Happy summer to all you northernhemisphere-ians!
Update from Genepax; they stand behind their claim of perpetual motion:
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-6-20/72135.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genepax
New info here. The car is a pre-existing electric model with large battery capacity built-in. The Genepax device is providing a few percent of the total energy.
Here's an update of sorts. Now they seem to admit the actual fuel is an active metal such as sodium or potassium:
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080616/153301/
Most cars get their best mpg at the slowest speed where they get into 5th gear. That's typically around 40 miles per hour. A Prius gets almost
90 mpg at 30 miles per hour, but drops steadily after that. Same trend for conventional cars:
http://www.metrompg.com/posts/speed-vs-mpg.htm
It's very funny that no one ever mentions the one immediate thing we can do to cut fossil use by at least 20%: SLOW DOWN. Driving 55 is the equivalent of owning a technology-impossible car of the future 8^) Slow the &%^$ down and enjoy the ride. In generations to come, people will look back an dream to have the freedom of movement we take for granted.
Oil and coal come essentially "ready to use" out of the ground. There is nothing else that remotely approaches this in terms of
cost-per-btu delivered. The energetic metals, such as sodium, potassium, lithium, magnesium, aluminum are *never* found in nature in free, unoxidized form. The only way to get these metals is to use electricity to "win" them from their oxides. The ammount of electricity needed is much greater than the amount of electricity you can get back out of them to run your car or TV set.
Other problems appear when you look at, for example, a lithium based economy vs. oil economy.
One expert noted that it would take 100 years of present day lithium production to convert all cars to lithium batteries.
Another big problem with metals and hydrogen itself is that none of them even come close to the
energy density of oil. Gasoline has an energy density of approx. 14,000 wh/kg. Lithium is approx. 300 wh/kg. So think about the practical ramifications of this: If your car has a 10 gallon gas tank, the equivalent lithium fueled car would need to carry almost four thousand pounds of lithium! The situation is just as bad considering hydrogen: pure liquid hydrogen (just like they fuel the space shuttle) has only one-fifth of the energy density of gasoline!
Clifton,
Thanks for the great link to Floyd Sweet. Yes, 'over unity' is the magic phrase that opens doors to a vast world of weirdness! I love that Floyd's triode amplifier could be adjusted to produce free electricity....or....anti-gravity. Just at a flick of a switch.
Another note: 300 watts is less than one-half horsepower! (1hp = 746 watts)
What an amazing character...much more creative than today's scammers!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ernst_Worrell_Keely
If it's a battery of some sort, why should it consume water? Their press release makes big emphasis on the fact that water *is* the fuel.
But the energy *is* in the hydride. It takes a great amount of energy to make these chemicals.
The cost per pound of hydride can be as much as
$100. To re-form it in your car means you will have to plug the car into the power grid and consume far more electricity than the equivalent amount of fossile fuel. The plant that makes sodium and sodium hydride is connected directly to the hydroelectric dam at Niagra Falls. Sodium and Potassium Hydride are so energetic that they will ignite and burn or explode on exposure to air.
The fact that any of you believe this is possible is a sad commentary on our elementary school system.
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