Can You Generate Electricity from Sea Water?

Is it possible to burn sea water? Is it possible to generate electricity from sea water? While the answer to first question is "no", it is possible to generate electricity from sea water or salt water.

Sea water is a good conductor of electricity, unlike distilled water, due to presence of salts such as sodium chloride. If you subject this sea water to radio waves having frequency of about 14 MHz, it is seen that water dissociates into hydrogen and flammable hydrogen atoms which get released into atmosphere. This flammable hydrogen gas can be ignited in presence of oxygen, which is a good supporter of combustion, thereby generating considerable heat.

This heat energy can be converted into mechanical energy by using heat engines such as Stirling engine or produce steam from fresh water to drive a steam turbine. These heat engines can then be used as prime-movers to drive an AC generator, which can generate electricity.

As the sea water is burned in this way, the by-product is salt. The combustion is clean as no carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide is released. Thus the electricity produced is clean and green energy, besides there is abundance of supply of sea water. But the only drawback seems to be it may not be economically viable, as the energy input (for generating radio waves) is considerably greater than energy output i.e. the electricity produced by the generator.