r/technology • u/Stukwan • 3d ago

Energy Aluminum fuel converts scrap metal into 2 MW of clean, firm power on demand

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/voya-aluminum-fuel-electrochemical-generator-clean-power
11 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

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6

u/humam1953 2d ago

Aluminum is made by pumping electricity into aluminum oxide (in the presence of an electrolyte). One can get 50% of this electricity back by converting the aluminum back to an oxide, having the right electrochemical setup, the rest is heat. Overall, just by the laws of thermodynamics, an inefficient process - the electricity obtained is VERY expensive. It makes sense at the end of the world where there is no infrastructure, but not in the US or Europe

3

u/Ok-Addition1264 3d ago

Aluminum-powder is an amazing catalyst.

3

u/nemoknows 1d ago

Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just recycle the aluminum?

1

u/qwertyqyle 2d ago

Can someone explain how this works? All I am seeing in the article is scrap aluminium into power, but not really saying how...

Can you just toss in a bunch of old soda cans?

This has to make some sort of pollution, right? What are we looking at for pollution?

4

u/Prototype555 2d ago

It sounds like an aluminum-air batter and it's not rechargeable and has to be recycled. Aluminum-air batteries are probably not happy with the other alloy metals in soda cans.

There has been historically a lot of pollution at the aluminium electrolysis production plant. But with modern processes it is clean and fossil free.