Smoke and mirrors?: The extraordinary claims have sparked a frenzy of interest across the Internet.
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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.
Energy output?
If it's hydrogen that's burning, then it's just water being split into H and O, then put back together - how does that result in a positive net change in energy output?
Missing the Point?
I'm not sure about how efficient this system is but if it was used to synthesize hydrogen using renewable (say, wind turrets, which i'm sure could produce a shite-load of wave action) energy and then used as a fuel, or part of a fuel? Not all the reaction has to go on in the engine, and i believe this would be a better (more eco-friendly) way to produce hydrogen than current practices which emit carbon dioxide and shite. I wouldn't knock all applications of this because thermodynamics says so.
Wow
Imagine your world all over again.
re: Burning water
'IF' this process proves to be anything close to providing an inexpensive method of producing energy, then getting a patent is the last thing anyone wants to do! The government will confiscate the patent under the guise of National Security, and seize all prototypes and any lab, or paper work that the inventor has; and, will then issue a 'Gag Order' toward any dissemination of this technology. That will be the last thing which anyone will hear of this technology!
Then, all those who didn't think it would work in the first place will have yet another reason to say "I told you so!
ENORMOUS POSSIBILITY
This offers enormous possibility not only as a power source but the possibility of connecting the entire powergrid of the country without wires. Consider also the implications of this in creating hot water in houses, instead of gas or oil burners, there is the possibilty of salt water burners which are basically enironmentally safe.
Imagine the sky without powerlines, only high frequency wave generators every so often, these could power entire houses.
More info!
I really wish that Cosmos would revisit this issue.
I recently read that a major corporation purchased the technology and that the discovering scientist has placed an "embargo" on further information after announcing that the process achieved "unity," meaning that the output power was at least equal to the input power. Many of the criticisms I have read focus on the fact that the electricity input (approximately 200 W in the experimentation) could be from unclean power generation, such as coal, oil, or natural gas. This really misses the point; similarly, criticisms that doubt the efficiency of the process miss the point. The two significant byproducts of the experiment are hydrogen and heat. The heat, which reportedly reaches 3000°, represents considerable clean energy. Further, the entire reason for trying to produce hydrogen is, just like gasoline or diesel or batteries, provide a way to store energy. Batteries are too heavy and take too long charge (and hold too little charge) to use as a replacement for gasoline tanks at present. With gasoline or diesel you have the ability to carry energy with you and quickly recharge that store ata a gas station. Hydrogen offers the same benefit (as long as the tanks are safe and hydrogen stations abound) and, additionally, does not harm the environment in combustion. So what if it takes electricity to produce hydrogen? Does it not also take electricity to charge batteries? So what if the equation is somewhat lopsided towards input? Are we not trying to clean up our atmosphere and reduce greenhouse gases? There are many ways to produce electricity on a continuum from entirely clean (solar or wind or wave action) to entirely dirty (petroleum and coal). Surely, until an entirely clean energy alternatives become viable, radio waves directed at salt water present is, at the very least in a world three fourths covered by salt water, an exciting possibility and alternative to directly burning petroleum. The lack of information about this process on the Internet and elsewhere (presently, the best information about it can be found on YOUTUBE! Ridiculous), should premise further investigation by Cosmos and other intelligent outlets of information for the masses.
Sodium Flame?
Could the radio waves be breaking the sodium chloride bond to produce the two elements? Sodium would then burn in the fresh water (producing a bright orange flame).
related topic?
Would anyone care to speculate on the relationship between this and the Joe Cell "phenomena"? Could simple electrolysis create the frequency mentioned above?
salt water burn
we will use wind or solar or hydro electric.
whatever it takes to get the hydrogen from water.
you can stay in the old. we will move on and advance
without you.
At what frequency??
Hi, does anybody know what frequency you need to be able to burn the salt water (or release the hydrogen and oxygen if you want to call it that). I really would like to try this experiment for myself.