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Andrija PUHARICH

Water Decomposition by AC Electrolysis

A. Puharich: "Cutting The Gordian Knot of the Great Energy Bind"

USP # 4,394,230 ~ Method & Apparatus for Splitting Water Molecules

Dr Andrija Puharich reportedly drove his motor home for hundreds of thousands of

miles around North America in the 1970s using only water as fuel. At a mountain

pass in Mexico, he collected snow for water. Here is the only article he wrote on the

subject, plus his patent:

Cutting The Gordian Knot of the Great Energy Bind

by Andrija Puharich

(1) Introduction ~

It is hardly necessary to weigh the value of the World Energy bank account for any

sophisticated person, these days. It is grim. The oil reserves will dwindle away in a

score of years or so, and the coal reserves will be gone in some twelve score years. (

Ref. 1)

This is not to say that the outlook is hopeless. There is an abundance of alternative

energy sources, but the economics of development and exploitation present an

enormous short term strain on the world political and banking resources.

Visionary scientists tell us that the ideal fuel in the future will be as cheap as water,

that it will be non toxic both in its short term, and in its long term, effects, that it will

be renewable in that it can be used over and over again, that it will be safe to handle,

and present minimal storage and transportation problems and costs. And finally that

it will be universally available anywhere on earth.

What is this magical fuel, and why is it not being used? The fuel is water. It can be

used in its fresh water form. It can be used in its salt water form. It can be used in its

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brackish form. It can be used in its snow and ice form. When such water is

decomposed by electrolytic fission into hydrogen and oxygen gases, it becomes a

high energy fuel with three times the energy output which is available from an

equivalent weight of high grade gasoline.

(Ref. 1 ) The interested reader should refer to the special issue of National

Geographic , "Energy", February 1981.

Then why is water not being used as a fuel? The answer is simple. It costs too much

with existing technology to convert water into gases hydrogen and oxygen. The basic

cycle of using water for fuel is described in the following two equations, familiar to

every high school student of Chemistry:

H 2 O Electrolysis + 249.68 Btu Delta G ==> H 2 + (1/2)O 2 per mole of water (1 mole

= 18 gms.). (1)

This means that it requires 249.688 Btu of energy (from electricity) to break water

by electrocal fission into the gases hydrogen and oxygen.

H 2 and (1/2)O 2 === catalyst ===> H 2 O - Delta H 302.375 Btu per mole of water.

(2)

This means that 302.375 Btu of energy (heat or electricity) will be released when the

gases, hydrogen and oxygen, combine. The end product (the exhaust) from this

reaction is water. Note that more energy (under ideal conditions) is released from

combining the gases than is used to free them from water. It is know that under ideal

conditions it is possible to get some 20% more energy out of reaction (2) above, then

it takes to produce the gases of reaction (1) above. Therefore, if reaction (1) could be

carried out at 100% efficiency, the release of energy from reaction (2) in an

optimally efficient engine (such as a low temperature fuel cell), there would be a net

energy profit which would make the use of water as a fuel an economically feasible

source of energy .

The cost of producing hydrogen is directly related to the cost of producing

electricity. Hydrogen as produced today is generally a byproduct of off-peak-hour

electrical production in either nuclear or hydroelectric plants. The electricity thus

produced is the cheapest way of making hydrogen. We can compare the cost of

production of electricity and the cost of producing hydrogen. The following table is

adapted from Penner (Ref. 2) whose data source is based on Federal Power

Commission, and American Gas Association Figures of 1970 and on a 1973 price

evaluation (just before OPEC oil price escalation.)

Table 1: Relative Prices in Dollars per 10 6 Btu . See Appendix 1 for definition of

British Thermal units (a) @ 9.1 mils/kWh

Cost Component ~ Electricity ~ Electrolytically-Produced H

Production ~ 2.67 (b) ~ 2.95 to 3.23 (b)

Transmission ~ 0.61 ~ 0.52 (c)

Distribution ~ 1.61 ~ 0.34

Total Cost ~ $4.89 ~ $3.81 to $4.09

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If we compare only the unit cost of production of electricity vs Hydrogen from the

above table:

10 6 Btu H 2 / 10 6 Btu El = $3.23 / $2.67, or 20.9% higher cost, H 2

(Ref. 2) Penner, S.S. & L. Iceman: Non Nuclear Technologies , Vol II, Addison-

Wesley Publishing Company, 1977, Chap. 11, and Table 11.1-2 (Page 132).

