Indiana engineer Jerry Woodall and the Purdue Research Foundation hold the primary patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent pending method produces hydrogen spontaneously by adding water to pellets of a solid alloy of aluminum and the metal gallium. The aluminum in the alloy reacts with oxygen, which splits the water into its two component parts: hydrogen and oxygen.

Gallium—the key ingredient—is used because it helps to dissolve aluminum, thus, forcing the process to continue until aluminum and oxygen react completely. Without gallium, the process would not work because, by itself, aluminum does not react readily with water.

The by-products of making hydrogen in this process are gallium and aluminum oxide (alumina). After hydrogen is burned, its only by-product is water. However, gallium does not react with anything in the process, so can be used over and over again—which is fortunate because gallium is currently more expensive to produce than aluminum.

The process is being fine-tuned by Woodall’s team of electrical, mechanical, chemical, and aeronautical engineers and students at Purdue. They already have an Indiana company signed up to commercialize the process.

In the past, the use of hydrogen as a fuel in motorized vehicles was hindered by the inability to store and transport it effectively and inexpensively. Woodall’s process eliminates those problems by only producing as much hydrogen as one needs at any given time. He states that the hydrogen would not be stored inside of vehicles but, instead, would be made in tanks about the same size as today’s gasoline tanks. Current internal combustion engines could still be used, with only hydrogen injectors replacing gasoline fuel injectors.

One hurdle to overcome, according to Woodall, is the cost of recycling the by-product aluminum oxide to make it cost effective to use when compared to current prices of gasoline. He foresees that the price of recycling aluminum oxide could be lowered by letting various types of power plants break down aluminum oxide to aluminum in a process called fused salt electrolysis, a currently used process for making alloys. The process would, then, be completed by adding gallium to the aluminum to make the alloy pellets.

Besides internal combustion engines, Woodall’s process could also be used in fuel cells, however they are currently less reliable than internal combustion engines, and more expensive.

If hydrogen can be made economically with Woodall’s process (without the need to use hydrogen filling stations), it could help to solve our problems (and dependence) with gasoline as our primary means of fuel for motorized vehicles.

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