An Iranian engineer has claimed to have converted a locally produced Peugeot 405 from gasoline to a hydrogen fuelled machine, according to a new video released online.
Alaeddin Qasemi unveiled his modified vehicle, a car that can be supposedly powered by using potassium hydroxide and distilled water, on Russia’s Ruptly YouTube site on November 27.
Qasemi is seen filling the fuel tank with the distilled water (he even drank the distilled water) and then shows the water in the fuel tank with the back seats removed.
The locally produced Peugeot 405 usually runs on Compressed Natural Gas and gasoline. However, the engineer does not state in the video whether his modified vehicle used both forms of fuel to propel the car.
According to Qasemi, the car’s engine only produces water vapor, causing next to zero air pollution. A liter (0.26 gallons) of water can reportedly generate some 96 megajoules of energy while a liter of gasoline produces only 29 MJ of energy.
The engineer, based in the city of Karaj west of Tehran, said in the video that the car could run on 60 liters of water and able to travel up to 900 km.
The hydrogen fuelcell works in the form of electrolysis when one applies a voltage to electrodes inside a closed tank of distilled water; the H2o molecules split into hydrogen and oxygen.
This system, dubbed HH0 Generator, which in theory should work, has its detractors not least for the high explosive nature of hydrogen in the space of an engine.
International Developments
The Iranian-designed water-driven engine is not the first to be created, with several designers across Asia and the US claiming to have developed the system over the past 20 years.
One developer in Pakistan, Agha Waqar Ahmed, claimed in 2012 to have developed the same system using distilled water.
Atta-ur-Rahman, a scientist and a former minister of science and technology, called for a scientific investigation of Ahmed’s car by top engineering universities when he appeared on Geo TV’s Capital Talk.
He told the host, Hamid Mir, that such inventions do not work and if they were to work, they would violate the law of conservation of energy.
Another tinkerer, Daniel Dingel of the Philippines, also claimed to have developed the same system in the 1980s. He said his system was fully operational in the 1990s and was using it to power a 1996 Toyota Corolla.
Alternative Power in Iran
Several engineering graduates in Iran have over the past decade claimed to have developed alternative forms of a car engine.
The largest car producer in the country, Iran Khodro Group, also entered the fray of alternative powertrains in 2015 when it signed a deal with LG Chem, the battery subsidiary of LG Electronics Group.
IKCO claimed to have developed batteries for future vehicles, although no information has been given since the deal was originally publicized.
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