A New Way To Produce Hydrogen

Iddo Genuth writes "Scientists at Pennsylvania State University and Virginia Commonwealth University are producing hydrogen by exposing clusters of aluminum atoms to water. Rather than relying on the electronic properties of the aluminum, this new process depends on the geometric distribution of atoms within the clusters. It requires the presence of 'Lewis acids' and 'Lewis bases' in those atoms (water can act as either). Unlike most hydrogen production processes, this method can be used at room temperature and doesn't require the application of heat or electricity to work. The researchers experimented with a variety of different aluminum cluster patterns, discovering three that result in hydrogen production."

Comments

Re:Aw jeez, hydrogen AGAIN?

[rolfwind]

Hydrogen is over before it even begun. It's less efficient than electric by any measure, and if you're betting on a big breakthrough (this isn't it) then the smart money is on capacitors (powered by wind, wave, solar, geothermal), not some magic leap forward in hydrogen production or fuel cell construction. At this point, it really is an academic proposition.

Electricity needs a storage medium. Batteries are not there yet. Capacitors may never be there.

For large scale energy storage, pumping water up against gravity is a good thing. A dam of some type. Hydrogen can be good for small scale things.

I think steam electrolysis of hydrogen will be a good way to go. All you need is a mirrored parabolic dish. No earth-made energy to use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_electrolysis

Re:Al poduction consumes lots of energy

[rdnetto]

I probably shouldn't expect this, but RTFA!
They're not producing Al2O3, they're producing something similar to AL(OH)3. I say similar because they're using clusters of Al, not atoms/ions. It seems to me that simply adding a strong acid would revert these back to AL(H2O)3, resulting in the evolution of more H2, but I'm sure that's been considered already...

Re:Al poduction consumes lots of energy

[Ex-MislTech]

Agreed, I like this method better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_hydrogen_production

Not news

[Tweenk]

Come on. You can generate hydrogen by dumping aluminium foil in either sodium hydroxide (cheap plumbing cleaner) or in water containing minute amounts of HgCl2 acting as a catalyst. This is elementary and was known for decades. Those guys just found out that if they use insanely fine aluminium powder they don't need sodium hydroxide or mercuric chloride anymore. But this gets us nowhere, as we still need the aluminium, and making this insanely fine powder isn't free (both financially and energetically). The immediate practical value of this work in the field of energy storage is near zero. The only thing going for it is that the authors know how to generate interest.

Re:Why?

[rcw-home]

Whilst you could sweat it out in a baking hot car, you can't drive with misted up or frozen wind shield. Heating and cooling both use huge amounts of power

That's very true. I don't see a way to address this without using up battery power that could have driven the car several miles further. However, I do see ways to reduce its effect:

• Heating via heat pump - this can be 4x more efficient than resistive heat, and a heat pump designed to be operated in reverse can do your A/C too.
• Continuous dehumidification - perhaps using power from a small solar panel to run a small dehumidifier which drains outside, or reheating some silica gel when the car is plugged into the grid (again, venting the moisture outside). Lowering the wet bulb temperature inside the car reduces the need to use heat to unfog windows.
• Double-paned windows - these would be bulkier and more expensive to produce, but you could quickly heat just the insides of them. They would also be much quieter.
• Heated seats - directly heat the passengers' cores instead of everything else in the car.

Re:Recycling aluminum

[mangu]

First of all there is not such thing as 100% ethanol vehicle

First of all, I just recently bought a car that runs on 100% ethanol, a Brazilian 2009 Peugeot 207.

Brazil is not 100% ethanol. The entire country is not converted. More like 50%.

You can travel through 100% of the country driving a car that runs on 100% ethanol. This has been true for the last 30 years.

Ethanol has caused the price of corn to double in South American countries from one cent to two cents causing riots and you can't burn a food crop that you have to use to feed people.

Brazilian ethanol is obtained from sugarcane. Sugarcane does not produce food. It can produce either sugar or brandy, when it's not used for fuel.

There are more hydrogen powered vehicles on the road today than say, electric vehicles.

How many cars total are actually running? There are a few million 100% ethanol cars in Brazil today and for the last 30 years.

There are over sixty stations in North America and hundreds more are in the planning stages.

There are over 35000 ethanol stations in Brazil

So this is not wishful thinking.

ROTFL

You can make hydrogen in your own home

You can make ethanol at home. But why bother, when there's all the infrastructure in place? Does anybody make gasoline at home?

The safety checks have been done by all the major auto manufacturers, they all have hydrogen cars. They don't all have ethanol cars.

Really? Which ones don't have ethanol cars?

I could go on, but this gets tiresome. Ethanol has been a reality for a generation, hydrogen is a pipe dream.

High Density Battery

[Doc Ruby]

How energy efficient is the dis/charge cycle using this new process? And how dense an energy storage medium could such a battery be, say, compared to Li-Ion batteries (or to gasoline, the champ)?

If dis/charge is at all close to 90%+, and storing about 400Mj (the way a 16 gallon gas tank does at 20% internal combustion efficiency), in anything close to approximately 40 pounds for gas, then it's a replacement. Since the electricity powers lighter motors (electric instead of gas), and conserves nearly all the regenerative braking power, its capacity needs to be only less than 400Mj to compete, maybe 350Mj, or even less if we don't get the full range (about 600 miles in a gas hybrid), maybe 175Mj.

Since an (single use) aluminum battery can be up to about 4.75Mj:Kg, (gasoline * 20% = 9.33Mj:Kg), the aluminum is probably twice as heavy for gasoline's energy. But if we can accept half the range, it might be OK, if this tech lets it recharge efficiently.

Better battery tech is very exciting. Energy storage is probably the worst link in all the alternative energy systems we're now looking at. Even if it's not good for cars, if the material costs less than lead-acid batteries (like under $36:Kj), it's a major advantage for home/building power. Even if just storing power during non-peak times for local discharge during peak times.