume Is 95 Volts Per Meter For 25 Seconds So If It Can Burn At 3,000 Degrees This Would Mean That At Maximum For One Meter Of Salt Water It Would Create 987 Volts Apx. With Turbines and Steam and Consume 95 Volts. That's A 962.5% Power Out Put Increase If The Waves Consume The Maximum.
2. Waters Atomic Structure Has A Start Off Rate Of 212 D Fahrenheit The Salt Collects The Radio Waves and Converts Them Into Heat. This Is Enough to Start Boiling and Salt Can Keep Collecting Heat From Radio Waves Up To 6,700 Degrees Before It Stops Collecting. Hydrogen Has A burning Temperature Of 980 Degress.
All Of This Data Leeds Me To believe That This Might Be Possible.
very_unliklyyyyyy
i saw a video which claims smiler thing (producing hydrogen from water using radio waves)but i really dont know what to believe, it seem like a big myth to produce more energy than what you put in thou it could be just more efficient way. plz if anybody has more info about this expermient since its not hard to proven if its a myth or a fact to email me, i will put some youtube video where this guy claim the same thing his name is :Stanley Meyer
my email is : adelaide_south_australia@hotmail.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9JagAv2nUE&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b
Burning salt water!
Old news Bill Richardson of Largo FL. has had a Patent on this technology
since 1993 Definitive energy is the owner of the Patents they can burn any water- sewage, potable, salt, ect. has had engines running on this for years currently working on, on demand systems for vehicles and engines
designed for this fuel.
Setting fire to water.
I don't know, What if all of those radio waves we have been sending out to the galaxies for all of these years were collected cranked up and shot back at our oceans by aliens? What if?
C
Setting fire to water.
I don't know, What if all of those radio waves we have been sending out to the galaxies for all of these years were collected cranked up and shot back at our oceans by aliens? What if?
C