Recipe for hydrogen fuel not far away

Experts: Metal powder may be key ingredient in future energy source

The world’s first major steps out of the age of carbon and into a new era of hydrogen energy could be five, 10 years away or more.

It will demand new power plants, new vehicles, new ways of thinking about energy — and almost certainly an exotic metal powder locked in tanks like those in Chris Moen’s lab.

At Sandia National Laboratories, with 49 years of experience handling hydrogen for thermonuclear weapons, Moen and a team of engineers are running the gas in and out of tanks full of a clumpy, white, sugarlike sand called sodium alanate.

Blended from aluminum, sodium and a touch of titanium, the powder devours hydrogen, swelling through two-phase transitions to become a new substance, all the while giving off enough heat to make water boil.

"They run hot," said Moen, head
of Sandia’s engineering science and technology directorate. "It’s really a challenge to get around that."

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

Full Story: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2600399