That wouldn’t change the fact that virtually all of the input water is recoverable.
The difference would be that we would then care about mileage in terms of the magical compound, not the water.
All the water produced in normal internal combustion engine is “recoverable”…but nobody does it, because…its WATER and nobody cares.
Water used in old fashion steam locomotives was recoverable too…but nobody generally bothered.
If your magic compound mixed with water produces hydrogen, or hydrogen and oxygen to burn, you COULD recover the steam, but why the hell do it? waters like cheap and easy to get more of.
Therefore you WILL be “using” water along with the compound.
And we’ve covered the using up of the compound like 4 or 5 times now.
At first glance, using lithium to react with water to produce hydrogen to burn doesnt look too horrible energy wise. WAG is a tenth MPG that of gasoline without crunching the numbers, but still better than lithuim ion batteries on a per pound basis.
[voice=Homer]
On this message board, we obey the Laws of Thermodynamics.
[/voice]
Surprised no one else said it first