Have always thought hydrogen was a possible answer for retrofitting our carbon-based, fossil fuel civilization. This kind of thing utterly fascinates me. The flame instantly turns materials hotter than the surface of the sun? WOW!
Above, water meets a patented electrolysis process that separates hydrogen from oxygen and forms a gaseous compound. It remains to be seen whether it takes more energy to produce this reaction than it does to produce the usable energy. It's called Net Energy Gain. And for this to be economically viable, it needs to be a positive number, and a decent positive number, preferably over 2.
The NEG of corn ethanol, for example, is finally considered on the positive side, but a very low 1.24 ratio. This means it takes an ounce of some other fuel to produce a little more than an ounce of ethanol. Not very good numbers, to say the least. In layman's terms, ethanol production is a boondoggle. A monumental boondoggle. actually.
Only time will tell about the NEG of H-H-O gas. Along with the wisdom of the market place. For now at least, this does look interesting.
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