AutoblogGreen

I'm thinking..."Didn't I already read about this?" Answer: Yes, on May 16th.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/05/16/purdue-professor-on-the-aluminum-enabling-hydrogen-economy/

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Yes, it's the same post, and the comments then are still appropriate now.

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It's the same basic idea, but if you read the Purdue press release, the news here is that they have found a way to significantly reduce the amount of gallium required, which allows more aluminium to be used, which means more hydrogen is produced. It's basically a much more economically viable method now, though the true energy life cycle cost when you include creating and recycling the aluminium might be a stumbling block.

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Reducing the amount of gallium in the process cuts costs from totally absurd to merely extravagant. Even if they eliminated the gallium, it still wouldn't be economically justified, and it would still be an extremely inefficient way to generate H2.

I'm certain Professor Woodall is smart enough to have figured out that it is too inefficient and it just won't fly on a cost basis, but figures he can get Purdue a big research grant from the government because it involves making "Hydrogen". Bush started a "hydrogen initiative", so that's what most of the DOT research grant money is going for.

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So it sounds like the alluminum-gallium cobination is the energy carrier. Did anybody find out what the energy density is and how often you would need to refill new alluminum-gallium material ? It would imply a infrastructure for "all-gall" refilling, right ?

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The researchers expect this to exceed the DOE's 6% energy density target with little difficulty. Bear with me, hopefully I'm not misunderstanding this energy density idea...

Assuming that it reaches this target, 1kg of the alloy would produce 60g of hydrogen. For something like the Honda FCX, which uses 5kg of hydrogen to travel 350 miles (thank you Wikipedia), you would need about 83kg of the alloy to provide an equivalent amount of hydrogen. That's kinda heavy, especially when you include the water. The actual paper gets presented on September 7, so hopefully some hard data comes out of that.

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Ask yourself a few questions about these limited resources.
Oil
Coal
Al
Li
Ga


How much is there in the world? How much of that can we get economically?

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=33255

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That is really funny. This process requires precious gallium and electricity-consuming aluminum. I really not sure of environmental and economic effect of this. Maybe for limited applications.

Anyway, there is a simpler and less expensive reaction that gives the same effect, it is known for ages:
Instead of using pure water, the solution of copper sulfate and salt in water needs to be used. This would destruct the aluminum oxide on the surface of aluminum and make the same reaction. I used this a lot of times as a hydrogen source. The reaction is very intensive and also produces a lot of heat that also can be utilized.
The copper sulfate is commonly found in the copper mines or can be made very easily from the copper mining byproducts.
Also, the other byproduct of the reaction is metallic copper that can be utilized to make high quality copper.

Anyway, the question of economic effect due to use of aluminum remains.

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I wholly trust eye-patched scientists.

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Okay, there are uses for this technology, though there are similar methods for producing hydrogen that have been in use for long periods of time. As a discovery, this will help fuel the popularity of hydrogen as an energy carrier and fuel cells as a source for electricity. It also helps us understand that there are many fuels and methods to produce the energy we could consume in our vehicles, yeeha!

A real "Invention" would be to find a catalyst that is not consumed in the process, even it a small electrical current were passed though it. The amount of hydrogen produced should greatly exceed the consumption necessary to produce the electrical current used in the process. Students, use the concept of replacing the aluminum with that catalyst, and go for it!

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autoclaved aerated concrete are made with the
same process (air bubble = hydrogen)
http://www.techniboard.com/

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wat is the reaction of gallium with water? can someone tell me coz im slightly confused:)

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Let me see if I can clear up Petunias confusion. The reaction mentioned here is not between Gallium and water, it is between Aluminum and water. Aluminum has a strong affinity for Oxygen, strong enough to pull it away from the Hydrogen in water. The reason we don't usually see it is that a thin layer of transparent aluminum oxide quickly forms on aluminum, acting as a barrier and protecting the metal underneath. If this coating gets scratched, oxygen in the air (or water) reacts with the aluminum to quickly re-form the oxide film.

Gallium is a metal with a melting point just above room temperature, and aluminum will dissolve in it. When water is added, the aluminum, without its oxide coat, reacts with H2O to form aluminum oxide and H2. Gallium does not react with water, it acts like a catalyst, breaking up the oxide film to help the aluminum/water reaction.

Interesting, but useless as a fuel as the economics don't add up. Few people would be willing to spend $1 per mile or $350 per fillup for fuel.

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