A Dumagueteño who invented an alternative source of energy called the Water Fuel Conversion System is hoping that the government will use his invention to address high cost of fuel importation and possible depletion of fossil fuels in the Middle East due to increased demand from developing countries.

Antonio Teves, 87, exhibited his invention, which uses 70 percent water and 30 percent fuel as alternative energy in running power plants during the trade fair of the Visayas Area Business conference in Dumaguete.

Teves said the invention was conceived before the war in 1940 while he was working as a chemist at the Central Azucarera de Bais paper division. He went to the United States where he perfected the prototype and in 1996, got a patent for his invention and another patent the following year in the Philippines.

With the use of his invention, ordinary water will be separated into hydrogen and oxygen, the former to replace the gasoline or diesel fuel.

Teves projected a P3 billion savings for the government with the use of the Water Fuel Conversion System.

The invention, he added, will not go to waste because the National Power Corporation-Small Plant Unit Group diesel power plant in Pilar, Cebu has already installed it and the plant had been operating for two years.

In Siquijor, the system is undergoing final testing for use by the electric cooperative there.

Teves is expected to assist in the installation of the system in all of the 236 engines of NAPOCOR throughout the country.

He said he believed it is high time that government starts to use alternative fuels like hydrogen to prepare for any fuel crisis in the future.*

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