Inventor Rob Juliano stands in front of a customer’s engine that’s been outfitted with an electrolysis-based hydrogen gas pump he’s developed. The system uses power from the car battery to break down water into its gaseous components, which are then pumped into the engine with the goal of improving fuel efficiency.
Photos by Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Fueled by H2O?
A local inventor says he has figured out how to boost a car’s fuel efficiency by using water; experts say laws of physics are against him
By Andrew Moore / The Bulletin
Published: December 26. 2008 4:00AM PST advertisement:
Can a car run on water?
Bend businessman Rob Juliano claims it can, despite ample skepticism from scientists and automotive experts.
Although the average price of fuel has slipped dramatically from a summer high of more than $4 per gallon, Juliano believes water — specifically the hydrogen contained in water — can be used to power an internal-combustion engine at a fraction of the cost of gasoline.
Hydrogen is being pursued as a fuel by car manufacturers. Honda earlier this year debuted its FCX Clarity, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle powered by an electric motor. BMW has developed a car that can use either gasoline or hydrogen to power a traditional motor.
Juliano, however, is peddling something a bit different. Through his company — UnitedH2O.com — the 1984 graduate of Bend’s Mountain View High School builds and installs electrolytic hydrogen generators. They are small, footlong canisters that use electricity from a car battery to break water into its gaseous components, hydrogen and oxygen.
The gases are then funneled into the engine, where — due to the combustive nature of hydrogen — it is used to help drive an engine’s pistons. The process means less gasoline is injected into the piston cylinders, hence the car can travel farther on less gas, thereby increasing the car’s fuel efficiency. In other words, Juliano says cars with his system get more miles per gallon.
Lincoln City resident Linda Young, who paid roughly $1,100 to have Juliano install the system, says her gas mileage has increased nearly 65 percent. Her Nissan Maxima used to get roughly 17 miles per gallon, but the last time she checked, it was getting 28 miles per gallon, she said.
“It sounds better, there’s more power — this old dog of a car has been brought to life after he put the hydrogen thing on, and we’re thrilled,” Young said.
She added that she’s so happy with Juliano’s product she’s preparing to have it installed on her family truck.
The skeptics
Wait one second, say some scientists.
Hydrogen can be used as a fuel, but to create it onboard a vehicle with electricity from a battery, which is charged by an alternator, which is turned by an engine, which is powered by gas, constitutes a perpetual motion machine, says Robert Paasch, the Boeing professor of mechanical design at Oregon State University’s School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.
According to the first law of thermodynamics, which states energy can neither be created nor destroyed, the car as a perpetual motion machine is an impossibility, Paasch said. It takes more energy to create hydrogen from water than you get in return when burning the hydrogen in the engine, he said.
“... The physics tell us this can’t work,” Paasch said. “People say scientists don’t know everything, but in this case, we do know. If someone could prove this worked, they would win a Nobel Prize, because this would throw out 300 years of Western science.”
Juliano doesn’t claim to have turned the natural world on its head. Instead, he points to customers such as Young who have seen incontrovertible improvements in gas mileage and asks how his hydrogen system could not be the answer.
“For skeptics, I bring them back to the basics,” Juliano said. “If I have to, I turn the (hydrogen) generator on and make it bubble, and light the hydrogen on fire and it goes ‘Bam,’ and it wakes them up, and I say, ‘That explodes, your car runs on (fuel) explosions, why wouldn’t it work?’”
Paasch attributes the gas mileage gains to a placebo effect, or a consumer who is more conscientious about his or her driving habits and see gains in efficiency as a result.
However, Willamette Valley resident Elden Huntling, who built his own electrolysis-based hydrogen system for his 1992 Dodge diesel pickup, also claims to have seen improvement in his truck’s gas mileage.
“I’ve heard people call this is a scam, but my Dodge, I’ve already reached the minimum mileage standard for trucks in 2020,” said Huntling.
According to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, automobile and light-truck manufacturers must have a total fleet average fuel economy of at least 35 mpg by 2020, although there is a backstop standard of 27.5 mpg, which is the rate to which Huntling is referring.
Bend resident Drannan Hamby, a retired Linfield College professor with a doctorate in physical chemistry, said it’s doubtful the mileage increases are due to the energy potential of the hydrogen and oxygen added to the piston cylinder. But he does wonder if there might be some other unexplained efficiency gains at work.
Another skeptic is Mike Allen, a senior automotive editor for Popular Mechanics. In an online piece dated Aug. 7, 2008, that Allen wrote for the magazine, he said: “The entire concept of running your car on water is based on bad science.”
But, citing others who have installed the same systems and seen increases in mileage efficiency, Allen wondered if there is something else at play, such as altering the fuel injection system to make the engine run on a leaner fuel-to-air mixture to accommodate the hydrogen and oxygen.
“I’m convinced there’s a lot of placebo effect.” Allen wrote. “I also think that these (modifications) may be increasing fuel economy independently of the (hydrogen and oxygen) injection. So stay tuned, because we’re still testing.”
Unswayed
The jury may still be out, but Juliano stands by his system. It’s unpatented and builds off designs floating around the Internet, although Juliano said the hydrogen canisters are his own design. The canisters only accept distilled water and have to be refilled every two to three months.
The entire system costs roughly $2,000 to purchase and install, which Juliano does.
Juliano, a serial entrepreneur who founded a water-testing company as well as a direct-marketing firm that he said later went out of business due to the no-call list, has so far financed UnitedH2O.com by himself but said he’s beginning to look for investors.
He admits it can be a struggle sometimes to convince people about the technology, but he’s certain he’s on the right track.
“The more of us installing this, the less we can be affected by the oil companies and those who want to threaten us,” Juliano said. “This is something for all of us — and it’s just ridiculous we haven’t started using this years ago.”
Andrew Moore can be reached at 541-617-7820 or at amoore@bendbulletin.com.
