REGAN, N.D.
Jerry Manyette says that he has captured lightning in a bottle -- a quart jar, actually -- but the challenge he claims to have solved has frustrated energy research for years.
Manyette, a Regan resident and self-described "garage scientist," has a 1986 Ford Bronco truck in which he has installed an electrolysis unit, consisting in part of ordinary one-quart canning jars with tubes poking out of their tops, that takes hydrogen from water to run the engine. After starting the truck with a squirt of gasoline from a Mountain Dew bottle, it switches to the hydrogen separated from the water, Manyette said.
"And she purrs like a pussycat," Manyette said. "She runs like a scalded dog."
Manyette claims his truck runs on water -- though he also hedges by saying that his gadget improves his fuel efficiency 60 percent. The idea is a dream of anyone who grits his teeth at pumping gasoline at near $4 a gallon. The water-fueled car has existed in popular culture for decades and the dream has been fostered by the Internet and high fuel prices.
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But the idea of unlocking free energy from water also is an illusion, according to science.
"I suspect he's doing exactly what these guys on the Internet are doing in their garages," said Andy Blackmore, a research specialist in North Dakota State University's mechanical engineering department.
The Internet has plenty of websites explaining how to convert a gas engine to hydrogen or selling conversion kits, Blackmore said. The method is not a scientific breakthrough, but it ignores the fact that it takes more energy in the form of electricity to remove hydrogen from water than is produced by the hydrogen.
"Simple physics says that every process is not 100 percent efficient," he said. "Yeah, you can do that but the energy balance doesn't work."
The idea of turning water into fuel is tantalizing at time when other energy sources are expensive, hard-to-get and polluting, but the laws of thermodynamics prevent the hydrogen in water from being a credible energy source.
"I spent 25 years working in the auto industry," Blackmore said. "Frankly, if it were possible, they would be doing it."
Manyette does not accept that what he claims he is doing does not wash with science. He says his electrolysis unit is powered by the truck's alternator and that the hydrogen extracted from the water powers the truck's engine to run the alternator. Doubters like Blackmore are just taking their cues from companies with an interest in the status quo.
"That's the power companies. That's the car companies. That's the oil companies," he said. "I'm breaking the laws of thermodynamics right here."
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Manyette said he had been working on his system for about five years, tinkering with fish tank hoses, pop bottles, copper wire and mayonnaise jars in his garage, which is cluttered with tools and spare parts. He plans to start a business installing similar devices in neighbors' vehicles and is looking for investors.
"At first I was skeptical," he said. "I'm the biggest cynic of anyone."
Instead of pursuing the dream of the water-fueled car, a more realistic use of hydrogen would be using off-peak electricity to create hydrogen to be stored as fuel, according to Blackmore, who specializes in automotive engineering, internal combustion and alternative fuels. For example, NDSU researchers are working on projects to develop ways that farmers could use electricity generated by wind turbines on their land to create hydrogen that could be used to power farm machinery.
Manyette stands by his invention, which he demonstrates by spinning his truck around in his yard. He plans to apply for a patent and pursue other applications with hydrogen.
"This is feasible. This will work," he said.
The use of low-cost electricity to create clean-burning hydrogen gets around the energy loss problem that has stumped garage inventors like Manyette in their hopes of an efficient water-powered car, Blackmore said.
"It's fun, it's amusing," he said. "Unfortunately, it's not possible."
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
