The 60 mpg car, just add water
Presentation in Milwaukie shows off DIY technology that uses water to increase fuel efficiency
Ari Cohen shows off modifications he made to the engine of his Volkswagon Jetta so it can convert water to a hydrogen gas that helps with fuel efficiency last week at Milwaukie High School.
Matthew Graham / Clackamas Review
It’s not quite water to wine, but with the price of gas in recent months, it may be better.
Do-it-yourselfers around the world are sharing an old technology that uses distilled water to make fuel burn more efficiently. What’s more, they’re claiming their fuel efficiency is increasing by as much as 75 percent.
One of the pioneers of the technology, Ozzie Freedom, stopped by Milwaukie High School last week to show off a souped-up Volkswagon Jetta that he claims is getting more than 60-miles-per-gallon on a trek he’s making to Florida.
“I think we’re all here because we’re trying to stick it to the big oil companies,” he told about 50 people gathered in Milwaukie’s cafeteria.
Ari Cohen, who is making the cross-country journey with Freedom, said the technology they’re using is about 100 years old; it just needed a new application.
“My father told me about this technology 15 years ago,” he said. “Hydrogen as an element is the most abundant energy source in the world.”
The system works by placing distilled water and a small amount of electrolytes in the car. An energy current is run through the water, turning it from the liquid H2O to the gaseous HHO. The HHO is supposed to break up the gasoline into smaller droplets so that it can burn more efficiently.
“If you buy a 2009 BMW 7 series – $90,000, one of the best cars you can get – even as expensive as that car is, it’s still only getting about 30 percent efficiency,” Cohen said, with efficiency meaning the amount of gas burned versus actual energy stored in the gasoline.
But with the systems they’ve developed, they say increasing efficiency by 25 percent is seen as a failure – 33 percent is average, and over 50 percent is good, but not altogether uncommon.
And he said one quart of water is lasting him 500 to 600 miles.
Proponents of this technology often cite a 1977 NASA study that looked at using hydrogen to increase gasoline efficiency. In that study, the scientists found that introducing hydrogen allowed them to burn gasoline at leaner levels. The study found that “all emission levels decreased at the leaner conditions” and “hydrogen addition significantly increased flame speed over all.”
Not everyone believes in technology
Still, there are skeptics.
One writer for Popular Mechanics Magazine rigged his own electrolyzer system. He said that in a steady state, flat road test, he saw no change in efficiency while using the water technology.
“He obviously did something wrong,” Cohen said. “That’s the thing – there’s a lot of variables and all you have to do is screw up one thing and it seems like it doesn’t work. You can see that by the number of people that were (at Milwaukie High) last night, we’ve got thousands and thousands of people who have these working on their vehicles, so it’s not even a question of does it work – it’s a matter of making it efficient for your vehicle. “
But there’s another question to consider: for how much longer will water be available and be this cheap?
Areas of California had to ration water this year after two consecutive years of drought and minimal snowpack. Spain is importing water and has reportedly imposed a $13,000 fine on anyone caught watering his or her flowers. Australia, China and the U.S. are all building desalination plants.
“I definitely see this as a means to bring us out of fossil fuels,” Cohen said. “Maybe we’ll find out that hydrogen isn’t the best resource, but right now, its simple, it works and it’s cheap.”
To find out more about hydrogen technology and its application with motor vehicles, visit water4gas.com