CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pellets made out of aluminum and gallium can produce pure hydrogen when water is poured on them, offering a possible alternative to gasoline-powered engines, U.S. scientists say.
Hydrogen is seen as the ultimate in clean fuels, especially for powering cars, because it emits only water when burned. U.S. President George W. Bush has proclaimed hydrogen to be the fuel of the future, but researchers have not decided what is the most efficient way to produce and store hydrogen.
In the experiment conducted at Purdue University in Indiana, "The hydrogen is generated on demand, so you only produce as much as you need when you need it," said Jerry Woodall, an engineering professor at Purdue who invented the system.
Woodall said in a statement the hydrogen would not have to be stored or transported, taking care of two stumbling blocks to generating hydrogen.
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example. Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005
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All these variations of alternatives and we still dont have a decisive path.....
UT OHHH...my cognitive conspiracy theory lobe is starting to act up....
Lets just say "Big Oil" wanted to bog down this whole alternative fuel process. What beter way then to hire some R&D guys to saturate the markets and minds with different choices.
All these variations will probably and up being endlessly debated....then the lawyers will step in
Does it sound that far fetched? "To me it sounds like typical Roveism"
-------------------- "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" Posts: 4005 | From: Shaolin | Registered: Oct 2005
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The Purdue Research Foundation holds title to the primary patent, which has been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is pending. An Indiana startup company, AlGalCo LLC., has received a license for the exclusive right to commercialize the process.
The research has been supported by the Energy Center at Purdue's Discovery Park, the university's hub for interdisciplinary research.
"This is exactly the kind of project that suits Discovery Park. It's exciting science that has great potential to be commercialized," said Jay Gore, associate dean of engineering for research, the Energy Center's interim director and the Vincent P. Reilly Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
Woodall discovered that liquid alloys of aluminum and gallium spontaneously produce hydrogen if mixed with water while he was working as a researcher in the semiconductor industry in 1967. The research, which focused on developing new semiconductors for computers and electronics, led to advances in optical-fiber communications and light-emitting diodes, making them practical for everything from DVD players to automotive dashboard displays. That work also led to development of advanced transistors for cell phones and components in solar cells powering space modules like those used on the Mars rover, earning Woodall the 2001 National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush.
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a little deeper research indicates it is extracted from bauxite, which Australia mines in great quantity..
maybe it isn't hard to get after all.. bauxite is mined for aluminum and gallium may in fact be nearly as "available" but in much lower concentrations then aluminum is in the ore...
it may just be that it's not been cost-effective to smelt it out. or whatever they do to extract it...
several plants worldwide have closed in the last five years due to bad cost benefit...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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the gallium extraction processes are listed as proprietary...
at one time not too long ago? aluminum was more valuable than gold... until the electric process was developed...
and? ALCOA stopped using electricity and began reselling it during the CA electicity crisis, cuz they had a fixed price delivery contract, and it was more profitable to resell the juice than it was to produce the aluminum...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by bdgee: Aluminum from bauxite isn't smelted. It uses massive amounts of electricity.
I was wondering when someone was going to bring that up.
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example. Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005
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It points to another way to side-step the storage problems of electricity via bateries.
Solar or wind to electricity to this process (or electrolysis) to hydrogen it some sort of engine (maybe mobile).
(I like the posibilities of using electricity to pump water to higher levels with solar electricity, then when it isn't available, use the liquid head to generate electricity, particularly for small self contained systems.)
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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"Elemental gallium is not found in nature, but it is easily obtained by smelting."
"Gallium does not exist in free form in nature, nor do any high-gallium minerals exist to serve as a primary source of extraction of the element or its compounds. Gallium is found and extracted as a trace component in bauxite, coal, diaspore, germanite, and sphalerite. The United States Geological Survey (USGC) estimates gallium reserves based on 50 ppm by weight concentration in known reserves of bauxite and zinc ores. Some flue dusts from burning coal have been shown to contain as much as 1.5 percent gallium.
Most gallium is extracted from the crude aluminium hydroxide solution of the Bayer process for producing alumina and aluminum. A mercury cell electrolysis and hydrolysis of the amalgam with sodium hydroxide leads to sodium gallate. Electrolysis then gives gallium metal. For semiconductor use, further purification is carried out using zone melting, or else single crystal extraction from a melt (Czochralski process). Purities of 99.9999% are routinely achieved and commercially widely available.
As of 2006, the current price for 1 kg gallium of 99.9999% purity seems to be at about 400 US$."
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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