Last year the news came out that a research operation run by the US Army had found a form of powdered aluminum that, when added to water, caused a chemical reaction that broke the water into hydrogen and oxygen, thus generating hydrogen WITHOUT requiring electricity. I have to wonder how much money the fossil fuel producers of this country have dedicated to bribing everyone in government who might be able to do something to prevent the Army from getting a patent.
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No retraction on this yet?
But that reaction consumes aluminum, turning it into aluminum oxide.
The Hall-Héroult process, used in the industrial production of aluminum, converts aluminum oxide into nearly-pure aluminum, so it could effectively ‘recycle’ the waste product – but the Hall-Héroult process is extremely energy-intensive, which is why aluminum refining consumes huge amounts of electricity.
So, basically, you’re burning aluminum, and the energy you obtain from doing that comes from the electricity invested in refining the aluminum in the first place.
Once again, this is an energy-storage scheme, like a battery. The energy is stored in the aluminum, and then released as chemically-evolved hydrogen.
It still takes more energy, as electricity, to produce the aluminum than you can recover from the hydrogen.
How much more is unclear (and I haven’t run the numbers), but no matter how you slice it, it will always require more energy input than you get back in output - that’s basic thermodynamics.
In any case, it’s still a storage system, not a primary fuel. It might or might not be more efficient than electrolysis, and it’s almost certainly more convenient than toting around pressurized tanks of H2
But like most schemes involving hydrogen, it’s still a storage system, not a fuel.
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Yep, that’s a modern classic. Looks good, Skip.
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