Water as a Fuel

[G.Irish]

It's not a secret that automotive companies have developed alternative energy engines for use in their cars. With as much as you people bitch about gas prices (and I say you people, because I know not every one of you is used to paying for premium gas...plus I get mileage reimbursement so gas prices have never bothered me either way really =p), you would think that an alternative energy car would be a pretty popular seller if they pushed a few decent cars like that on the market.

The problem with a lot of the alternative fuel stuff is that its not cost competitive with gasoline yet. Fuel cells are just not quite there on range and cost yet. However, diesels and hybrids are getting better every day and I think you'll see several new diesel powered vehicles in the next few years with the new higher grade of diesel becoming available in the US.

So with this guy's electrolysis technique, it could simply be that its not cost effective yet.

Where do you think the pressure is coming from to not put a little more R&D into it and put these cars out sooner as opposed to later? It's also not a secret that the big oil companies play pocket pool with the highest level members of our government. It's not like that's a conspiracy theory or anything, it's all about money and the possibility of losing it.

With ethanol part of it is probably politics for sure. If the federal government made a big push to make ethanol available on a wide scale it could happen a lot sooner.

However I think you'd be surprised to know that some of the petroleum companies are developing alternative fuel themselves. Oil companies have to make investments on a fairly long time scale since it takes a lot of capital and government red tape to open up new wells. They know that the cheap oil gravy train won't last forever so some of the smart oil companies (like BP) are starting to invest in next gen fuels so that they can be ahead of the curve in the next 20 years and beyond.