Salt Water Fuel

By Shannon Ogden First Coast News

SANIBEL ISLAND, FL -- Observing a bright blue flame, John Kanzius claims that it is salt water and salt water alone that is burning inside a test tube.

First Coast News introduced you to Kanzius in May. The 62-year-old retired broadcast executive developed a promising cancer treatment in his Florida garage using radio waves to kill cancerous cells.

But something funny happened on the way to his cure for cancer. During his garage experiments Kanzius says he ignited plain old salt water with the same radio wave generator he was using in his cancer treatment.

"This is the most abundant element in the world, water. Salt water is everywhere. And to see it burn actually gives me chills," Kanzius says.

Kanzius gave technicians at a Pennsylvania machine manufacturer a demonstration of his discovery.

"We saw it go up to 1500 degrees centigrade. That temperature, that's incredible," exclaims a lab technician.

Kanzius has now partnered with that company to develop the process.

In a recent demonstration at the company's headquarters, a Stirling engine is powered by the salt water flame.

"That could be a steam engine, steam turbine, could be a car engine if you wanted it to be," says Kanzius.

What is causing the salt water to burn? Kanzius is careful not to answer too many questions while the patent is pending. But he will say that the radio waves force together the normally separated hydrogen and oxygen in the water - a process called "reunification." And that makes the flame.

There are plenty who think the notion of salt water as fuel is all wet.

The skeptics who will agree that it is possible to burn salt water - and there are plenty who won't even go that far - argue that at best the energy required to burn it would be greater than the energy produced by burning it.

Kanzius admits that is the case now in this very early stage of development.

But he add that he never claimed this would replace oil. In fact, he says only that his discovery is "thought provoking."

Remember, this was nothing but a fascinating accident in his search for a cancer cure.

But since water does cover two-thirds of our planet and 97 percent of that is salt water, there won't be much argument that even the remote possibility that salt water could be used as fuel makes this fascinating accident worth pursuing.

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