A cancer researcher stumbles upon a way to set saltwater aflame. Neat trick, but is his discovery useful?
By Michael Stroh Posted 11.13.2007 at 2:00 am 9 Comments

by Kevin Hand Kevin Hand


Last winter, inventor John Kanzius was already attempting one seemingly impossible feat-building a machine to cure cancer with radio waves-when his device inadvertently succeeded in another: He made saltwater catch fire. TV footage of his bizarre discovery (check out the video below) has been burning up the blogosphere ever since, drawing crackpots and Ph.D.s alike into a raging debate. Can water burn? And if so, what good can come of it?

Some people gush over the invention's potential for desalinization or cheap energy. Briny seawater, after all, sloshes over most of the planet's surface, and harnessing its heat energy could power all sorts of things. Skeptics say Kanzius's radio generator is sucking up far more energy than it's creating, making it a carnival trick at best.

For now, Kanzius is tuning out the hubbub. The retired radio- and television- station owner says the saltwater stuff is interesting, but a cancer breakthrough is what he's really after. Diagnosed with leukemia in 2002, he began building his radio-wave blaster the next year, soon after a relapse. His lifelong fascination with radio provided further inspiration. Radio station antennas, he knew, can turn a bystander's metal eyeglasses toasty warm. If he could seed a person's cancerous cells with nanoscopic metal particles and blast them with radio waves, perhaps he could kill off the cancer while sparing healthy tissue.

The saltwater phenomenon happened by accident when an assistant was bombarding a saline-filled test tube with radio waves and bumped the tube, causing a small flash. Curious, Kanzius struck a match. "The water lit like a propane flame," he recalls.

"People said, 'It's a crock. Look for hidden electrodes in the water,' " says Penn State University materials scientist Rustum Roy, who visited the Erie, Pennsylvania, inventor in his lab in August after seeing the feat on Google Video. A demo made Roy a believer. "This is discovery science in the best tradition," he says.
Roy thinks the sodium chloride in the water may weaken the bonds between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms, which are broken free by radio waves. It's these gas molecules that are igniting, he explains, not the liquid itself. Tests show that the reaction disappears once the radio waves stop. Roy plans to conduct more tests to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Meanwhile, researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have made progress using Kanzius's technology to fight cancer in animals. They published their findings last month in the journal Cancer.

How to Burn Saltwater as Fuel

Inventor John Kanzius managed to burn saltwater to generate power. Here's how:




1. A generator emits 14-megahertz radio waves.

2 . The waves bombard a solution of regular table salt and water.

3. Exactly what happens next remains a mystery, but one theory posits that the sodium chloride may weaken the bonds between the strong>oxygen and hydrogen atoms in water. Radio waves break apart the bonds and liberate flammable hydrogen gas molecules.

4. A match ignites the hydrogen, generating an intense flame.

5. The resulting heat powers a simple engine.


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9 Comments

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Zander Boon
06/11/08 at 9:36 am

Hi,

In fact, you can build an "under the hood" system that releases hydrogen and oxygen from water and feeds it into an internal combustion engine. A lot of people are using them right now. I reviewed a few of the systems here Run Your Car On Water

Best Wishes,
Zander

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Gary Perkin
06/25/08 at 5:07 am

Hi,

I also found this article on the same subject - interesting stuff!

Water Powered Car

Gary.

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raho
08/09/08 at 10:33 am

Radio waves induce current in conductors.
Salt water is a conductor.
Current in salt water electrolyzes water emitting oxygen and hydrogen.
Oxygen and hydrogen then burn.
It is not that complex.

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chillinbeachside
11/26/08 at 11:05 am

What my question is: can this new-found tech be used to possibly power an engine? An engine possibly powerful enough to say... power a car? This may be a bigger discovery than origionaly thought. Salt water is the most plentiful (and tangible) natural resource on this planet...just a thought...

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eraseram
04/23/09 at 1:30 am

Hello, I just want to know who is continuing his work or has it been bought by big oil companies. All we need is a line of sea water coming to our home & with a wave generator we can create fire that will turn a generator for electricity for our homes( no more electric bill) heat our homes ( no more gas bills) & we can also process our water with softeners & rO's (no more water bills!) stop screwing the hard working americans & let us know how it actually works. I'll pump the water myself if they cant figure out how to pump it.

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Elly
04/27/09 at 12:01 am

I wanna ask you people something, this fuel (I mean fuel from pure water) taking affect to car with carburetor system..? I'm from Indonesia, here in this country still running car with carburetor system.. You know that this car (with carburetor system) didn't have lean mixture control, not like car with electronic fuel system.

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dan winter
06/15/09 at 10:19 am

here is how kanzius frequency is calculated
how it works, and why it is bioactive

www.goldenmean.info/goldenproof

Dan Winter- publishes his new mathematic 'golden' proof: - How Golden Ratio (Phase Conjugate / Fractality) Causes Gravity
GOLDEN RATIO radii of HYDROGEN - actually are a PERFECT MULTIPLE of GOLDEN RATIO times the PLANCK LENGTH. There could be no other explanation than it is this GOLDEN RATIO - that holds these waves of charge together! (ultimate global scaling)
- Producing the electrical centripedal force - called GRAVITY!

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seogoogle
07/23/09 at 6:56 am

why? when there are so many other choices.......still land will be destroyed to get the coal , people die mining it, water is polluted from mining......land is taken from people to get at it.......wake up people!! we are smarter than this most things we truly need are above ground just a little blessing from the universe and god!!!!!! Why do we feel the need too waste time.lives and money tearing things apart to find our answers....the world was designed perfectly , we have the sun , wind & water to obtain energy we can create hydrogen gas from water and as an added bonus we keep the beautiful mountains to visit with our children. Why do we cling to our destructive ways when we have better cleaner answers- this bs spreads money too thin and holds back real progress- sooner or later there will be no coal for anyone this is already known why not pretend this is so now and move on to better things ?
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Lucoss Li
09/24/09 at 1:37 am

Radio station antennas, he because, can turn a toasty warm bystander's metal eyeglasses. I would like to know what the role of metallic glasses http://www.firmoo.com/



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