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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:12AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:12AM (#553133)

    Not even close... I'm referring to electrical potential. The air is full of it. We can harvest it with no moving parts using a full wave rectifier and a giant ball of steel wool.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:22AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:22AM (#553135)

    I'm referring to electrical potential. The air is full of it.

    When the air gets full of electric potential, you get lightning. Those are a bit difficult to harvest.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:44AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:44AM (#553141)

      Think static wick in reverse, concentrating a dispersed electrical charge. Whether there is lightning or not, there are always varying levels of potential in the air. If you could see it, it would look just the planetary auroras.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @09:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @09:00PM (#553362)

      Pay attention to historical society flyers to best harvest lightning. Usually results in 1.21 GW.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @12:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @12:01PM (#553606)

      I believe it could be done. Surround a lightning rod with a large toroid coil (a.k.a. make a huge current transformer) and use the transformed-down current from the coil to load a battery of high voltage capacitors to store the energy.

      On second thought, coupling lightning rod with an inductive load would increase its impedance, so the discharge would probably get shunted with secondary lightnings from the top of the rod to the ground. And if it would hit the ground inside the area surrounded with toroidal secondary, it too would get quenched, lightning would probably split even higher up, roughly half of discharge current would pass through discharge paths beyond the outer side of toroid, balancing the current on the inside and resulting in approximately no induced current in toroid.

      I guess one can never win against the forces of nature, but still, I think that would make an awesome experiment ...