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Interesting, but for the context of the project (self-sufficient villages) what's the energy requirements? Aluminum isn't scarce (most abundant metal in the ea
by jefflinwood 16y ago
Interesting, but for the context of the project (self-sufficient villages) what's the energy requirements?
Aluminum isn't scarce (most abundant metal in the earth's crust), but turning alumina into aluminum requires a lot of energy. Check out the Hall process if you're interested, or for way more information, get a BS in chemical engineering like I did :)
The rest of their web site is kind of fascinating, if you want to completely repudiate Adam Smith.
- pontifier 16y agoThe energy requirements bother me too.. I keep dreaming of slower and more efficient aluminum recycling/extraction. My fantasies mostly revolve around solar concentration in a vacuum chamber. e.g. heat the material containing aluminum and impurities to it's melting point while extracting all gases evolved. I'm not sure how Aluminum Oxide would react in that environment, but I think it would be fun to find out.
- pontifier 16y agoSo, upon closer reading the article is about Aluminum Silicate, not Aluminum Oxide. And the process I'm describing is thermal decomposition... after looking here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/139/3559/1055.short http://www.sciencemag.org/content/139/3559/1055.short and here: http://cnx.org/content/m24918/latest/ http://cnx.org/content/m24918/latest/ I find that Aluminum Silicate would most likely turn into a gas itself before I could extract the oxygen in my solar chamber... hence the need for the hydrofluoric acid to bind to the Aluminum... Sometimes I wonder why I dream at all.