Professor Theodosios Alexander (publishes as T. Korakianitis) was interviewed on June 25th by Reuters on sustainable transportation fuels.

A Japanese company claims to have developed a car that runs on water alone. Professor Alexander informed Reuters that, as all QMUL first year engineering students of thermodynamics know, water itself is not a fuel, as its thermodynamic availability (exergy) is zero.

Transportation is a very special segment of the energy market that demands high power density from fuels and engines. As a result, second-generation biofuels (derived from non-edible biomass) are one promising air, sea and land transportation fuel of the future. For smaller segments of the transportation market, such as automotive use for local travel, electric or hybrid electric vehicles are also a sensible long-term solution under certain conditions. Hydrogen serves an even smaller segment of this market, provided it can be produced from electrolysis of water in which ALL the electricity used to produce hydrogen comes from renewable energy sources (such as wind turbines) and provided the car's travel cycle is small so it can carry the volume and mass of the hydrogen plus its storage container along for the trip. Thus second-generation biofuels, renewable electricity, and hydrogen derived from renewable electricity, in that order, are the future sustainable transportation fuels.