Hydrogen: New Way Found to Produce it!

You may have heard people use the term, hydrogen economy. What does that mean? How could a whole economy be based on hydrogen? Quite a big responsibility for the simplest element in the world and universe!



Hydrogen is so nice for a lot of reasons. Reduced air pollution is a big one. You can use it in fuel cells in vehicles and get no emission except water out of the tailpipe! You can also burn it in vehicle engines by having hydrogen injectors instead of fuel injectors. You can also use it commercially in fuel cells to produce electricity for the grid.

Some people are afraid of hydrogen because they saw the Hinderburg air ship burn up or think hydrogen might be explosive, like a hydrogen bomb. It is believed that the Hindenburg's big fire actually was caused by the chemical makeup of it's skin and a hydrogen bomb is actually a nuclear fusion reaction, something many orders of magnitude above using hydrogen to burn, or stripping the electron off of it to use in an electrical circuit like what we are talking about here.

The reason hydrogen hasn't already taken over all our energy needs is that it can be expensive to make compared to burning fossil fuels. It is usually produced from running electricity into water, which splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen. There are other ways of generating it too, but they are all still too expensive and have other drawbacks.

Recently researchers at Purdue University came up with a new way to produce hydrogen that raises hopes of ushering in that hydrogen economy sooner!

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 research findings are detailed in a paper that was presented at the 2nd Energy Nanotechnology International Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. The paper was written by Jerry Woodall, Charles Allen and Jeffrey Ziebarth, both doctoral students in Purdue's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Woodall said Because the technology could be used to generate hydrogen on demand, the method makes it unnecessary to store or transport hydrogen - two major obstacles in creating a hydrogen economy.

The metal alloy could be transported and stored long term. All you would need is to add water when it came time for the hydrogen production and both the metals used can be recovered and recycled.

Woodall also said "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. "This alloy is under intense investigation, and, in our opinion, it can be developed into a commercially viable material for splitting water. "The technology has numerous potential applications. Because the method makes it possible to use hydrogen instead of gasoline to run internal combustion engines, it could be used for cars and trucks.

The raw materials for this process are also plentiful. "This technology is feasible for commercial use," Woodall said. "The waste alumina can be recycled back into aluminum, and low-cost gallium is available as a waste product from companies that produce aluminum from the raw mineral bauxite. Enough aluminum exists in the United States to produce 100 trillion kilowatt hours of energy. That's enough energy to meet all the U.S. electric needs for 35 years. If impure gallium can be made for less than $10 a pound and used in an onboard system, there are enough known gallium reserves to run 1 billion cars."

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.



Note: This story has been adapted from a news release from Purdue University.



There are already places in the world where they have gas stations, but not the traditional "gas" stations. These are stations where solar power is used to produce electricity that split water into hydrogen and oxygen and then these gases are pumped into big holding tanks. You come in and filler up with hydrogen and be on your way as fast, or faster that you would be in one of the 20th century paradigm gas stations.

Solving our national and worldwide energy needs and environmental concerns is going to be a process that takes time, but breakthroughs like these are going to play a big part in helping us towards the goal of energy independence and energy generation that doesn't hurt the environment.

There are many alternative energy sources in play and in research and development today but there also lots of people who are betting that at some point in the near future it will indeed be a hydrogen economy with hydrogen playing a major role in energy for our homes and factories as well as most of the vehicles. Time will tell, but I too am betting that hydrogen is going to have a top level spot! Not bad for the simplest element in the universe! :~)

Thank you,

Dave Briggs