# Saltwater as fuel?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saltwater-as-fuel/408932>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 22, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saltwater-as-fuel/408932 "2007-06-22T00:36:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saltwater-as-fuel/408932/1 "2007-06-22T00:36:38Z")

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A friend sent me this [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6vSxR6UKFM&mode=related&search=) of a newscast about an amature inventor who, while searching for a cure for cancer, found a way to burn saltwater as fuel.  
I checked snopes and found nothing.

Any thoughts?

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saltwater-as-fuel/408932/2 "2007-06-22T00:45:03Z")

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Snake oil. In theory, one could electrolyze salt water in this manner–I can’t really comment on the mechanism, although salt water IS electrically conductive–but you still have the issue of getting less energy from burning the resultant hydrogen than you used to extract it in the first place. This does not change just because you use RF instead of electrical energy.

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**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saltwater-as-fuel/408932/3 "2007-06-22T00:48:17Z")

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**Q.E.D.** what you are ignoring is the well known **lose a little on each one, and make it up in volume** effect.

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**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saltwater-as-fuel/408932/4 "2007-06-22T02:27:52Z")

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I don’t fall for things like this. My BS meter went off when he was identifiedas a broadcast engineer.  
So, I guess I’ll believe it when Shell Oil buys it.