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Comment by nitrogen | Hacker News Reader

I've wondered if a similar process could produce "dehydrated water". Powdered water that could be liberated by adding a small amount of some catalyst could be better for transportation since it wouldn't slosh around in a storage tank.

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There is a solid substance from which water can be liberated after transportation. Unfortunately, you need to keep it quite cold to prevent premature liberation of the water.

...No you can't really make something like that where you end up with pure water and the catalyst but you could in theory just transport a hydrated salt and get the water out later but it just doesn't make sense to do that instead of just transporting the water. Also, pretty much any time you're transporting water, it being a liquid is beneficial. To prevent a ton of sloshing all you need is some baffles.

Cucumber is 95% water. Would that do?

Kittens are mostly water, and they even transport themselves. Just lead them where you want with a spoonful of tuna, then put them in a blender, and voila!

What ? Are you serious or is this some kind of joke that I'm missing.

"dehydrated water" !!

Presumably it would be delivered in tablet form, to which you could just add water to dissolve it.

I see you ignored the second sentence of the post. Try reading it, it answers your question.

No, it just states a scientific sounding premise for the idea, but it doesn't make the concept any less absurd.

The idea of trapping water is not absurd. The name is intentionally absurd as a joke. The joke name is explicitly overruled by the description. All you need is a chemical that holds water in some manner and releases it in the presence of a catalyst. How is that concept absurd?

Hydrous compounds have existed for ever, but that doesn't mean they're "dry water."

"dry water" is far from absurd...

http://www.google.com/patents/US4008170

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080903/full/news.2008.1077.h...

How do those support "dry water"? Your second link is broken. The first discusses silica powder that absorbs water.

Reminds me of this: http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

It's a joke product sold as an empty can by some emergency supply stores for April Fools or white elephant gifts. But, that never stopped anybody from wondering how to make it real.

http://www.bernardfoods.com/foodservice/beverages/images/deh...

Probably the most efficient way would be something you could burn to yield water, like a hydrocarbon or carbohydrate, if you had to liberate the water by chemical process. Or you could use something to contain the water in a solid structure, like a sponge or plant tissue. None of these options makes a lick of sense to simply accomplish transportation of water.

I'm pretty sure that if you could add water to something other than water to get more water than you had before, that would violate the law of conservation of matter.

I remember an experiment where the result of a chemical reaction between two substances had a lower volume than the sum of the original substances. The weight of the resulting compound is the same, but the new bonds keep the particles closer together.

You don't even need a reaction for that. Mix a liter of water with a liter of ethanol.

If you add water to Magnesium Chloride Hexahydrate (a powder at room temperature), you get more water than you had before... This will work with any hydrated salt...

For instance, dissolve 150 grams of fully hydrated magnesium chloride in 100mL of water, and you will end up with 185mL of water.

Polywater...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywater

Your username makes me think you're trolling. Are you asking a genuine question or messing around?

Why am I getting downvotes for asking a perfectly reasonable question? It always happens here.

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