Burning Salt Water

[Humpty]

Interesting!

An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century.

 

John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.

 

The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.

 

Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations.

 

The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said.

 

The discovery is "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years," Roy said.

 

"This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Roy said. "Seeing it burn gives me the chills."

Salt Water Burns

 

And a cure for cancer?

Youtube vid

[Glenn]

The amount of energy needed to break the hydrogen-oxygen bonds in water to release the hydrogen is the same amount of energy you get when you burn the hydrogen (recombine it with oxygen). Because of inefficiencies in running the radio frequency generator, you wind up with a net loss.

 

Using electrolysis to release hydrogen from water and then burning the hydrogen is a common high school chemistry demonstration.

[Humpty]

I don't think it's a demonstration of a free lunch more like a demonstration that there may be a path to the hydrogen economy though still within the bounds of the laws of thermodynamics.

[Zone54]

Humpty, I'm not so sure about that. Consider this comment from University of Maryland physicist Bob Park: "Must I now lecture a chemistry professor on thermodynamics? More energy is needed to free hydrogen than you get by burning it."

 

http://www.bobpark.org/ (1. WARNING! TURN OFF THE RADAR BEFORE THE OCEAN IGNITES.)