Producing Hydrogen from aluminum, really ?

A friend recently asked me if it makes sense to use aluminum scrap to generate green hydrogen via the following reaction: $latex 1Al(s) + 3H_2O(l) \rightarrow 1Al(OH)_3(s) + 1.5H_2(g)$ with $latex \Delta H (300K) = -418.8 kJ $ The combustion of this produced hydrogen: $latex 1.5H_2(g) + 0.75O_2(g) \rightarrow 1.5H_2O(l)$ releasing: $latex \Delta H (300K) … Continue reading Producing Hydrogen from aluminum, really ?

How to (thermodynamically) model the aluminum electrolysis using FactSage

As a member of the Centre for Research in Computational Thermochemistry (CRCT, Polytechnique Montreal) that develops the FactSage software, it is always a pleasure to share my knowledge on thermochemistry. This post will show you how to simply model the conventional aluminum electrolysis process (i.e. the Hall-Héroult process) using FactSage. Let's start by reviewing the … Continue reading How to (thermodynamically) model the aluminum electrolysis using FactSage

Producing Aluminum without direct CO2 emissions

We learned yesterday that a joint venture between Alcoa, Rio Tinto and Apple was created in order to produce primary aluminum using a zero-CO2-emission process. Here are some simple explanations about the new primary metal production strategy. The conventional smelting strategy to produce aluminum from alumina (Al2O3) is based on the Hall-Héroult electrochemical process: $latex … Continue reading Producing Aluminum without direct CO2 emissions