Soda Can Hydrogen Generator for Alternative Energy

Make Hydrogen On Demand from Activated Aluminum and Water.

This invention has been patented!

I use a drop of liquid metal that I bought from eBay and aluminum from a soda can to produce hydrogen from water.

This reaction solves the problem of hydrogen storage for the hydrogen economy. Energy dense activated aluminum acts as the storage medium, liberating hydrogen on demand when exposed to water.

After the exhaustion of the reaction, the resultant aluminum oxide (alumina) is shipped to a power generator plant that reduces it back to aluminum. Since alumina is a suspension in water it can be delivered via pipelines to the power station.

Liquid metal is available here:

http://www.google.com/products?q=Coollaboratory+Liquid+Pro&hl=en&aq=f

It is usually listed on the internet as

Coollaboratory LiquidPro Fluessigmetall Waermeleitpaste

My other Instructables:
MAKE A HIGH VOLTAGE SUPPLY IN 5 MINUTES
Hack The Spy Ear and Learn to Reverse Engineer a Circuit
Super Easy E-mail Encryption Using Gmail, Firefox and Windows
Make a Voltage Controlled Resistor and Use It
Make a Ball Mill in 5 Minutes
Make a Rechargeable Dual Voltage Power Supply for Electronic Projects

Step 1: Prepare the Aluminum

Cut the soda can into strips.
Sand the plastic off a strip.
The finished strip should be clean and shiny.
Proceed swiftly to step 2.

Comments

[fireblast_1212]

(removed by author or community request)

[Biotele]

BTW, I will be very happy if you use it for commercial use. It is a good thing to pay inventors because it promote innovation and inventors make more things for commercialization thus perpetuating the economy. If you don't pay inventors then they won't share their ideas.  Would like to live in a world were no one share ideas and nobody invents?

[The SYNer]

I do believe that inventors should be paid for their ideas, but regardless of if we were paid a real inventor doesn't invent just for money. We invent for the love of inventing.

[Biotele]

Inventing is a calling, you can't stop it, and you might go broke pursuing it, which is the sad story of the majority of inventors in history, from the alchemists to Nikola Tesla. Society now see the true value of inventors and the situation has changed a bit for the better.

[Biotele]

Inventing is a calling, you can't stop it, and you might go broke pursuing it, which is the sad story of the majority of inventors in history, from the alchemists to Nikola Tesla. Society now see the true value of inventors and the situation has changed a bit for the better.

[Biotele]

Inventing is a calling, you can't stop it, and you might go broke pursuing it, which is the sad story of the majority of inventors in history, from the alchemists to Nikola Tesla. Society now see the true value of inventors and the situation has changed a bit for the better.

[Biotele]

This was patented prior to publication, and even if it was not, an inventor has one year after publication to patent according to US law. I am using Instructable as a new way to promote patent ideas.

[kooool]

Ignoring all of the obvious problems with just telling people to go run their cars off hydrogen:
If you were planning on using hydrogen as a fuel source, why not just use electrolysis?

[Biotele]

As you said it is not a good idea to run an ICE engine with hydrogen. Better supply the hydrogen to fuel cell. But this invention is better suited for Jet engines. Jets power source should always be light weight and this packs as much punch as gasoline per weight.
You need a energy source for electrolysis.

[adamwd84]

What about doing the electrolysis on the ground and the aircraft only carries the fuel? Especially since your own updates indicate gallium would be dangerous to have on an aircraft.

Eagle Research has a book with detailed information on building a Brown's Gas (oxyhydrogen) electrolyzer at various scales.

Brown's Gas, Book 2
http://www.eagle-research.com/cms/node/204

Check it out.

[Biotele]

the problem remains the same, the storage of gaseous hydrogen needs heavy tanks. Gallium like mercury is bad for aluminum aircrafts but not carbon composite or titanium aircrafts.

[AChillyDog]

How much hydrogen does the average H-powered car need to go 100 miles at 60 mph?

[InfDeath]

Have you used this to run an engine? I'm curious as to what the output is. Would it be possible for you to do a write up on the cost of this method as compared to using gasoline? Also is there any use for the alumina?

[kooool]

There are many variables in running a vehicle off hydrogen, for one, running a normal car, straight on it, would melt the engine.
Even mixing it with the gas, in newer cars at least, gives you a rich mixture, which can actually bring down your mileage. :/
There are many sites solely dedicated I suggest you explore if you already haven't. :)

[rickharris]

You ned to look at it this way - A 1 litre engine running at 40 MPH at 40 MPG is using 4.8 liters of fuel per hour. BUt that is a liquid and much more dense than a gas such as hydrogen. The problem is storing enough to get any distance let alone the issues of storing a gas nder pressure.

