The end of EVs with a battery?

[Marcozi]

Interesting article from Science Alert: a team of scientists at UC Santa Barbara have developed a process to generate hydrogen from pure water at room temperature! The process uses aluminum nanoparticles and gallium.

Clean Fuel Breakthrough Turns Water Into Hydrogen at Room Temperature

Hydrogen fuel promises to be a clean and abundant source of energy in the future – as long as scientists can figure out ways to produce it practically and cheaply, and without fossil fuels.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[Schmoe]

I'd like to see the stoichiometry behind this and the full balanced equation. It seems fishy.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I'll say again. Hydrogen isn't a good energy source. You retain all the weight of battery packs, refueling problems, less energy efficient. Use it in space exploration.

 

[ecotourist]

As presented it's something (abundant energy from burning all that hydrogen) for nothing (no energy or material other than the water feed-stock consumed). That would be terrific but doesn't seem possible.

And by the way don't drop any of that stuff in the ocean. All the water will soon be gone.

Reminds me of the old story of the wondrous chemical that could quickly burn through any material. How would you store it?

 

[brianl703]

Sounds exactly like this. Note that you need a source of aluminum metal for this to work, as it turns the aluminum into aluminum oxide. And the energy input the original article claimed they didn't need happened when the aluminum ore was converted to aluminum, a very energy intensive process.

 

[brianl703]

I'd like to see the stoichiometry behind this and the full balanced equation. It seems fishy.

It's BS "science". As long as you have an unlimited source of aluminum, it's great. The solution to our energy problems.

 

[Silver]

It's BS "science". As long as you have an unlimited source of aluminum, it's great. The solution to our energy problems.

Brought to you by Alcoa!

 

[DwightFrye]

It's BS "science". As long as you have an unlimited source of aluminum, it's great. The solution to our energy problems.

It sounds more like the scientists at UC Santa Barbara are working with an unlimited source of taxpayer dollars in the form of a research grant.

 

[brianl703]

It sounds more like the scientists at UC Santa Barbara are working with an unlimited source of taxpayer dollars in the form of a research grant.

That's a very cynical way of looking at it. But probably the truth.

 

[Jetronic]

As presented it's something (abundant energy from burning all that hydrogen) for nothing (no energy or material other than the water feed-stock consumed). That would be terrific but doesn't seem possible.

And by the way don't drop any of that stuff in the ocean. All the water will soon be gone.

Reminds me of the old story of the wondrous chemical that could quickly burn through any material. How would you store it?

You need to put energy into the water to split it in the first place, then you can get the energy back when you recombine to water (= burning). In the process of both ther's always some losses so you end up not getting as mucg back as you put in.

 

[demarpaint]

It sounds more like the scientists at UC Santa Barbara are working with an unlimited source of taxpayer dollars in the form of a research grant.

If so another epic waste of money.

 

[Dave Sherman]

You need to put energy into the water to split it in the first place, then you can get the energy back when you recombine to water (= burning). In the process of both ther's always some losses so you end up not getting as mucg back as you put in.

Yep. In my youth I learned about how to electrolyze water into hydrogen from a science book. Hydrogen burns and makes water. I've got it! Make a car that electrolyzes its tank of water, burns the hydrogen in the engine, returns the exhaust water to the tank, and the alternator supplies the power to electrolyze the hydrogen. Later on I learned about those pesky laws of thermodynamics....

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Cold fusion part deux.

 

[brianl703]

If so another epic waste of money.

Someone should FOIA the records to find out just how much grant money they're getting for this obvious scam.

 

[ecotourist]

What we have here is an inefficient way of storing energy.

You take aluminum oxide and convert it into pure aluminum using lots of energy. That part of the process is done by industry. You take the pure aluminum, mix it with gallium, and add water to create hydrogen, oxygen and aluminum oxide, then eventually recovering much of the gallium which is acting as a sort of catalyst. You can then burn the hydrogen as an energy source. After all that you could take the aluminum oxide and convert it back to pure aluminum by once again using lots of energy.

You never get something for nothing.

 

[Cujet]

Note: we have been able to oxidize aluminum and produce power for many decades. This is nothing new. Aluminum air batteries do just this, consuming the aluminum to produce power.

 

[weasley]

What we have here is an inefficient way of storing energy.

You take aluminum oxide and convert it into pure aluminum using lots of energy. That part of the process is done by industry. You take the pure aluminum, mix it with gallium, and add water to create hydrogen, oxygen and aluminum oxide, then eventually recovering much of the gallium which is acting as a sort of catalyst. You can then burn the hydrogen as an energy source. After all that you could take the aluminum oxide and convert it back to pure aluminum by once again using lots of energy.

You never get something for nothing.

Exactly this! They are focussing on just one part of the energy cycle, where you get the energy out, so at point of use it all looks great. Rather like an EV - at point of use it's emission free, but somewhere the emissions are being created to generate the electricity.

 

[alarmguy]

There is no question the H2 is the answer and only answer, the majority of the public will never accept battery operated EVs in their current form, its backwards in time, a major inconvenience.