Japanese specialists who have been working on a car powered only by water for 15 years now have announced major progress on the first ever “green engine“. And this is not the familiar pressurized hydrogen scheme.
It may sound too good to be true, but a Japanese company claims to have developed a system for water-powered cars. The company, which is called Genepax, has named its H2O energy system the Water Energy System (WES).
And the technology is already operational in the mini-fleet of Reva models produced by Takeoka Mini Cars. One of the main advantages of the new hydrogen technology is the elimination of the problem of storage for recharging, which is essential.
It is a well-known fact that one of the complications of using hydrogen as a fuel is its storage, but Genepax has found a way around this with a system that converts water directly into hydrogen.
Thus, the car tank should only be filled with water, which can be any kind. WES works on a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which includes a substance that is capable of breaking down water into its hydrogen and oxygen components through a chemical reaction.
Two devices were recently shown: a 120 W and a 300 W fuel cell system that were used to power a Reva microcar. Genepax reported that the vehicle reached speeds of 80 kilometers per hour and traveled for approximately 60 minutes on just a liter of water.
The company has conducted tests with rain water, sea water and river water and the performance of the car is the same and consistent. If this system proves successful, it has the potential to solve three main problems.
The first is the storage of hydrogen, which is complicated because in order to maintain a liquid state, it must be cooled quite a bit, which requires specialized storage tanks that can handle both the low temperature and the pressure. created if the temperature starts to rise, something that makes them heavy.
The second drawback to overcome with hydrogen systems is cost. The storage considerations above also make tanks expensive, but if all that is needed is a standard water tank, the cost of the system drops dramatically. Also on the topic of cost, hydrogen-powered alternatives involve extracting gas from other fuels like methanol, a process that requires a reformer, and those parts are expensive.
The third problem that WES can solve concerns emissions. Some types of hydrogen systems still produce harmful emissions, but Genepax's technology only emits oxygen as a byproduct. There is a risk of ozone depletion, but this can be mitigated with the use of catalysts. Seawater, in particular, is available in such abundance that if WES could actually function with a tank full of it, it would be a giant leap forward in the world of renewable fuels.
Is hydropower too good to be true?
WES has a number of critics who believe the system could not work because it contradicts the First Law of Thermodynamics, which states:
„The increase in internal energy of a system is equal to the amount of energy added by heating the system minus the amount lost as a result of work done by the system on its environment.“
In simple terms, this means that the energy required to break down the water molecules is greater than the system can generate to drive the vehicle through an electric motor, so it will have to be obtained from elsewhere, for example from a battery.
It seems quite likely that Genepax made a mistake, miscalculated, or overestimated the capabilities of their technology. But if this is not the case, then the Japanese developers have achieved a kind of super-revolutionary engine.
There is also something else. If the vehicle is powered by water, and water is also a by-product of hydrogen extraction, then this engine can run indefinitely on the same amount of water. But Genepax is unlikely to make such a breakthrough.