(278g) Design and Operation of a Novel Aluminum/Water Reactor to Produce H2

Aluminum is an extremely energy dense material which has been proposed as a promising material for hydrogen storage technologies. The reaction of aluminum and water produces hydrogen gas and an aluminum oxyhydroxide byproduct. A key issue with prior aluminum/water reactors is that the aluminum oxyhydroxide byproduct coats the surface of unreacted aluminum particles, choking the flow of water to unreacted aluminum particles and limiting the reaction. In this work we present a novel aluminum/water reactor which utilizes fluidization and vibration to separate the unreacted aluminum and aluminum oxyhydroxide. We show that this novel design significantly increases the amount of aluminum which is reacted compared to previous aluminum/water reactor designs. This work is expected to significantly improve the feasibility of using aluminum as a hydrogen storage method.