Have we pushed the boundaries of technology to make full use of water as a source of fuel ?
Water is a very stable compound – when you study chemistry you will find the high enthalpy in the H-O bond – meaning that a lot of energy is needed to break the bond and thus little or no net energy is released when water reacts with most substances (exception being some elements). The same situation arises with carbon dioxide CO2 where the C=O bond also needs lots of energy to break (this is why you get water and carbon dioxide as waste products from burning organic substances – including respiration and digestion in organisms). Water can be hydrolysed to produce oxygen and hydrogen which can be used in fuel cells but the energy needed to separate the oxygen and hydrogen is more than produced from the cell. Never believe anyone who says they can produce (chemical) energy from water and thus solve the world’s energy crisis. Water does, of course, contain deuterium which is used as a neutron moderator in nuclear fission and possibly as a source of fuel for nuclear fusion – if this could