[Biotele]

Go to site below and download the presentation, it has all the economics in detail.<br/><br/><a rel="nofollow" href="http://hydrogen.ecn.purdue.edu/">http://hydrogen.ecn.purdue.edu/</a><br/><br/>The interesting thing, is that my method requires a small amount of gallium to produce hydrogen. Maybe not as fast as aluminum dissolved in gallium but nonetheless most of the Aluminum strip is consumed.<br/>

[ameenkhan]

i need to know where i can find it liquid metal

[Lefrançois]

For the manufacture of "liquid Metal", is here (toner powder + vegetable oil):

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbz1r9_fabriquer-simplement-du-metal-liqui_tech

[Biotele]

This is not the same thing. But absolutely cool!

[ankit_mait_07]

Hi
I have a small question.
Are there any rechargeable/refillable Hydrogen fuel cells having same power specification and size specs as a AA battery?

regards
bored_guy

[Lefrançois]

oui ici:
(bottom of page)
http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/hobby_rc.htm

[Biotele]

Merci mon ami. Facinant.

[TheGoodLife]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to sail the ship once. During the journey, the ship lays a grid interconnector to the US or UK. Iceland can then distribute its excess power at a lower cost than shipping it.

[Biotele]

No. 80% of the power will be lost transmitting power through cable from iceland to UK/US.

[wilecoyote22]

you have your numbers backwards. 80% of the power would reach the UK/US while 20% (approximate) would be lost to natural resistance in the cable. All of this means nothing though. We are forgeting that charging the batteries will be wasteful as well. No battery has zero resistance. If electric rates are really so cheap then why not just lay a superconducting cable like are used in the US for extreme distance? Sure they are expensive but nothing compared to building and operating a ship at sea. Besides, cables don't sink or crash

[Biotele]

The most ambitious submarine to date is a cable of 450-miles being installed across the South China Sea to carry power from a recently completed 2400MW hydroelectric power dam in Sarawak province to mainland Malaysia. "If electric rates are really so cheap then why not just lay a superconducting cable like are used in the US for extreme distance? " You must be a time traveler from the future, we don't have that yet.

[wilecoyote22]

Ok I admit that I dont "Know" of a superconductive power cable in commercial use exactly. I am assuming since they were doing demonstrations as early as 2007 over several hundred miles that they probably are being used commercially today. http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/05/next_generation.html

[Biotele]

It will be great to have commercial superconductive cables. They have been working on them for 30 years. When they become commercially viable, they will be a game changer.

I will be careful about company announcements, they are meant to boost investors sentiment. This one was dated 2007. Any updates?

[Jimmy Proton]

another way to make large amounts of hydrogen and oxygen is to put steel into acid in a bottle with a balloon on the top or something

[DRY HHO]

While the idea is interesting the resources from Iceland is not. Currently there are major conflicts over Alcoa trying to industrialize Iceland. We now that industrialization didn't work. The only thing it did was add to how we pollute and destroy the environment. There 200 years too late for industrializing Iceland. Iceland is a place of natural beauty that should not be harvested for profit. Aluminum has great uses for these types of designs... we just need to be aware of where we get it from. These ideas are to protect the earth not pollute it in another fashion.
Dry hho

[alter baron]

It's sad how academics always rush to patent such simple discoveries, especially when the discovery holds a great deal of promise for the future. Patents on processes such as this one do not help to stimulate innovation; rather, the drive to innovate is extinguished because the very roots of that innovation are owned by individuals. Until we can emancipate ourselves from the profit-motive, we may never see a truly green society.

[Biotele]

I am not an academician, I am an inventor. And inventors have the right to make a living. But, Academia and corporations have hijacked the innovation process, because patenting has become too expensive for the lone inventor. The researchers in academia and corporations get little benefits from their inventions.

[thefunktopus]

Regarding the icelandic scheme 1) the US does not have a national grid as such, grids are independent of state so electricity cannot be transferred between them and 2)would it not be better to invest in electricity transimission lines between iceland and the uk. If a high enoughvoltage could be created, it may be viable.

[Biotele]

Yes, this is a viable alternative. but the economics must be calculated. I am not sure how much it will cost. however the EU is planning a supergrid between the middle east, africa and Europe. Iceland fits in that scheme. http://www.desertec.org/en/concept/

[gateon]

Or, you could just use the works to make hydrogen.

[DrStoooopid]

You let it set long enough for the liquid metal to penetrate the aluminium, thus accounting for the violent reaction, as there wasn't a way for their any oxidation to occur, because the liquid metal thoroughly "wetted" the aluminium. You should be able to recover your gallium from that dried up mess on top there, just like normal.

[Biotele]

Have you ever came across a reaction were a metal permeates another metal like it was a sponge? If you look carefully in the second picture, the liquid metals does not wet and spread on the surface, but actually mixes with the aluminum giving a different shine from the original aluminum. Yes the gallium is recoverable after the reaction.

[Kryptonite]

How so?

[DrStoooopid]

that's what true wetting is...the liquid metal soaks into the other metal. That's supposed to happen. It didn't happen before because you didn't let it sit long enough before.

[Biotele]

I am not expert on metal on metal interaction, do you have some papers that describes this phenomena? Personally, I never heard of metal soaking into other metals. I thought wetting process involved the loss of surface tension in the liquid metal because of surface boundary amalgamation.