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Stanley Meyer's water fuel cell

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"Water fuel cell" redirects here. For other purported water fueled devices, see Water-fueled car. For fuel cells, see Fuel cell.
Perpetual motion machine:
Stanley Meyer's Water fuel cell
DisciplinesPhysics and engineering
Core TenetsThe device is designed to produce hydrogen and oxygen, from water using electricity, by a method other than simple water electrolysis.
Original ProponentsStanley Meyer
Theory violationFirst law of thermodynamics[1][2]
The water fuel cell is a purported perpetual motion machine invented by American Stanley Allen Meyer (August 24, 1940 – March 21, 1998). He claimed that an automobile retrofitted with the device could use water as fuel instead of gasoline. The fuel cell purportedly split water into its component elements, hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen was then burned to generate energy, a process that reconstituted the water molecules. According to Meyer, the device required less energy to perform electrolysis than the minimum energy requirement predicted or measured by conventional science.[1] If the device worked as specified, it would violate both the first and second laws of thermodynamics,[1][2] allowing operation as a perpetual motion machine.[2] Meyer's claims about his "Water Fuel Cell" and the car that it powered were found to be fraudulent by an Ohio court in 1996.[1][3]

Contents

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[edit] The term "fuel cell"

The circuit[4]
Throughout his patents[4][5][6] and marketing material,[7][8][9] Meyer uses the terms "fuel cell" or "water fuel cell" to refer to the portion of his device in which electricity is passed through water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. Meyer's use of the term in this sense is contrary to its usual meaning in science and engineering, in which such cells are conventionally called "electrolytic cells".[10] Furthermore, the term fuel cell is usually reserved for cells which produce electricity from a chemical redox reaction,[11][12][13] whereas Meyer's fuel cell consumed electricity, as shown in his patents and in the circuit pictured on the left. Meyer describes in a 1990 patent the use of a "water fuel cell assembly'" and portrays some images of his "fuel cell water capacitor". According to the patent, in this case "... the term 'fuel cell' refers to a single unit of the invention comprising a water capacitor cell ... that produces the fuel gas in accordance with the method of the invention."[5]

[edit] Media coverage

The water fuel cell[5]
In a news report on an Ohio TV station, Meyer demonstrated a dune buggy which he claimed was powered by his water fuel cell. He estimated that only 22 US gallons (83 liters) of water were required to travel from Los Angeles to New York.[8] Furthermore, Meyer claimed to have replaced the spark plugs with "injectors" which introduced a hydrogen/oxygen mixture into the engine cylinders. The water was subjected to an electrical resonance that dissociated it into its basic atomic make-up. The water fuel cell would split the water into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which would then be combusted back into water vapor in a conventional internal combustion engine to produce net energy.[3]
Philip Ball, writing in academic journal Nature, characterized Meyer's claims as pseudoscience, noting that "It's not easy to establish how Meyer's car was meant to work, except that it involved a fuel cell that was able to split water using less energy than was released by recombination of the elements ... Crusaders against pseudoscience can rant and rave as much as they like, but in the end they might as well accept that the myth of water as a fuel is never going to go away."[2]
There is no documented proof that the system produces enough hydrogen to run an engine. To date no peer review studies of Meyer's devices have been published in the scientific literature, although his claims have been thoroughly discredited in scientific journals.[2]

[edit] Lawsuit

In 1996, inventor Stanley Meyer was sued by two investors to whom he had sold dealerships, offering the right to do business in Water Fuel Cell technology. His car was due to be examined by the expert witness Michael Laughton, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. However, Meyer made what Professor Laughton considered a "lame excuse" on the days of examination and did not allow the test to proceed.[3] According to Meyer the technology was patent pending and under investigation by the patent office, the Department of Energy and the military.[14] His "water fuel cell" was later examined by three expert witnesses in court who found that there "was nothing revolutionary about the cell at all and that it was simply using conventional electrolysis". The court found Meyer guilty of "gross and egregious fraud" and ordered him to repay the two investors their $25,000.[3]

