http://www.physorg.com/news102266813.html

whats the point of using aluminum when it requires enormous amounts of electricity (generated by fossil fuel plants). where"s the benefit in that?

"whats the point of using aluminum when it requires enormous amounts of electricity (generated by fossil fuel plants)" to produce aluminum I meant....

Last month Purdue researchers demonstrated their method for producing hydrogen by adding water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium.
Is modified aluminum = aluminum + gallium?
www_physorg_com / news98556080.html

the point, salgantry, is that right now, its all we can do, because we have mastered metallurgy well beyond the point to which we have mastered organic chemistry
for now...

It seems that every time some schmuck stumbles across the AlX + H2O -> H2 + AlO + XO reaction, it gets reported all over the news as some great new thing. Apart from this being an all-too-obvious solution, why doesn't every damn researcher know about this already???????

Yet another method of "storing" hydrogen in some high-density format.

Water + "modified aluminium powder" -> Hydrogen gas + troublesome slag
is not worst way to enter the "hydrogen economy", but it certainly needs
high volume recycling transportation and reprocessing of this energy storage
material.

None of these methods solve a small matter of winter - what to do when your water tank freezes solid ?

The point is this: the 'processing' of the aluminum is to combine it with gallium ..
The gallium prevents the surface of the alluminum pellets from oxydizing .. which, if allowed to occur, would quickly stop the reaction.

The result is that the major expense is in producing the gallium .. However, the gallium is easily recovered/recycled.

There is a high expense for producing the aluminum,yes, but the inventors' calculations show that this can be done by using a 'dedicated' nuclear powerplant .. It seems that the largest costs for running a nuclear plant to produce electricity are the costs of distributing it .. not merely generating it. A plant dedicated to this task of aluminum production has costs that are easily low enough to make this approach economically viable.

The major benefits lie in the elimination of the need for an infrastructure for the distribution of hydrogen gas: we'd see 'Aluminum/Gallium Replenishment centers.

Further,the volume of today's typical car's fuel tank can easily accomodate the amount of pellets neededto drive 380+ miles .. but of course the weight of the 'tank' would be considerable

your all missing my point, using massive amounts of electricity produced by fossil fuels to "process" and produce this aluminum negates any potential pollution reduction or energy gains of the hydrogen...this is not the answer....yet

"It seems that the largest costs for running a nuclear plant to produce electricity are the costs of distributing it .. not merely generating it."

the largest cost is the disposal of nuclear waste....

If one is going to oxidize aluminum for power, why not use an air aluminum fuel cell?