Hydrogen fuel, which produces no heat-trapping air pollution at the point of use, could be the future of clean energy. But first, some of the technology around still has to be improved, and researchers at the University of Alberta believe they have made an important step in that direction, AL Circle reported.
The breakthrough out of the University of Alberta is a new alloy material — dubbed AlCrTiVNi5 — that consists of metals such as aluminum and nickel. The alloy has great potential for coating surfaces that have to endure extremely high temperatures, such as gas turbines, power stations, airplane engines, and hydrogen combustion engines.
Hydrogen combustion engines are different from fuel cells, which also run on hydrogen. They are being used to develop cars that run on clean energy. While fuel cells rely on a chemical process to convert hydrogen into electricity, hydrogen combustion engines burn hydrogen fuel, creating energy via combustion, just like a traditional gas-powered car (but without all the pollution).
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