Aluminum, Gallium and Water Equals Hydrogen

August 28, 2007 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Filed in: Hydrogen Fuel Production.

I’d like to follow up on a post that I had made in May about the Purdue University researchers discovering that using an alloy of the metals gallium and aluminum with water create hydrogen. This reaction creates hydrogen-on-demand with little degradation of the alloy. This is because the gallium defends against oxidation on the surface.

The one overshadowing issue when this was first reported was that if the transportation industry and other industries created hydrogen using this method, how would we get enough gallium to fill the demand? Since May, the researchers have discovered a method to use more aluminum and less gallium in the alloy.

They have also discovered that the gallium can be more impure than previously thought, which not only brings down the cost immensely, but widens the scope of how many vehicles can use this method. The Purdue researchers estimate that if impure gallium can be used, then there is enough world reserves to use in 1 billion cars.

The other interesting quality about gallium is that it doesn’t degrade in this process, only the aluminum degrades. So, gallium can be recovered and reused indefinitely.


3 comments on “Aluminum, Gallium and Water Equals Hydrogen

  1. No updates or insider information on this one. I like your spirit, though. I think the garage inventors across the country will be the wild card that Big Oil won’t see coming.