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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the water-powered dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Army scientists and engineers recently made a groundbreaking discovery -- an aluminum nanomaterial of their design produces high amounts of energy when it comes in contact with water, or with any liquid containing water.

During routine materials experimentation at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, a team of researchers observed a bubbling reaction when adding water to a nano-galvanic aluminum-based powder.

"We all as a team were very excited and ecstatic that something good had happened," said Dr. Anit Giri, a physicist with the lab's Weapons and Materials Research Directorate.

The team further investigated and found that water -- two molecules[sic] of hydrogen and one of oxygen -- splits apart when coming into contact with their unique aluminum nanomaterial.

The reaction surprised the researchers, but they soon considered its potential implications for future power and energy applications.

Source: https://www.army.mil/article/191212/army_discovery_may_offer_new_energy_source


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:35AM (7 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:35AM (#553068) Journal

    Let's go atomic.

    one kilogram of aluminum powder can produce 220 kilowatts of energy in just three minutes

    Kilo-whats? Kilojoules?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:56AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:56AM (#553070)

    kWh I suspect, but bad reporting is bad

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @02:09AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @02:09AM (#553071)

      KiloWattSeconds, so on par with one of my post-burrito farts.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday August 13 2017, @04:00AM

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday August 13 2017, @04:00AM (#553099) Journal

        You're not supposed to eat the aluminum foil too, dammit.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Sunday August 13 2017, @03:56AM (3 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday August 13 2017, @03:56AM (#553097) Journal

    220 kW during 3 minutes = 220e3 * 3*60 [watt*seconds] = 39.6 MJ
    (on the order of the combustion of 1 cubic meter of natural gas)

    So: 39.6 MJ/kg

    Using 9 kg with 100% power conversion efficiency it will be sufficient to replace the battery in a 100 kWh (=539 km) Tesla Model S. If a sterling engine with 20% efficiency is used for conversion then something like 45 kg of the aluminum nanomaterial will be needed.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 13 2017, @04:19AM (2 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday August 13 2017, @04:19AM (#553108)

      So, is the aluminum captured/recyclable after this reaction - if so, 9kg of "fuel" isn't bad for 210 miles of travel - of course, there's a lot of water required, too...

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      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday August 13 2017, @04:31AM (1 child)

        by kaszz (4211) on Sunday August 13 2017, @04:31AM (#553114) Journal

        Actually the driver contains pee so.. ;-)
        No one has written anything here on whether the aluminum nanomaterial is a catalytic or a reactant.

        On a more serious note maybe the water + nitrates in which the later tend to be exothermic could be used to power something using a catalytic reaction?
        Ie pee + catalytic = electrical power.

        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @12:29PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @12:29PM (#553214)

          Of course it's a reagent. This invention is similar to sodium hydride hydrogen source (where you pour water on NaH to get hydrogen for fuel cell). Fraudnewsters called it as stuff to make water powered cars but requiring sodium hydride as "catalyst". Something tells me this "nanomaterial" is AlH3 and is exactly same type of deal, it could be of use if AlH3 happened to be cheaper or more stable than NaH.
          While we're at it most internal combustion are air powered but need tiny amounts of gasoline as catalyst. wink wink