For lots of people, especially for the poor, the fresh water is hard to obtain. In some areas of the planet, especially in the arid zones and deserts, the drinking water is almost impossible to find or obtain from natural resources. Knowing that 20% of Earth’s population is facing the water shortage we should know how to make water from Hydrogen and Oxygen and what’s the price of doing it.

How To Make Water From Hydrogen And Oxygen

Before we even start asking how to make water we need to know what is needed to make the water.

To make water we need to have the two constituents of water – hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen is an important part of our atmosphere (20%) it is more abundant as oxides in our planet’s crust (about half of it). Hydrogen is the most abundant substance in our universe (approx. 75% of universe’s mass) and the third most abundant on our planet. Hydrogen can be found in many chemical compounds and mostly as water and hydrocarbons.

Oxygen can be obtained by passing dry air through a pair of zeolite molecular sieves and some new non-cryogenic technologies called vacuum swing absorption. Also Oxygen is extracted from our atmosphere through fractional distillation of liquefied air. In laboratory Oxygen is prepared through different reactions such as Hydrogen Peroxide with Magnesium Oxide or Chlorine Bleach.

Hydrogen can be produced on site through the steam reforming of natural gas, and in laboratory with metal-acid reactions.

Hydrogen and Oxygen can be obtained also through water electrolysis which requires large amounts of energy. Using water as a source of our ingredients for making water would be pointless.

Let’s see now how to make water from Hydrogen and Oxygen

Hydrogen is not very reactive but it makes compounds with almost all the elements. Oxygen is highly reactive and oxidizing agent and forms quickly oxides. Putting these two gases together nothing happens. Hydrogen and Oxygen don’t react unless there is an external energy input. A little spark or even less like a pressure change triggers the reaction of turning them into water. The reaction between Hydrogen and Oxygen generates heat which trigger more Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms to combine, making water. This chain reaction is very fast and violent.

As you can see, how to make water from Hydrogen and Oxygen is simple. The problem arises in the process of containing the reaction. A very small amount of these gases can throw a huge blast. From this exothermic reaction results hot water vapors which need to cool down and condense to take the liquid form.

On a larger scale, to create such a reaction to produce water to sustain all population needs would be very dangerous.