Ah... the Saturday matinee... for grown-ups who never did :
From the "what is the meaning of 'is' " i.e. department
(semantics/humor)...
... one could make the argument that the oxygen molecule doesn't
support combustion ! OK, OK ... maybe it would take a
double-talker of the caliber of Bill C. to make that argument
stand, but it is true that ROS, or reactive oxygen species, is
what technically can support combustion.
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) include oxygen ions, free radicals
and peroxides and metastable intermediates. They are highly
reactive due to the presence of unpaired valence shell electrons
but are easily formed from the oxygen content of air, once the
process is started (ignition), even in a small zone.
Probably the most familiar free-radical reaction is combustion, of
course, but in every cell in your body, combustion is taking place
now - and in every single case HOOH is present.
In order for combustion to occur at all, the relatively strong
O=O double bond must be broken to form ROS - the oxygen
free-radical(s). Oxygen itself is a di-radical since it has two
unpaired electrons in the outer orbitals, but that "natural
reactivity" is limited and misleading - since these electrons have
parallel spins. BTW this feature of O2 is what gives oxygen a
fairly strong magnetic moment - which is most unusual.
Reactive oxygen species - ROS - include superoxides, such as
hydrogen peroxide, and the hydroxyl radical which is rare in a
singlet state simply because it is so reactive that it will react
with itself to form HOOH.
Now we get to SOD, which is the culprit of the attempted pun in
the subject line. Actually, I'm tempted to call it a double pun -
in the context of water fuel, but if you have to explain it to
that degree - it is truly only "attempted".
Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is a biological necessity and catalyst
for cellular energy - and often contains manganese (MnSOD). When
superoxide dismutase comes in contact with a metastable
superoxide, it reacts and forms the stable molecule --> hydrogen
peroxide.
OU - Plain and simple - No-Zero-Nada outside energy is required.
This is nature's form of free-energy, and it is NU but not new.
That is why Fred and a few others are so interested and
enthusiastic about the application of this concept to automotive
use - and in building on the features of metal colloids, which are
essentially SODs when oxygen is present with water. Any way you
cut it, or "is" it ...<g> it is "free energy."
But I am struck by the fact that the best (perhaps 'only'
feasible) answer to solving our energy crisis in the near term
(without the breakthrough in magnetics or LENR or whatever) may
have been in every cell in our bodies but locked-up in the secrets
of cellular metabolism - all along.
So perhaps this effort this falls into the department of "nothing
new under the sun"... or rediscovering the obvious.
Jones
