Given the inexorable rise in gas prices of late, water as fuel for cars is getting a closer inspection by many people. Despite what the name might suggest, an engine that runs on water wouldn't really be running on the water itself, but instead extracting the hydrogen gas from the water to be used as fuel. By using certain specialized equipment, the hydrogen can be separated from the oxygen in water and injected into the car's fuel lines.

There are two common methods for obtaining automobile fuel from water. One type uses hydrogen gas as a complement to your car's engine performance (which is powered by petroleum gas). The second typed is fueled by hydrogen gas which is produced either on or off the vehicle.

A hybrid hydrogen gas fueling system lessens the amount of gasoline used by your car by largely extending how many miles you get to the gallon and by also reducing the emissions coming from your car as hydrogen gas is clean burning and has absolutely no emissions. The hydorgen gas is effectively an additive to get better economy out of the fuel that you are currently using. If used only with oxygen, hydrogen emissions are nothing but water vapor.

Kits for converting to water as fuel for cars range in price from less than a hundred dollars for plans to build your own system using easy to find parts from auto parts and hardware stores, to kits costing several thousand dollars that include everything needed to convert your vehicle. True water as fuel for cars systems convert your vehicle to one hundred percent hydrogen fuel. This type of system is the most expensive and complicated to install but when you are done your visits to the gas station are over. Using much larger water holding tanks, or fuel cells with internal hydrogen processing equipment, these systems typically require much more room in the vehicle to install.

If you are fortunate enough to live near a hydrogen producing plant or fueling station you can opt for a system that has an on board storage tank for the hydrogen gas itself. Using this method lets the plant or fueling station convert the water to fuel for you thereby doing away with the need for the on board hydrogen extraction equipment.

Vehicle manufacturers such as Honda and BMW are designing their new model vehicles with a view to using built-in tanks to store water as fuel for cars. Given the present lack of availability of hydrogen fueling stations, major automobile manufacturers will be constrained to offer only hydrogen/gasoline hybrid systems. The engines that will be used in these cars will be modified version of the same manufacturers' gasoline engines and this modification will give optimum performance.

Water as fuel for cars technology is considered safe and has been used in various programs for more than one hundred years, including the space program. Although it is not water that is the fuel but the hydrogen gas that is created from water. It is more stable than gas-powered engines and has had very few major adjustments over the years. This will change as people look for new alternatives to increasing gas prices. It may be some time before using water as fuel in your vehicle will be commonplace but the technology exists and will improve in the near future.