Ron,
but lets assume I can provide Hydrogen from water in excess of COP>1. Now what
are we going to do with it
where the conversion does not eat up this gain? ICE engine is out!
I may have to disagree on this point, as I am optimistically looking for
continued advances on several fronts. Yes, fuel cells are out. Huge
drain of time and effort.
But ... both Ford and BMW have puts tons of money and man-hours into
improving the H2 fueled ICE. They are not there yet but they can get a
Carnot efficiency of 45% at single engine speed. BMW has gotten over 50%.
Now at first blush - this looks to be of no great help because you would
need COP>3 or closer to 4 to get anything useful ... even with a (much)
larger engine to cover the parasitism ... but there are wildcards which
built on the 55% waste heat of those ICE's:
1) thermo-electro-chemical water splitting
2) thermoelectric water radiolysis
I don't see either getting close to COP>3 (compared to Faradaic) but...
3) either of the above, using LENR (perhaps Mizuno arc) techniques to
provide more energy, and with or without ...
4) turbine/ICE dual engines where split cell water splitting is
engineered so that peroxide is produced preferentially (instead of O2)
and enriched in situ for use as a monopropellant in the turbine, while
the H2 is burned in the ICE (or in a second stage tubine).
All of these concepts are using waste heat, but realistically, unless
the hydrino, LENR (or something unknown like the Graneau hypothesis) is
also at work, and that extra energy can be harnessed as well, then this
won't happen. Thermacore and Mizuno presents a good case that it can be
done, in principle. But that is a far, far way from doing it now.
At this point in time (terrorism concern) radiolysis is out for an
automobile, but maybe not for a longer time horizon.
The main point is that the USA should be putting the equivalent of the
hot fusion budget into this! (including $$$ into your work)
Jones
