It is neither explosive nor toxic – the byproducts are a small amount of water vapor and aluminum powder, which can be recycled. Ardica appears to be ultimatel

It is neither explosive nor toxic – the byproducts are a small amount of water vapor and aluminum powder, which can be recycled. Ardica appears to be ultimately searching for a rechargeable hydrogen storage medium. Fill a cell with aluminum. Add hydrogen to generate alane in situ. (or charge cell with alane to begin with) Discharge to re-form aluminum. Repeat. There are many technical challenges on the way to this vision. Alane as fuel would only be practical if it could be economically regenerated from the waste aluminum in situ. Otherwise the waste aluminum would need to be purged from the system somehow. Waste liquids are easy to work with through pumps, but waste solids (and potentially pyrophoric powders) are very difficult to move. The company claims that alane does not spontaneously combust. In its alpha form, this is true. But these materials are passivated through the addition of an oxide coating. Doing so could also render the material inert as a fuel. From Ardica's issued patents, these challenges haven't yet been addressed.