Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!rick
From: rick@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Rick Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Air-Aluminum Battery/Fuel-cell
Message-ID: <4157@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>
Date: 7 Sep 89 16:06:58 GMT
Sender: news@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Reply-To: rick@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Rick Miller)
Organization: IEEE Student Chapter, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Lines: 25


	I first heard of this gizmo on a T.V. program called "Beyond Tomorrow"
and wasn't so sure I believed the power output they ascribed to it.

	Then I was browsing through my Chemistry book (I put off that 2nd
semester as long as I could...) and there it was again.

	The details were scant, but interesting.  The anode is pure aluminum,
and air is bubbled through an "inert, porous metal" cathode.  The electrolyte
is either salt-water or sodium hydroxide solution (concentration not given).
The aluminum anode is consumed by the reaction, producing a solid precipitate
of aluminum hydroxide (1 Al and 3 OH's).

	The cell consumes the aluminum anode, water, and oxygen from the air.
Recharging is done simply by replacing the anodes, dumping out the solid
precipitate and adding water.  I did a little figuring, and it comes to about
one gram of aluminum for every 3 Amp-hours.  Optimum cell voltage is about
2.7 Volts.

	So has anyone heard of this thing?  Who makes them?  (A commercial
version was mentioned.)  What about this "inert, porous metal" electrode...
What metal is it, and how-do-I-make/where-do-I-get them?

						Rick Miller
						rick@csd4.csd.uwm.edu