The overall energy efficiency of this process is pretty low, the amount of new electrical capacity needed would be huge.
14 Megawatt/hr per ton of AlO2 converted to Al metal.
US gasoline consumption is about 1 billion tons/year
So you need 2.5 Gton Al/yr, which works out to 3.5 billion Mwh. One big nuclear plant produces 8 million Mwh/year, so you need to build 500 full-size nuclear plants.
With windmills, depending on size, wind consistentcy and such you get several Mwh/year to maybe 1000/year, so you'd need several million to maybe a billion windmills.
Now, in exchange for all that you'd eliminate much of the petroleum drilling, refining, distribution infrastructure so it's not like you add hundreds of power plants and get nothing in return. But still, far from an easy solution!
Space/Science » in reply to Making hydrogen from water using aluminum/gallium
Problem #2 -- Energy Demand
The whole thread (22 posts)
- Making hydrogen from water using aluminum/gallium