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Originally Posted by Nos4r2
The product of a reaction (unless it's had heat input in certain conditions) will always be less reactive at room temperature than the component parts.
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I don't think you mean reactive there - since reactive is a "relative" term it depends what it is reacting with - e.g. hydrogen + oxygen --> water . But water is more reactive with some things (e.g. sodium) than either hydrogen or oxygen.
I guess what you were suggesting was that the product of a reaction will have a lower free energy/heat of formation than the reactants. That is not always the case - as you refer to yourself, endothermic reactions result in products with higher heat of formation than the reagents. Indeed a catalyst would be particularly helpful in sustaining such a reaction without heating.
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All a catalyst will do is to reduce the amount of energy needed for that reaction to take place.
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agreed
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Ergo, all this device can produce (unless it's the catalyst in a fairly rapid endothermic reaction) is a fuel with less energy...
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even if that were the case it doesn't mean that the catalyst is not having an effect on the fuel or even (potentially) that the modified fuel is more efficient. As an example, if the modified fuel has 2% less energy but is >2% more effective at releasing that energy in a controlled way then you gain efficiency. Although they don't explicitily say so on their website it sounds like they are implying an increase in octane value, if that results in more controlled combustion it is not implausible that you actually get more energy out (bear in mind that in normal combustion there are unburnt hydrocarbons and CO (which can be combusted to CO2) coming out the exhaust - if you can effeciently burn them in the cylinder you can get more energy out.