McQ passes something interesting:
Look like a bit of a breakthrough at Purdue:
Researchers at Purdue University have further developed a technology that could represent a pollution-free energy source for a range of potential applications, from golf carts to submarines and cars to emergency portable generators.
The technology produces hydrogen by adding water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium. When water is added to the alloy, the aluminum splits water by attracting oxygen, liberating hydrogen in the process. The Purdue researchers are developing a method to create particles of the alloy that could be placed in a tank to react with water and produce hydrogen on demand.
The gallium is a critical component because it hinders the formation of an aluminum oxide skin normally created on aluminum’s surface after bonding with oxygen, a process called oxidation. This skin usually acts as a barrier and prevents oxygen from reacting with aluminum. Reducing the skin’s protective properties allows the reaction to continue until all of the aluminum is used to generate hydrogen, said Jerry Woodall, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue who invented the process.
The alloy is 80% aluminum and 20% gallium. The importance of this is it can produce hydrogen on demand thus eliminating the necessity to store and transport it.
The gallium component is inert, which means it can be recovered and reused.
“This is especially important because of the currently much higher cost of gallium compared with aluminum,” Woodall said. “Because gallium can be recovered, this makes the process economically viable and more attractive for large-scale use. Also, since the gallium can be of low purity, the cost of impure gallium is ultimately expected to be many times lower than the high-purity gallium used in the electronics industry.”
As the alloy reacts with water, the aluminum turns into aluminum oxide, also called alumina, which can be recycled back into aluminum. The recycled aluminum would be less expensive than mining the metal, making the technology more competitive with other forms of energy production, Woodall said.
Applications?”
In the meantime, there are other promising potential markets, including lawn mowers and personal motor vehicles such as golf carts and wheelchairs,” Woodall said. “The golf cart of the future, three or four years from now, will have an aluminum-gallium alloy. You will add water to generate hydrogen either for an internal combustion engine or to operate a fuel cell that recharges a battery. The battery will then power an electric motor to drive the golf cart.”
Another application that is rapidly being developed is for emergency portable generators that will use hydrogen to run a small internal combustion engine. The generators are likely to be on the market within a year, Woodall said
In essence, he’s talking about hydrogen on demand.
It strikes me as interesting technology, albeit a problematic one. The gallium, for example; what happens to that? Gallium if I recall correctly is a carcinogen and a heavy metal. Does anyone think that’s not going to be labeled a major environmental issue in ten years?
Also, aluminum and its manufacturing process is rather power intensive. The subject of the net savings of energy thereby would seem problematic.
Even absent those issues, and as pure as the exhaust from burning hydrogen is, it still gives off heat. Which still leaves us with the global warming fanatics. There going to tell us we’re still killing the planet because we’re giving off heat. No matter how clean it is, we should not anticipate that the Enviro-nazis are going to sign on to this, because for them to do so, mandates their stranglehold on what other people do. That, and not “saving the planet” is all the “environmental movement” was ever about.
Still, all this, if viable, would seem to remove the need for a hydrogen station on every corner, and that’s always been a major stumbler for hydrogen cars.
Tags: BitsBlog, Technology
