As far back as the Grove Cell, it was clear that there was a large area of *crossover* between the battery - the fuel cell- and the electrolysis cell... "Large area" being the relevant concept.
In many cases, each device can function as the other with small changes in chemistry or separation membranes - especially when we replace (acid or base) ions with (nominally) uncharged colloids. Colloidal Electrolysis - i.e. water splitting using colloids has "High Potential and Comparison With Traditional Electrolysis" which is the title of a nearly forty year old seminal paper on the subject - largely neglected ... except by a recently formed Texas Company which, it seems, wants to pretend that they invented the whole thing. That company is called AirGen: http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=communique&newsid=11039 It is a great idea - basically a battery that produces hydrogen instead of electricity - as the Grove cell did (inadvertently at times) but this is not unique - except in perhaps the nanochemistry of the colloids being used, and one suspects the company is treading on thin-ice in the "prior art" department... anyway - is it true overunity? Colloidal electrolysis was invented in Japan and England simultaneously in 1968. It attempts to employ the enormous surface area and near fields of dispersed particles (acres per gram) catalytically to improve efficiency. Until recently no hint of overunity was ever admitted. Rumors coming from my contacts in the fair city of Austin suggest that a major announcement is due soon which will not mince words in this regard. Hope the genius Randi has his ink-pen ready to either put-up (with lots of zeros on the check) or shut-up. My advice is to wait for the H-prize, but they probably suspect that it will get Bush-hogged. Of course, one might say that - in the unit seen in the above cited article, or most likely its improve successor device, that the colloids are being "used up" even if that takes many hours - and that is partly true. Stefan Hartmann's comment at the bottom was close to being on-target, but I do not think he realized then how little energy is required to replenish the spent colloids... One can look at OU as a total-systems approach, no? or is that Randi's "out" to penning the big check ? ... or else, is this rumor just one more bright flash in the pan - one that seems to be "pointing the way" - the way to OU that is using the special features of H2O - but "are we there yet? " ...kind of an annoying phrase, isn't it? even if you are not on an a road-trip vacataion with a carload of brats... Jones
