A Self-Powered Car

The Israelis who are pioneering this technology would surely win a future X-Prize for Energy:

Amnon Yogev, one of the two founders of Engineuity, and a retired Professor of the Weizmann Institute, suggested a method for producing a continuous flow of Hydrogen and steam under full pressure inside a car. This method could also be used for producing hydrogen for fuel cells and other applications requiring hydrogen and/or steam.

The Hydrogen car Engineuity is working on will use metals such as Magnesium or Aluminum which will come in the form of a long coil. The gas tank in conventional vehicles will be replaced by a device called a Metal-Steam combustor that will separate Hydrogen out of heated water.

The basic idea behind the technology is relatively simple: the tip of the metal coil is inserted into the Metal-Steam combustor together with water where it will be heated to very high temperatures. The metal atoms will bond to the Oxygen from the water, creating metal oxide. As a result, the Hydrogen molecules are free, and will be sent into the engine alongside the steam.

The solid waste product of the process, in the form of metal oxide, will later be collected in the fuel station and recycled for further use by the metal industry. (Article via the Digg front page)

Understandably, Israel would be the first Middle Eastern state that needs this technology since it's not a major oil-producing country and oftentimes in the past its domestic oil demand exceeded supply. But then, of course, Saddam's Iraq is no more and Israel is a direct beneficiary of that US conquest. As this person puts it: it's all about Israel's need for oil.

It's always a sensitive issue when it comes to viable alternative energy sources to oil and petroleum. A number of economies in the world has oil as their lifeblood. Introduction of technologies that would result to alternatives to oil products seems to be always met with discouragement and does not prosper. Depending on which country you live in, this, however, is always good news.

I just hope that eventually promoting an X-Prize for Energy would change all of that. And more.