Hydrogen Power Takes Off: Just Add Water

Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe. Represented by the period table symbol H and atomic number 1, at standard temperature and pressure hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless diatomic gas (H2). And for years, researchers have hoped hydrogen just might hold the answer to the world’s energy crisis.

Founded in 2008 AlumiFuel Power Inc. (“API”), the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based wholly owned operating subsidiary of AlumiFuel Power Corporation (OTCBB: AFPW),  develops and markets hydrogen production for use in current national security and commercial applications. Through independent research, development, engineering, and key strategic partnerships, API plans to commercialize and license its technology for a worldwide, multi-industry customer base, with an initial focus on portable and small-scale power generation.

While there are a number of global patents and a great deal of research surrounding the production of hydrogen using aluminum powder and water, API is alone in having moved the technology out of the laboratory and into the commercialization and production phase. Primary initial applications for the company include: powering turbine-based propulsion systems for underwater vehicles and auxiliary generators; providing lift gas for weather balloons; powering fuel cells to generate electricity; and providing hydrogen boosts for various engine applications. Unlike the “Hydrogen Economy” and hydrogen powered cars that require significant infrastructure expenditures built out over decades, API’s applications are here and now, offering realistic applications for portable, remote, backup, and auxiliary energy use today.

Patented and proprietary AlumiFuel powder mixes enable API to produce ultra-pure hydrogen quickly, in large quantities, without electricity or additional power requirements, in a green, environmentally sustainable way. The hydrogen (and superheated steam by-product) is generated strictly through the exothermic chemical reaction between water—fresh water, seawater, tap water, or brackish water—and aluminum powder, combined with API’s proprietary reactant additives. The potential benefits and applications of this technology are manifold: aluminum is abundant and relatively inexpensive; 32oz cartridges (commercial, off-the shelf cans) of AlumiFuel can be recycled and have a shelf life of many years; and the entire process is non-toxic and environmentally benign.

Rather than going through the expense and inconvenience of transporting and refueling large, cumbersome K-cylinders, portable generators, or large, expensive, stationary hydrogen-generating reactors (e.g., steam reforming or electrolysis systems) to work sites, API technology enables companies to produce “lift gas” for weather balloons or energy to feed fuel cells simply by inserting compact AlumiFuel cartridges into the reactor (think of disposable razorblades being inserted into a razor one keeps for a number of years). For example, two 32 oz. cartridges provide enough “lift gas” to launch a five-foot weather balloon; and, while many current fuel sources for underwater vehicles are notoriously toxic, API provides an alternative power supply for underwater manned or unmanned vehicle propulsion and portable power for selected military applications.

From an energy density standpoint, hydrogen sources generate nine kilowatt hours per liter (9kWh/l), five times the energy density of lithium batteries. With the company’s current reactor, the PBIS-1000, weighing just seventy pounds, and ten 32oz. cartridges providing as much hydrogen as a single K cylinder (5,000 liters), API’s technology suggests back-up power supply applications for natural disasters and catastrophes situations such as Hurricane Katrina, in which cell towers go down and people, telecom outfits, and data centers lose access to the power grid.

Inexpensive, inexhaustible, incredible, AlumiFuel is tomorrow’s energy today.