Scientist invents water-fuelled generator

The breaking news has received different reactions from local scientists.

The Ho Chi Minh City High-tech Park, where Khe works, will organize a conference on March 9 to clarify questions from local scientists, assess the research, and reveal technical details of the machines.

While revealing further information about the machines that have been sent to the international exhibition on renewable energy, the Tokyo Big Sight Harumi, Khe said briefly that hydrogen is split from water as a fuel for the machine by catalyst material before hydrogen is burned to generate energy.

“The main fuel of the machine is water that is interacted with a catalyst, a kind of nanomaterial, through endogenous reactions to split out hydrogen before it is burned to generate energy to charge the battery of the machine,” Khe explained. “The nanomaterial is produced from rice, flour and other chemicals.

“This process requires no exterior source of energy because nano technology has huge endogenous energy.

“Besides water and the catalyst, the machine is equipped with a battery that is produced by ourselves from cheap materials that are totally friendly with the environment,” he added.

One of the machines has a 2,000W capacity, which is enough to provide electricity to a household, Khe added. Many international and domestic firms have contacted him to order the machines.

However, Khe has yet to announce when the technology will be brought to mass production for commercial purposes.

“We started the studies long ago. In 2006, we created the first machine to produce a small electricity output of 0.1 miliwatt to light up a LED light. By the end of last year, we successfully invented a machine of 2,000W,” Khe told Tuoi Tre.

“We have in hand a machine of 2,000W and another of 2,400W. We are building a third one,” Khe confirmed.

Khe refused to reveal further details of his invention as it is a ‘technological secret”.

The kind of nanomaterial was actually invented by two Russian scientists, Andrei Konstantinovich Geim and Konstatin Sergeevich Novoselov, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010.

“However, they could synthesize only 1mg, while we could make 100 gram,” Khe said. “After reactions with hydrogen, the nanomaterial becomes non-toxic waste and will be taken back by our agents for recycle.”

According to Khe, he will consider organizing mass production of the machines in the future.

“Now, I have sent a machine of 2,400W to Japan for assessment. After getting licensed, I will produce similar 200 machines for sales to Japan. In the future, we will study the production of another machine for generating electricity and filtering water for soldiers in the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago of Vietnam,” Khe said.

Though expressing interest towards the invention, other scientists have raised doubt about the feasibility of mass production of the invention.

The catalyst used for reaction with water to separate hydrogen is expensive and non-economical for mass production, according to Dr Hoang Dung – chief of the technology department of the Ho Chi Minh City National University.

Dung said he will consult with Khe for more information about the principle and efficiency of the machine, as the invention was actually researched a while ago but has proved non-efficient.

Trinh Quang Dung, chief of the solar power technology unit of the HCMC Physics Institute, added that other countries have studied the idea of running a machine with water, but none were successful.