Burning Water - A Useful Oxymoron

It is true that one would not typically think it is possible for water to burn, hence being considered an oxymoron. Most believe that water is the absolute opposite to fire, and that any mix of the two would result in the fire being extinguished. That didn't stop a man by the name of John Kanzius from realizing the potential of the seemingly impossible thing when he discovered it back in 2007. Kanzius, a cancer researcher, discovered this phenomenon when he attempted to desalinate water during a test in eliminating cancer cells via radio bombardment. According to National Geographic, Kanzius was suprised to see a small 'spark' when the radio waves interacted with the salt water. Going off a hunch, he lifted a flame to the water's surface and it actually lit the water on fire.

Word spread like wildfire on what was being called the greatest water related discovery of 100 years. Holding the potential for being a huge source of alternative energy and water treatment, this discovery went to Rustum Roy, a university chemist at Penn State, to find how this happens. Roy discovered that as long as the radio waves are trained on the water, it would continue to burn. When the radio waves strike the water, the bonds between the hydrogen and the oxygen begin to weaken, allowing them to burn. When burned the water breaks into hydrogen and oxygen gas with then immediately react back with each other to reform water. Because the salt water oceans cover the majority of the Earth, there is no lack of fuel for this process.

Now, the actual burning of the salt water isn't the new alternative energy, rather it is the hydrogen that is broken off from the water in this process that is so important. Hydrogen is a powerful alternative energy source that is almost never found by itself naturally. This process eliminates the need for expensive hydrogen extraction by other means. This process also rids the water of any chemicals within it, creating clean water from dirty ocean salt water. This process it truly useful and energy efficient. Even though the radio waves also require energy to be made, one could attach the radio emitter to something like a solar panel to limit the amount of fossil fuels being used.

THis discovery is probably one of the most important finding for alternative energy production in such a long time. Still, many things still need to be researched before this process can be used as an energy production technique. That does not deter scientists from becoming hopeful that this will one day become an important part in our energy production.

Links:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070913-burning-water_2.html
http://www.livescience.com/1861-remarkable-discovery-scientists-burn-saltwater.html