It must also be noted that the price of natural gas is much cheaper than either

electricity or hydrogen, but because of the price fluctuations due to recent

deregulation of gas. It is not possible to present a realistic figure.

In the opinion of Penner (op. cit.), if the hydrogen production cost component of its

total cost could be reduced three fold, it would become a viable alternate energy

source. In order to achieve such a three-fold reduction in production costs, several

major breakthroughs would have to occur.

(1) ENDERGONIC REACTION ~ (1) supra. A technological breakthrough that

permits 100% conversion efficiency of water by electrolysis fission into the two

gases, Hydrogen as fuel and Oxygen as oxidant.

(2) HYDROGEN PRODUCTION, in situ. A technological breakthrough that

eliminates the need and cost of hydrogen liquefaction and storage, transmission, and

distribution, by producing the fuel in situ, when and where needed.

(3) EXERGONIC REACTION ~ (2) supra. A technological breakthrough which

yields a 100% efficient energy release from the combination of hydrogen and oxygen

into water in an engine that can utilize the heat, steam, or electricity thus produced.

(4) ENGINE EFFICIENCY. By a combination of the breakthroughs outlined above,

(1), (2), and (3) utilized in a highly efficient engine to do work, it is possible to

achieve a 15% to 20% surplus of energy return over energy input, theoretically.

It is of interest to record that a new invention is now being developed to realise the

above outlined goal of cheap, clean renewable and high grade energy.

A Thermodynamic Device has been invented which produces hydrogen as fuel, and

oxygen as oxidant, from ordinary or from sea water, eliminating the cost and hazard

of liquefaction, storage, transmission, and distribution. The saving of this aspect of

the invention alone reduces the total cost of hydrogen by about 25%.

This Thermodynamic Device is based on a new discovery --- the efficient

electrolytic fission of water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas by the use of low

frequency alternating currents as opposed to the conventual use of direct current, or

ultra-high frequency current today. Such gas production from water by electrolytic

fission approaches 100% efficiency under laboratory conditions and measurements.

No laws of physics are violated in this process.

This Thermodynamic Device has already been tested at ambient pressures and

temperatures from sea level to an altitude of 10,000 feet above sea level without any

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loss of its peak efficiency. The device produces two types of gas bubbles; one type of

bubble contains hydrogen gas; the other type contains oxygen gas. The two gases are

thereafter easily separable by passive membrane filters to yield pure hydrogen gas,

and pure oxygen gas.

The separate gases are now ready to be combined in a chemical fusion with a small

activation energy such as that from a catalyst or an electrical spark, and yield energy

in the form of heat, or steam, or electricity --- as needed .When the energy is released

by the chemical fusion of hydrogen and oxygen, the exhaust product is clean water.

The water exhaust can be released into nature and then renewed in its energy content

by natural processes of evaporation, solar irradiation in cloud form, an subsequent

precipitation as rain on land or sea, and then collected again as a fuel source. Or, the

exhaust water can have its energy content pumped up by artificial processes such as

through solar energy acting through photocells. Hence, the exhaust product is both

clean and renewable. The fuel hydrogen, and the oxidant oxygen, can be used in any

form of heat engine as an energy source if economy is not an important factor. But

the practical considerations of maximum efficiency dictate that a low temperature

fuel cell with its direct chemical fusion conversion from gases to electricity offers

the greatest economy and efficiency from small power plants (less than 5 kilowatts).

For large power plants, steam and gas turbines are the ideal heat engines for

economy and efficiency. With the proper engineering effort, automobiles could be

converted rather easily to use water as the main fuel source.

(2) A Elementry Introduction to the Design & Operation of the Thermodynamic

Device to Electrolyse Water with AC ~

The Thermodynamic Device (TD) is made up of three principal components: An

electrical function generator, Component I, that energizes a water cell, the TD,

Component II and Component III , a weak electrolyte.

COMPONENT I: The Electrical Function Generator ~ See Fig 1.

Figure 1: Signal Generator Component Block ~

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This electronic device has a complex alternating current output consisting of an

audio frequency (range 20 to 200 Hz) amplitude modulation of a carrier wave

(range: 200 to 100,000 Hz). The output is connected by two wires to Component II

at the center electrode, and at the ring electrode. See Fig1. The impedance of this

output signal is continuously being matched to the load which is the water solution

in Component II.

COMPONENT II: The Thermodynamic Device (TD). See Figure 2.

Figure 2: Thermodynamic Device (TD) ~

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