Energy from Aluminum Grains to Power Electric Cars

If powering cars with ‘electric powder’ may sound like a scam, think again. Israeli company Alchemy Research offers a new method to power electric cars by using energy stored in aluminum grains.

Alchemy Research has developed a method of storage and conversion of energy. Their Alydro technology – standing for Aluminum-Hydro, is a process that produces energy from a reaction between aluminum and water.

The outcome of this method, says company CEO Gideon Yampolsky, “is essentially an electric vehicle that is able to reach 2,400 km on a fuel tank that is the size of a standard fuel tank. A regular car that works on fuel is able to reach only 700- 800 km. Our fuel tank is the same size as a regular one and can last more distance.”

The Alydro energy system can store large amounts of energy inside aluminum grains and release it on demand. Since aluminum is a very dense element, it can accommodate twice the amount of energy as fuel in the same volume. According to the company it can also store 80 times more energy per kg than today’s best Li-ion batteries.

Although aluminum is known for its ability to store a lot of energy, what was missing until now was a method to release it. Yampolsky started researching alternative energies three years ago. In the process he partnered with Irad Stavi and together they founded Alchemy Research.

Their research focused on how to take this energy and release it, to use it for powering light bulbs or starting a car. The answer, they found, was water. The products of the reaction are warm air and water vapor which are later chilled and reused. “The water is not consumed, it is returned to the tank after it goes through the process. Even though the system works on aluminum and water, in practice it doesn’t use up the water,” says Yampolsky. According to the company, none of the substances involved in the process are toxic or polluting: “Alydro is carbon-free, with zero greenhouse gas emission.” The only by-product of the Alydro reaction is solid aluminum-oxide known as alumina, which is fully recyclable. In fact, alumina is the material used for producing aluminum in the first place so it is collected for recycling back into aluminum.

The company expects that by the time the system is ready to go on the market the financial benefits will be larger than the present system of gas and fuel. They expect that “in about five years, when the price of one liter of gas probably will cost the American consumer $1.6, the price of one kg of aluminum powder will be only 1.1 dollars.”

“As opposed to gas that emits many pollutants, we just heat the air. The only cost is the electricity that heats the air. Not only does the system not pollute, it does not react with the environment; it doesn’t add anything or take anything from the environment which is a step ahead of non-pollution. It is based on renewable energy sources, and all its by-products are recyclable,” concludes Yampolsky.