Metals to Fuel Future Cars?

As world oil reserves dwindle and global warming looms, governments and vehicle manufacturers are looking for clean, viable alternatives to oil based fuel.

While some look toward ethanol or hydrogen solutions, Israeli company Engineuity has come up with an uncanny alternative – using light metals such as aluminium or magnesium as fuel.

Professor Amnon Yuegev, co-founder of Engineuity, says his company has created a unit that allows an ordinary, slightly modified car engine to use to use light metals with water as fuel.

Instead of a petrol tank, the car would be fitted with a "Metal-Steam combustor". This unit heats the metal to very high temperatures with water, which produces a steady supply of steam and hydrogen as fuel to the car engine. The hydrogen then burns in the cylinders, powering the vehicle. The solid metal oxide resulting from the Metal-Steam combustor would be returned to the fuel station for recycling.

Metal fuels solve several significant problems compared to petrol. Petrol is non-renewable and when burned, releases greenhouse-causing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When metals burn however, they turn into solid metal oxides that can be recycled into fuel again. There is therefore no ongoing drainage of metal resources.

The engine itself runs on hydrogen, and only water is produced when hydrogen is burned. This water is re-used in the Metal-Steam combustor, so the engine would produce zero emissions.

The system is also has some benefits over other hydrogen fuel solutions. In an interview with IsraCast, Professor Yuegev said only enough hydrogen is produced as is needed by the engine at that time and the hydrogen is ignited as it is produced, avoiding the need to store the explosive gas.

The system is also more efficient than other hydrogen solutions because the heat resulting from the metal-steam combustion is stored in the steam and utilised instead of being wasted.

Refuelling a car based on the Metal-Steam combustor technology should be easy, as the metals are stable and could be bought from fuel stations or even retail outlets.

The vehicle would contain a mechanism for rolling the metal wire into a coil during the process of refuelling. The spent metal oxide would be collected from the car by vacuum suction.

The performance of the engine should be similar to that of existing petrol powered vehicles, and the cost of the fuel should be comparable with petrol.

The space required to contain the metal wire is similar to that required for petrol, however the metal fuel will be three times heavier than petrol. Engineuity say this is much better than other alternative fuel solutions.

Professor Amnon Yuegev said the technology has been tested and proven to work, and Engineuity is currently working on integrating its Metal-Steam combustor unit with a modified engine.