In 1874, Jules Verne had finished publishing (in 62 installments !) his Robinsonade (yes, this is a real word, Robin) called The Mysterious Island, a tale which follows the adventures of a group of castaways who use their survivalist skills to build a functional community on a remote island. It is a kind of sequel, one might imagine, to Robinson Crusoe, or Swiss Family Robinson but with one memorable and endearing quote (for the "waterfuel" set).
For Verne, being French, the escape vehicle of choice was a hot-air balloon (aka the Montgolfier) carrying five passengers (and a dog) which escapes from Richmond during the American Civil War. It is blown off course to an obscure island. After a skirmish with pirates, the group discovers a secret helper the reclusive Captain Nemo (from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea fame). Anyway, in Vernes tale, one castaway opined I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable. Unfortunately, JV missed the big-op to have the castaways build an H2 filled montoglfier and air-sail into Paris. Plus, this vision being quoted was not as big a leap of faith on Jules part as might be imagined, despite the fact that it has not yet been perfected. Louis Jacque Thenard had already discovered hydrogen peroxide in 1818, and it was well-known that this molecule had significant fuel value when enriched to a level known as HTP and yet was basically a combination of the free-est-of-free raw materials i.e. air (enriched in O2) and water. O2 + 2(H2O) <--> 2(HO-OH). Later, in 1839, William Grove built a "gas battery" that could reverse electrolysis what today we call the fuel cell and making the process of splitting water with electric current and the reverse process, both fairly well understood. Therefore, much of the underlying science was in place for Verne. But as Nemo sez: The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. <g> or was that Harlan Ellison? What the decidedly smart Jules Verne did not know about, back then, was Sonochemistry - the application of ultrasound to chemical reactions. Nor did he know the details of Superoxidation, which can be viewed as the oxidation of a molecule to a redundant ground state - which is less stable than the normal oxidative state. Hydrogen peroxide can be viewed as superoxidated water. Nor did he know about "radiolysis"... It is probably clear where this post-vernian-vision is going, by now. Let me state up front that conventional science as of now - knows of no-way to directly produce hydrogen peroxide from water and air without going through a complicated chemical process. Here is a FAQ Page, with contributions from yours truly. I actually had to sign an NDA with the subsidiary company a few years back, as they thought this sonochemical possibility, and some other wild ideas, would be easy to pull-off. It wasnt. http://www.h2o2.com/intro/faq.html The origin of sonochemical effects is the phenomenon of acoustic cavitation. Acoustical energy is mechanical energy i.e. it is not absorbed by molecules directly as photons can be. Ultrasound is transmitted through a medium via pressure waves by inducing vibrational motion- which alternately compresses and stretches the molecule or water-structure. Cavitation can produce photons in the UV spectrum (sonoluminescence). UV light can split water. All this is well-known Unfortunatley UV, a key component in one of these versions of the scheme, will destroy HO-OH faster than it splits water. Normally. That is where Zeolites come in. Jones More in a subsequent installment. Don't know if there are 61 more, but it might be worth the effort - if anything herein will "illuminate" the path towards that long-delayed vision of Jules Verne.
