Could Akron recover a pound of water for every pound of fuel?

Could Akron recover one pound of water for every pound of fuel it burned?

No. The system recovered useful ballast water, but it did not achieve a pound-for-pound replacement.

A pound-for-pound replacement of burned fuel with recovered water is rejected as unrealistic. Akron could collect water from combustion exhaust and, to some extent, condensation from the surrounding air. Those sources reduced the buoyancy change as fuel disappeared, but the system fell short of its design goal. The distinction matters because an imperfect recovery system still conserved helium without closing the entire weight balance.