Chinese firm claims its Water powered car can travel 500k (if you believe it)

I am posting this more for laughs than with any conviction that this is true. With the need for alternate sources of energy for cars, we have all sorts of claims coming forward and this will happen more often. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do other than laugh. As Lincoln said "you can fool all the people some of the time"

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3011884/just-add-h20-go-chinese-firm-claims-its-hydrogen-powered-car-can

Just add H²0 to go? Chinese firm claims its hydrogen-powered car can travel 500km fuelled by water

• Vehicle has yet to be seen in public but local media reports it made its maiden journey last week
• Chemical reaction of water and aluminium powder creates hydrogen to power the car, according to chief executive

A car company based in central China claimed it has built a hydrogen-powered vehicle that could travel up to 500 kilometres powered only by water.

The prototype made by Qingnian Cars in Nanyang, a city in Henan province, made its maiden journey on Wednesday when local Communist Party chiefs visited the plant, according to the Nanyang Daily newspaper.

The vehicle is not known to have been tested over longer distances, but Pang Qingnian, chief executive of the company, told Securities Times that it would be capable of travelling between 300 to 500 kilometres powered by 300-400 litres of water.

“The cost [of research and development] is a trade secret that I cannot reveal,” Pang later told Thepaper.cn. “We achieved this at a low cost, this is our company’s technology.”

Pang explained that its engine ran on hydrogen produced by a chemical reaction when a catalyst is applied to a mixture of aluminium powder and water.

 

Thanks for the information. I looked it up and similar reaction is used in Drano (styled as Drāno) is a drain cleaner product manufactured by S. C. Johnson & Son.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drano

Aluminum reacts with lye: 2NaOH + 2Al + 2H2O → 3H2 + 2NaAlO2

Here is the problem. You need both Aluminum and Caustic soda (lye) with water. Aluminum is not cheap and Caustic soda is ah (by definition) corrosive. So you need to have a container that does not react with lye, you need to also remove the residue. So as you say it cannot be economic or practical.

 

Okay this article says that they could use an aluminum alloy and get Hydorgen

https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/04/water-aluminum-create-hydrogen/

Researchers create instant hydrogen from water and aluminum

It could be a first step toward hydrogen as a viable fuel source.

Researchers at the US Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland made a chance discovery when they poured water on a new aluminum alloy. It began to give off hydrogen automatically.

It is possible for hydrogen to be a byproduct of a reaction between water and regular aluminum, but only at extremely high temperatures or with added catalysts. Additionally, it would take hours for the hydrogen to be produced and had an efficiency of only about 50 percent.

That's not the case with this new reaction; "Ours does it to nearly 100 per cent efficiency in less than 3 minutes," team leader Scott Grendahl told New Scientist.

But the economics do not make sense. The amount of energy needed to make Aluminum is considerable.

 

Good point, you need to have a water tank about 6-8 times larger than a conventional car. Water has a higher relative density than gas, so you are carrying more weight, which will bring down efficiencies.