Fuel Cell Technofraud

Here’s an exercise in technofraud that I found amusing.  The level at which you understand chemistry and physics in general or fuel cells in particular is of no importance here; that’s how obvious this is.

Here’s a process by which a fuel cell operates:

1) Run an electrical current through water, separating the hydrogen from the oxygen via what is called “electrolysis.”

2) Collect the hydrogen.

3) Get the hydrogen close to oxygen (from the air), which it “wants” to rejoin to make water, but, in order to do that, force the hydrogen electron to split apart of the proton.

4) Build a circuit such that the electron is forced through it, doing work in the process, e.g., making a motor run.

5) The water formed when the oxygen and hydrogen rejoin is released as exhaust.

This whole process is about 60% efficient, meaning that 100 units of energy that go into the electrolysis will produce about 60 units of energy in the motor.

Now, let’s examine these people’s claims.  They say their device electrolyzes water, and the hydrogen powers the car.  In other words, they start with water, end with water, but somehow wind up with a huge amount of energy.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaa…..no.