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It's potentially possible that extra hydrogen availability in a hot engine works to crack long chain hydrocarbons into lighter fractions, allowing cleaner more complete combustion. Achieving this reliably is somewhat troublesome. On older cars that run the alternator 100% all the time, you are essentially using wasted energy to generate a fuel that the motor can burn, just from that angle, you may see 5% gain. However on cars that modulate the alternator field according to load, you are not saving anything there.
Another potential benefit is that steam may be a better working fluid than CO2 and nitrogen, and by displacing more of those gases as a proportion in the combustion products, a stronger impulse is transmitted to the piston, through stronger thermal expansion. This is more likely to be of benefit in longer stroke engines and engines with delayed intake closing (think Atkinson cycle). This benefit may be capable of being realised with a simpler water injection system.
So maybe on the perfect vehicle for it, long stroke, late closing, alternator always running, the gains may be quite impressive. However on the flip side, vehicles with shorter strokes, earlier intake closing, and ECU modulated alternators, you may see nothing at all, or maybe worse MPG
Things that may enhance the effectiveness of this are fuel heat, engine metallurgical content, and mounting of the cell. Greater fuel heat may encourage fuel cracking by the excess hydrogen, this might be added heat, or built in, for example, some V6s have the fuel rail cooking nicely between the cylinder banks. Some metals are thought to catalyze hydrogen and steam cracking reactions, aluminum, nickel, platinum... however, alloy heads may be sufficiently oxidised not to provide a catalytic surface, and the area of nickel or platinum exposed on a spark plug is rather limited. Mounting of the cell may be a factor in efficiency also because vibration will dislodge gas bubbles more readily, allowing faster gas production, ergo mounting the cell to the body might not be as effective as mounting it to the motor somewhere.
As for electrolytes, one I think has intriguing possibilities is phosphoric acid, due to it's abilities at liberating and transporting hydrogen in fuel cells. Try flat coke (diet preferable I think, avoids the sugar making a sticky mess) or squirt some "naval jelly" rust killer in your solution.
Another factoid for anyone hoping to get over unity gain out of it (one can always hope) is that those cold fusion guys were using rainwater which is reputed to have had a high degree of boron in it... which is a neutron moderator, so it either improved the chemical efficiency of the cell beyond expectations, or it was moderating fast neutrons enough to allow a sustained fusion reaction.... (Not really wanting to start a debate on that in this thread, but thought it was very interesting that no-one seeking to replicate the results appeared to be using boron "contaminated" heavy water.) Who knows, maybe boron containing rainwater makes a hyperefficient electrolyte, just some fuel for the avid experimenter there.
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I remember The RoadWarrior..To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time..the world was powered by the black fuel & the desert sprouted great cities..Gone now, swept away..two mighty warrior tribes went to war & touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel, they were nothing..thundering machines sputtered & stopped..Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice
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Yes It CAN BE DONE WITH WATER
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