Salt Water Fuel powers a Stirling engine

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Gear

its not impossible. this machine is supposedly releasing stored chemical energy in the salt water. meaning you just need to input enough energy to release it.
just like cars that use the spark plugs to release the chemical energy stored in gasoline.

correct me if i'm wrong

Conservation of energy is a physical law that says that energy can not be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.

While you are correct that a chemical reaction can seem like new energy is created you must think about the initial cost of the energy. In the case of the car gasoline, an amount of energy was put into the fuel to let you burn it. The drilling for crude, transportation, and refinement, should all be accounted for when discussion the efficiency of an energy source. But it is still the case that Ein will always be greater then Eout. The real challenge is to find processes which Ein ~= to Eout.

Looking at the microwave generator using salt water, it is a process which could be optimized because salt water is essentially free (if ocean salt water works) but I still want to see the power required in the microwave generator to produce "X" amount of heat. Until then the jury is still out on this technology.