According to the laws of thermodynamics, more energy is required to split a molecule of water into its component hydrogen and oxygen molecules by electrolysis than is obtained through the combustion of hydrogen in oxygen to form water. This basically means that we use more energy to liberate hydrogen and oxygen from water by electrolysis than what we get out of combining hydrogen with oxygen as the hydrogen burns, like in a combustion engine.
This is true. We can't use electrolysis directly on water and get more energy out of the system compared to what we put in. Does this mean that the claims made by people who say that they drive around in cars that run on tap water are false?
No. This is like saying that it is impossible for plants to split water (taken up by their roots) by photosynthetic reactions into oxygen and hydrogen. In plants, the liberated hydrogen and oxygen atoms go to make carbohydrates, amino acids, fats, lipids, carbon dioxide and as the pure oxygen released into the air for animals to breathe. The plants use diffuse sunlight in chlorophyll molecules with pulsed electron transfer to power the splitting of water molecules. It is this mechanism that overcomes the energy barrier of the disassociation reaction of water by lowering the activation energy.
In the case of the hydrogen/oxygen generator in a car using tap water as fuel, the energy barrier is overcome by precisely controlled high frequency electronic pulses. It is this pulsed nature of the hydrogen generator coupled with magnetism that is at the heart of the car system.
Each pulse is timed so that immediately after a magnetic field is reversed, another pulse is delivered, which then collapses the field. But the added energy makes the magnetic field stronger. This continues to saturation point when water molecules are forced to disassociate into hydrogen and oxygen. It is the combination of the pulses and the magnetic field alignments that lowers the activation energy of the disassociation reaction.
So now you know what to say to skeptics about running your car on tap water. Yes, the bonding energy between hydrogen and oxygen atoms in a water molecule is naturally large, but as simple plants with chlorophyll in their tissues have been doing for hundreds of millions of years, all it takes is pulsed resonance reactions to lower the activation energy of the disassociation reactions.
The system works very well, as over 50,000 drivers in the US who run their vehicles on water will testify. You can't buy the system off the shelf - the powers-that-be won't let you due to government revenue reasons. However, if you're into DIY it's quite easy to convert your car or truck to run on water.
And the money you'll save will quickly pay for the system - not that it costs much in the first place.
