Metal powders have potential as recyclable fuels for transport and energy

Researchers in Canada and Europe believe metal powders could be used as a viable long-term replacement for fossil fuels.

The findings from a team at McGill University and a European Space Agency scientist in the Netherlands are detailed in the journal Applied Energy.

“Technologies to generate clean electricity – primarily solar and wind power – are being developed rapidly; but we can’t use that electricity for many of the things that oil and gas are used for today, such as transportation and global energy trade,” said McGill University professor Jeffrey Bergthorson, lead author of the study.

“Biofuels can be part of the solution, but won’t be able to satisfy all the demand; hydrogen requires big, heavy fuel tanks and is explosive, and batteries are too bulky and don’t store enough energy for many applications,” says Bergthorson, a mechanical engineering professor and Associate Director of the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design at McGill.  “Using metal powders as recyclable fuels that store clean primary energy for later use is a very promising alternative solution.”