Can you produce electricity from the process directly? If you cannot use a fuel cell, the efficiency and usefulness drop quickly. There are better metals we cou

Can you produce electricity from the process directly? If you cannot use a fuel cell, the efficiency and usefulness drop quickly. There are better metals we could use e.g. sodium. Sodium (Na) can under circumstances outlined in the expired US patent US3730776A react with water (H2O) where there is no flame but instead flow of electrical current. You get a sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution + a lot of energy + oxygen if you do it well, if you do it less well, you also get hydrogen and less energy. The well known Castner Process can be used to split molten salt NaOH and get sodium, hydrogen and oxygen in the process. That does work under lower temperatures than the electrolysis of NaCl which is more efficient if you only look at this part of the cycle to get sodium. If you use sodium as fuel, the cycle as a whole is important for recycling. There is plenty of sodium in salt as all the oceans are salty and there are salt mines in many places. Also, it melts at about 100°C so you can pump it if you can keep it at about the temperature of boiling water. Yes, NaOH is caustic but neutralizes quickly in the nature which cannot be said for oil spills. You can keep NaOH in normal steel containers. For instance, it is common to use NaOH when cleaning clogged toilets. However you wouldn't pour gasoline down the drain. Obviously, iron is very dense, however in a useful form for burning, you need iron powder or thin threads/ foil. We would need to electrify iron foundries, which is hard to do completely as e.g. the arc furnace uses graphite electrodes. (I have worked at a steel foundry.) You can read more about the sodium fuel cell and the context here: https://orgpad.com/s/5BfLP-cxj-7 https://orgpad.com/s/5BfLP-cxj-7