Maybe not water per-se, but with this simple technique you can turn one of the most abundant materials on earth into a highly explosive gas.
WARNING: Ignition of an incendiary or explosive material may not be legal in your area, so check local laws before attempting. Use of this video content is at your own risk.
In a previous project, I built a generator that converts water into fuel. Typically, I use my car battery to power it, but it can also run on alternative energy, like the hand-crank generator I built from a cordless drill.
To test the power of the gas, I filled a few cups with a small amount of water and dish soap.
When the gas was bubbled into the soapy solution, it foamed to the top of the cup. Each bubble contained the HHO gas, making this a frothing fountain of energy. I wondered what would happen when it touched an open flame?
The gas explodes! And in the energy exchange, the O2 molecules recombine with the H2 molecules turning back into water vapor. Cool that you can use fire to make water, isn't it?
On another note, did you know you can reverse the idea, and use water to make fire? You can see how to do that in this other project.
Next, I tested the power of the gas by filling up bottles.
To get pure gas in the bottles, I filled them with water, then inverted them in a bucket of water to prevent the water from draining out.
The gas was bubbled up into the bottle, and as it collected at the top, it forced the water down and out, until the bottle was full of only the gas.
The force of the explosion destroyed water bottles, but pressure rated plastic bottles like soda bottles shot off like rockets, and could be reused over and over.
I stepped it up to one gallon of gas using milk jugs, and they were ignited with a remote detonator. It's hard to convey how loud and how powerful the shock wave was (watch the video above to hear just how loud it was).
When this juice jug went off, my neighbor said he felt the floor of his house shake.
That just goes to show there is a tremendous amount of energy stored in this type of gas, and harnessed the right way, it could be a powerful fuel.
Now you know how to convert water into explosive energy.
If you liked this project, perhaps you'll like some of my others. Check them out at thekingofrandom.com.
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18 Comments
And now I know what I'm doing with my Butterball this year. Thanks!
Hahaha I like the way you think!
Thanks for uploading! Off to watch you make the generator. Put wheels on that bottle , slap a symbol on it and we have Rodent Demolition Derby / Rockets! lol
Very cool idea Anthon!!
Isn't this electrolysis?
Indeed it is! :)
First thought: fully automatic potato launcher. Second Thought: Hooking the generator to my car (Note: keep a lookout for the CIA trying to kill me for no longer having to pay for gas)
Nice =D
make sure non of the water from your gennie gets out. hexavalent chromium is a bad thing...for everyone
Thanks for your concern. Where would the chromium come from? The only thing in the generator is distilled water and KOH.
Thanks for your concern. Will you explain the dangers in more detail?
You should watch the movie Erin Brockavich. Its about her fight as an environmental activist against hexavalent chromium being dumped ie not treated as a hazardous material. Lots of problems can come from it that stay around. Attached is OSHA's take on it as well as some other link of people testing there waste water from their gen.
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hexavalentchromium/index.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55_j21tCN_k
http://hydroxygasadventure.blogspot.com/2008/07/reducing-hexavalent-chromium-in-waste.html
Thanks for the quick reply. The links are good, and it's a hazard I wasn't aware of, albeit with these small quantities it seems it doesn't really pose much of a threat. Thanks for the info!
You'd be surprised how small things can ruin your day and potentially someone else's. Make sure you wear gloves & eye protection when you change your solution and treat the wate correctly.
Just a thought...I would be interested to see if hexavalent chromium exists in the gas you produce from electrolysis. You potentially could be breathing in some very nasty stuff that causes lung cancer and other issues. Its always the stuff that gets you years later.
from OSHA
Respiratory Tract
Hexavalent chromium can irritate the nose, throat, and lungs. Repeated or prolonged exposure can damage the mucous membranes of the nasal passages and result in ulcers. In severe cases, exposure causes perforation of the septum (the wall separating the nasal passages). Breathing small amounts of hexavalent chromium even for long periods does not cause respiratory tract irritation in most people. Some employees become allergic to hexavalent chromium so that inhaling the chromate compounds can cause asthma symptoms such as wheezing and shortness of breath.
My IMMEDIATE thought is... thanks to the fact that he used a car battery... what's the difference between this kind of explosion and the one that comes from aerated gasoline inside of a combustion engine?
Without doing any Google research to confirm, I'm guessing this has to be what's behind the idea of running cars (and other engines) on water. And indeed, I remember seeing a clip about a buy in France who's figured out how to do something like that.
Jackster 12 couldn't agree with you more. This is just OSHA and probabaly a few other government agencies way of trying to discourage any means of alternative sources of power other than fossil fuel. OSHA is concerned (so they state) about his breathing but studies show the residue or emmission for the burning of this type of fuel is oxygen (2x3times)what we breath not carbon as fossil fuel emits.
wow! This is cool!
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