I'm really interested in the new water/aluminum power technology ..anyone know more?

Question

here's an article http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199601111

Answer 1

See the following web site:

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/06/07/010255.html

Answer 2

Unless I'm missing something, it looks like total hype to me.
They say "can produce two kilowatts of power from a pound of aluminum", the problem with that is, one: a kilowatt is a unit of power, not energy, if they said kilowatt/hours that would make sense. and then we could point out problem two; it takes about three times that much energy to produce a pound of aluminum from the oxide they plan on "recycling"
Also they say "For a 350-mile trip in an automobile, it would take about 350 pounds of aluminum at a cost of about $60" But aluminum actually sells for over a dollar a pound. So the 350 mile trip would cost over $350, at $4 a gallon for gasoline, that would be the equivalent of getting 4mpg !

EDIT:
The link Gatorbait provided is about the a similar idea by a company called Hydrogen Power Inc. (HYDPE.OB), if you look up their stock price, you'll see it has lost something like 80% of it's value in the year since that article was written.

Answer 3

My gut reaction is that this may be like the functioning of a battery. Yes you can get energy out of it, but the recharging (read recycling) is going to consume energy. Not considering losses, the net result with a battery is zero energy produced.