An EE professor at Purdue University has found a way to produce hydrogen that replaces the need for gasoline by mixing water with beads of an aluminum-gallium alloy. The discovery could lead to engines that essentially burn water, instead of gasoline, since the gallium is not consumed in the reaction and the aluminum can be recycled.
Hey Dewkid: you could fill your car up with water, and empty cans of Mountain Dew, and be totally gas free! Of course, you'd be passing up on the 5 cent refund value, but it's still probably be cheaper than gas at $4/gallon!
Seriously though, the inventor claims there are no toxic by-products, and can produce 2KWatts power / pound of aluminum.
For a 350-mile trip in an automobile, it would take about 350 pounds of aluminum at a cost of about $60, since the aluminum oxide left over after the reaction could be converted back into aluminum-gallium pellets for reuse.
Hmmm, 350 pounds is a lot of weight that your car would have to drag around everywhere. I'm not convinced this is a useful breakthrough, but I suppose time will tell.
