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<DIV>Woodall says:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff>"The hydrogen is generated on demand, so you only
produce as much as you need when you need it," he said in a statement released
by Purdue this week."</FONT></DIV>
<P class=textBodyBlack>I hope that this is not a "cold fusion" type claim.
If this claim has merit, then its consequences, both good and bad, will be far
reaching.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack> </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack>W.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack> </P>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=starbliss@gmail.com href="mailto:starbliss@gmail.com">Ted Moffett</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">Vision 2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, May 18, 2007 1:45 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Professor Sys Energy Department ‘Egos’
Blocking Hydrogen Breakthrough</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18700750/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18700750/</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>A Purdue University engineer and
National Medal of Technology winner says he's ready and able to start a
revolution in clean energy. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>Professor Jerry Woodall and
students have invented a way to use an aluminum alloy to extract hydrogen from
water — a process that he thinks could replace gasoline as well as its
pollutants and emissions tied to global warming. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>But Woodall says there's one big
hitch: "Egos" at the U.S. Department of Energy, a key funding source for energy
research, "are holding up the revolution." </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>Woodall says the method makes it
unnecessary to store or transport hydrogen — two major challenges in creating a
hydrogen economy.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>"The hydrogen is generated on
demand, so you only produce as much as you need when you need it," he said in a
statement released by Purdue this week.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>So instead of having to fill up at
a station, hydrogen would be made inside vehicles in tanks about the same size
as today's gasoline tanks. An internal reaction in those tanks would create
hydrogen from water and 350 pounds worth of special pellets. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>"No extra room would be needed,"
Woodall said, "and the added weight would be the equivalent of an extra
passenger, albeit a pretty large extra passenger." </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>The hydrogen would then power an
internal combustion engine or a fuel cell stack.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>"It's a simple matter to convert
ordinary internal combustion engines to run on hydrogen," Woodall said. "All you
have to do is replace the gasoline fuel injector with a hydrogen injector." </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN><B><STRONG>How it
works</STRONG></B></P>
<P class=textBodyBlack>Here's how it all happens: Hydrogen is generated
spontaneously when water is added to pellets of the alloy, which is made of
aluminum and a metal called gallium. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>"When water is added to the
pellets, the aluminum in the solid alloy reacts because it has a strong
attraction to the oxygen in the water," Woodall said. "No toxic fumes are
produced." </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>This reaction splits the oxygen
and hydrogen contained in water, releasing hydrogen in the process.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>An electrical and computer
engineering professor, Woodall first discovered the basic process while working
as a researcher in the semiconductor industry in 1967. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>"I was cleaning a crucible
containing liquid alloys of gallium and aluminum," Woodall said. "When I added
water to this alloy — talk about a discovery — there was a violent poof. I went
to my office and worked out the reaction in a couple of hours to figure out what
had happened. When aluminum atoms in the liquid alloy come into contact with
water, they react, splitting the water and producing hydrogen and aluminum
oxide." </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>That research led to advances in
cell phones, solar cells, optical-fiber communications and light-emitting
diodes, and earned Woodall the 2001 National Medal of Technology from President
Bush. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>In recent years, Woodall built a
team of Purdue electrical, mechanical, chemical and aeronautical engineering
students to fine-tune the process.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN><B><STRONG>Cost speed
bumps</STRONG></B></P>
<P class=textBodyBlack>The Purdue Research Foundation holds title to the primary
patent. And a startup company, AlGalCo LLC, has received a license for the
exclusive right to commercialize the process.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>But there are some speed bumps on
the highway to hydrogen. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>With internal combustion engines,
the cost of recycling the aluminum oxide must be reduced to make the process
competitive with gasoline at $3 a gallon.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>"Right now it costs more than $1 a
pound to buy aluminum, and, at that price, you can't deliver a product at the
equivalent of $3 per gallon of gasoline," Woodall said. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>That cost could come way down, he
figures, if the recycling is done with electricity from nuclear power
plants, wind turbines or even solar power plants if economically viable. The
aluminum oxide and gallium would be shipped to such plants, using electrolysis
to break the oxide back down to aluminum, Woodall said, "and we start the cycle
all over again." </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>If used in fuel cells, the process
would be economically competitive with gasoline, Woodall noted. "Using pure
hydrogen, fuel cell systems run at an overall efficiency of 75 percent, compared
to 40 percent using hydrogen extracted from fossil fuels and with 25 percent for
internal combustion engines," Woodall said. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>But the fuel cell systems
themselves are still much more expensive and less reliable than internal
combustion engines. "When and if fuel cells become economically viable, our
method would compete with gasoline at $3 per gallon even if aluminum costs more
than a dollar per pound," Woodall said. </P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN><B><STRONG>Funding speed
bump</STRONG></B></P>
<P class=textBodyBlack>For Woodall, the biggest speed bump lies elsewhere. "The
egos of program managers at DOE are holding up the revolution," he told <A
href="http://msnbc.com">msnbc.com</A>.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>"Remember that Einstein was a
patent examiner and had no funding for his 1905 miracle year," Woodall added.
"He did it on his own time. If he had been a professor at a university in the
U.S. today and put in a proposal to develop the theory of special relativity it
would have been summarily rejected.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><SPAN id=byLine></SPAN>"Likewise, since I won my National
Medal of Technology for compound semiconductors and not making hydrogen, DOE
does not recognize me as a member of the club." As evidence, Woodall said DOE
last summer rejected two "pre-proposals" for funding, " i.e., I was not invited
to send in full proposals on my work."</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack>----------------------------</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</P></DIV>
<P>
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