Sep
20
Magnesium For Fuel
September 20, 2007 | 2 Comments
The idea of using magnesium for fuel is a new concept for me. MIT’s Technology Review has posted a story about researchers at Tokyo’s Institute of Technology that describes the effort they’re making to use lasers “to make a powerful laser capable of combusting the magnesium content of seawater. In the process, large amounts of heat and hydrogen are given off.” The goal they express is to develop magnesium fueled engine. See:
http://technologyreview.com/Energy/19402/
The point of the research now is to come up with a way to de oxidize the burned magnesium, which is why the story is focused on the laser work. Since magnesium needs a lot of heat to de oxidize, lasers powered by solar or a renewable would be key to a low cost solution.
The Tokyo Institute’s program is run by Takashi Yabe. Taking the magnesium combusting engine aside, the team is making notable progress on the solar pumped lasers.
“It’s an unusual approach,” says Sunita Satyapal at the US DOE hydrogen storage team. Is that an understatement? There are other ways to split the water molecule, but if using magnesium as a co fuel turns out to be a low total cost and high efficiency way to make hydrogen a portable fuel this idea merits watching.
I sure hope these guys have something. For two reasons, the first being I’d like to see Japan have a noted role in solving the portable fuel problems and second, I really don’t want to ride in anything with highly compressed hydrogen stored aboard. I wish them good luck and hope they keep those press releases coming.
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