Ask HN: Hydrogen plasma to deoxidize Aluminum for sustainable green hydrogen?
2 westurner 3 6/22/2025, 8:08:09 PM
Aluminum is plentiful.
Aluminum hydrolyzes water into Hydrogen and Oxygen; but an oxide layer forms and that limits the yield.
Hydrogen plasma removes oxygen from Aluminum ( titanium, maybe graphene oxide wafers, and from).
Hydrogen plasma underwater creates various reactive Hydrogen molecules that further purify water.
Aluminum treated with hydrogen plasma quickly reoxidizes if not immersed in water.
Is hydrogen plasma + aluminum a good solution for green hydrogen?
https://news.mit.edu/2025/study-shows-making-hydrogen-soda-c...
my take though is that aluminum is made electrolytically at great energy expense so at best this is a way to transport hydrogen in metallic form which could be relevant since transporting and storing hydrogen is problematic. (I think how most metals will react with acids to make hydrogen [1] but Al reacts with bases to produce hydrogen too)
The demand is high so there is a lot of research on ways to make hydrogen, especially tuning up hydrolysis but also finding it underground [2] so call it high impact but high competition.
[1] https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/12/2009/2009-...
[2] https://www.eenews.net/articles/gold-hydrogen-the-next-clean...
Wait, where are you getting hydrogen plasma? The sun?
Couldn't the system be bootstrapped by scratching up an aluminum can, pouring in water, and turning a wheel with a handle or wind or water or gravity or so on?
And then some (?) of the produced hydrogen would be used for hydrogen plasma to refinish the aluminum