running car on water vapour instead of petrol

anotherbaldrick

Paradigm wrote: »

It's not quite as far fetched as you make out

Obviously, you can't "burn" water vapour but during WW2 there were a number of aircraft fitted with water injection (might still be used today).

Water was sprayed onto (into?) the fuel as it entered the combustion chamber. The cooling effect allowed higher super/turbo charger boosts for more power during "emergency" situations without destroying the engine. Some had a water/methonol system to further increase power.

What happens with water injection is that the volume of water injected increases by 1600% on turning to steam which has a supercharging effect at the expense of clean burn . Effective for a short boost.

Paradigm

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

What happens with water injection is that the volume of water injected increases by 1600% on turning to steam which has a supercharging effect at the expense of clean burn . Effective for a short boost.

You may well be right but the primary use of water is to cool the fuel/air mixture & combustion chamber to prevent detonation allowing higher compression/ignition timings & boost pressures.

That's how I remember it anyway.

Wig

tod123 wrote: »

Just a quick question for any posters who have done a water vap conversion, have you seen much difference in performance?

You should look up cornish hydrogen generator

And when you have built one, let me know how you got on.

lostsheep

Cardelia wrote: »

I'm actually surprised a small, sunny, self-governing island community (one of the smaller Caribbean islands, for example) hasn't taken a punt on switching over to a hydrogen economy. With relatively few homes and cars to run, the start-up cost would be much smaller than for a country like the UK and it would be useful proof that a hydrogen economy could work.

It's not really that surprising. Although a small island state may not feel it as badly as somewhere that needs to cart fuel around a bit more, hydrogen is a horrifically poor method of energy storage, so it largely doesn't make sense.