New Scientist: A fuel tank full of water
New Scientist Premium- A fuel tank full of water:
Forget cars fuelled by alcohol and vegetable oil. Before long, you might be able to run your car with nothing more than water in its fuel tank. It would be the ultimate zero-emissions vehicle.
While water, plain old H2O, is not at first sight an obvious power source, it has a key virtue: it is an abundant source of hydrogen, the element widely touted as the green fuel of the future. If that hydrogen could be liberated on demand, it would overcome many of the obstacles that till now have prevented the dream of a hydrogen-powered car becoming reality. Producing hydrogen by conventional industrial means is expensive, inefficient and often polluting. Then there are the problems of storing and transporting hydrogen. The pressure tanks required to hold usable quantities of the fuel are heavy and cumbersome, which restricts the car’s performance and range.
I could not read any more of the article online as I do not subscribe. There is a synopsis of the article at Platinum Today. It turns out that the reaction between water and boron would release hydrogen and have a by-product of boron oxide. The boron oxide could then later be converted back.