Can’t you just break down water, use the hydrogen to power the electric motor, and I don’t think O2 as a byproduct is bad, now this is of course an ideal condition, but why hasn’t this been looked into more?
Can’t you just break down water, use the hydrogen to power the electric motor, and I don’t think O2 as a byproduct is bad, now this is of course an ideal condition, but why hasn’t this been looked into more?
What you’re asking for is, as far as my basic college understanding of physics goes, pretty much impossible. You’re asking for a perpetual engine, looping electrolysis and catalyzing hydrogen and oxygen, creating energy at a net positive. This is impossible in terms of the laws of energy conservation. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be converted from one form into another. Basically, you will only ever get what you put into it. Moreover, in real world applications, you will lose energy to things like heat runoff.
The reason hydrogen works as a fuel source is because of its potential energy. Hydrogen really wants to bond with things. Same thing with oxygen and so they have a high potential energy. However, combine hydrogen and oxygen into water and you’ve got a basically inert molecule that then takes a lot of energy to break back apart. That energy is then converted back into potential energy. The problem again is that this relies on your engine being a perfect system, which can’t exist in practical, real world applications. You WILL lose energy in the reaction in any real world scenario. Meaning you will alway need to put more energy into the system. Thus, always returning a net loss.
That’s kinda why we haven’t gotten fusion reactors working quite yet. Solve that problem and you’ve solved the world’s energy crisis.