Hydrogen fuel injectors could signal early debut of hydrogen powered cars

• Local entrepreneur Bob Squires is ready to start selling a product developed by a small company out of Blackfoot, Idaho, that he says is guaranteed to increase the fuel efficiency of a car by at least 15 percent -- and possibly as high as 80 percent -- by burning hydrogen in addition to gasoline.
• 'Just because you can afford a Hummer doesn't mean you have to spend so much more in gas,' Squires said of the HydroGen 1000, a car-battery sized product that generates hydrogen from water and then adds the hydrogen to a car's air-intake to burn gasoline more efficiently.
• Squires, a sales representative for Hydrogen Innovations, the creator of the HydroGen system, is excited about the product.
• But at least one local scientist is skeptical.
• 'You won't gain any net energy by injecting hydrogen into the air-intake,' said Michael Jensen, a professor of mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
• 'You are going to charge the car battery with standard electricity from the alternator.
• Yes, the hydrogen will burn, but you still have this whole inefficiency.
• I don't see how it benefits the system at all.'
• Hydrogen Innovations Vice President Paul Arnette said the electrolyte used in the HydroGen 1000 is a different chemical formula than has been used in the past.
• This one could create between 15 and 24 liters of hydrogen per minute.
• Hydrogen Innovations is selling the Hydrogen 1000 for $1,250 including installation.
• Contact Hydrogen Innovations at (208) 782-1180 for more information or e-mail burnh20fuel@yahoo.com to schedule an installation in New York.