Biotech Values

[iwfal]

The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.

...

The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery.

This is story that makes no sense from physics 101 sense. This is an amusing experiment - but clearly the water is not fuel.

The whole point of "fuel" is to store energy in a convenient form (for storage and subsequent liberation). Per their own description the energy here comes from the burning hydrogen - and the energy to liberate the hydrogen from the oxygen almost certainly comes from the rf energy (there is no mention of strange byproducts indicating some kind of salt reaction or other energy sources). And the energy for the rf comes from ... . Not the water, obviously (see Perpetual Motion - Impossibility Of).

So the water isn't fuel.

BTW - Some others have suggested applications for this technique. Maybe valid (but not my domain). But fuel is pretty unlikely.