[edit] Meyer's death

Stanley Meyer died suddenly on March 21, 1998 after dining at a restaurant. An autopsy report by the Franklin County, Ohio coroner concluded that Meyer had died of a cerebral aneurysm, but conspiracy theorists insist that he was poisoned to suppress the technology, and that oil companies and the United States government were involved in his death.[1][2][15] Meyer's patents are still available online,[16] although there has as yet been no independent verification of his claims.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Narciso, Dean (July 8, 2007). "The Car that Ran on Water". The Columbus Dispatch. http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/07/08/hydroman.ART_ART_07-08-07_A1_4V77MOK.html. Retrieved 2008-03-24. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f Ball, Philip (September 14, 2007). "Burning water and other myths". Nature News. doi:10.1038/news070910-13. http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070910/full/070910-13.html. Retrieved 2008-12-08. "You start with water, you break it apart into its constituent elements (hydrogen and oxygen), and then you recombine them by burning. ... Extracting net energy from this total cycle is impossible, if you believe in the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Otherwise, you have the basis of a perpetual-motion machine." 
  3. ^ a b c d Edwards, Tony (1996-12-01). "End of road for car that ran on Water". The Sunday Times (Times Newspapers Limited): p. Features 12. 
  4. ^ a b U.S. Patent 5,149,407: Process and apparatus for the production of fuel gas and the enhanced release of thermal energy from such gas
  5. ^ a b c U.S. Patent 4,936,961: Method for the production of a fuel gas
  6. ^ U.S. Patent 4,826,581: Controlled process for the production of thermal energy from gases and apparatus useful therefore; U.S. Patent 4,798,661: Gas generator voltage control circuit; U.S. Patent 4,613,779: Electrical pulse generator; U.S. Patent 4,613,304: Gas electrical hydrogen generator;U.S. Patent 4,465,455: Start-up/shut-down for a hydrogen gas burner; U.S. Patent 4,421,474: Hydrogen gas burner; U.S. Patent 4,389,981: Hydrogen gas injector system for internal combustion engine
  7. ^ "video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7890314993072742238". http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7890314993072742238. 
  8. ^ a b Robinson, Ralph (Reporter), Tom Ryan (News caster) and Gail Hogan (News caster) "Unknown Episode [Videorecording (Broadcast)]" Action 6 News. Unknown Network. Station call sign: WSYX. Filmed in Groveport. Length: 1 Minute 45 seconds. Republished by Annaheim, Kurt W. "Media Page - See, Hear and Discover Free Electricity." File name: stan_meyers_bb.wmv. Last updated 7 May 2008. Befreetech.Com. Accessed 23 June 2008.
  9. ^ "Stan Meyer's Files". http://waterpoweredcar.com/stan.html. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
  10. ^ The "The Columbia Encyclopedia", Columbia University Press 2004 defines fuel cell as an "Electric cell in which the chemical energy from the oxidation of a gas fuel is converted directly to electrical energy in a continuous process"; and electrolysis as "Passage of an electric current through a conducting solution or molten salt that is decomposed in the process."
  11. ^ Introduction: Batteries and Fuel Cells Whittingham, M. S.; Savinell, R. F.; Zawodzinski, T. Chem. Rev.; 2004; 104(10); 4243-4244.
  12. ^ Winter, M.; Brodd, R. (2004). "What Are Batteries, Fuel Cells, and Supercapacitors?". J. Chem. Rev. 10 (104): 4245–4270. doi:10.1021/cr020730k. 
  13. ^ Chem. Rev.; 2004; 104(10), entire issue. [1]
  14. ^ Letter from Water fuel cell regarding stanley meyer's water fuel cell project New Energy News 1997
  15. ^ "Water Powered Car report on Meyer's death". http://waterpoweredcar.com/stanmeyer.html. Retrieved 2008-03-02. 
  16. ^ U.S. Patent 5,149,407,U.S. Patent 4,936,961,U.S. Patent 4,826,581,U.S. Patent 4,798,661,U.S. Patent 4,613,779,U.S. Patent 4,613,304,U.S. Patent 4,465,455,U.S. Patent 4,421,474,U.S. Patent 4,389,981

[edit] External links

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