Producing hydrogen by the chemical oxidation of aluminium
Or, Passing gas for SCIENCE!
For those of you who have been following this tiresome path towards the ATOMIC HYDROGEN TORCH! May know that I require three basic things to achieve face melting temperatures(3500c+) . an electric arc of about 300 volts (Eventually Sparky). A Source of hydrogen, and a structure that can (briefly) withstand the heat ( A coyote skull named Spot).
Today I start to discuss the Hydrogen production. I’ll be using aluminium ingots submerged in a potassium hydroxide solution.
The ingots come from secondary smelting of soda cans with home made charcoal. The potassium hydroxide is also known as wood lye and is produced by filtering water through white wood ash.
The chemical reaction involved is this. 3 KOH (aq) + Al 3+(s) ——-> Al(OH)3(s) + 3K+ (aq) and no, I don’t understand the chemical notation either.
This is an experiment to quantify hydrogen production using these methods. 12 fluid ounces of lye solution + three random ingots + container weighed 846.5 grams. This barely had any reaction and was frankly disappointing. After 48 hours the reaction had increased significantly and the mass had decreased to 846.4 grams. Gaseous hydrogen is .08376 kg/cubic meter at standard pressure so .1 grams would mean that I have produced no MORE than .08376*.1*1000*1000*1000= 8376000 cubic millimetres of hydrogen gas or a volume just over 20 cm on a side. (please bust me on my math, it’s weak) I’m assuming that the lost mass is hydrogen as the oxygen has bonded with the aluminium to form aluminium oxide.
So after two days I’ve barely produced enough to fill a small balloon, But as water is consumed, hydroxide density increases, so rate of production may continue to increase with time.
