The paste that generates hydrogen and can power electric motors

The “paste” is called POWERPAST and has been developed by the Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden (Germany). It is a solid compound that contains magnesium and hydrogen and that has the peculiarity of producing hydrogen on contact with water.

And we have to bear in mind that magnesium is very abundant in nature.

The hydrogen generated can power a hydrogen fuel cell that produces electrical energy to drive an electric motor. And in a seemingly simple way, with this new paste, an electric vehicle could be moved.

And the electric motor is the future of pollution-free mobility.

The pasta has the appearance indicated in the previous photo and a series of very important advantages:

It is stable in a semi-solid state at room temperature and pressure, so it can be easily transported and stored without the problems of liquid hydrogen.

It can withstand up to 250 ºC without affecting its structure, so its storage in vehicles would not entail any risk.

It has a large energy storage capacity, which is 10 times higher than that of current lithium batteries, which are the ones that today power electric cars.

Refilling this “fuel” in a vehicle would be a matter of a few minutes and would consist of changing the empty “cartridge” for another full of paste.

And as they indicate the operation is also quite simple, when it is mixed with water it produces hydrogen, and that hydrogen comes partly from the paste and partly from the water that decomposes on contact with it.

With the hydrogen thus generated, a hydrogen fuel cell can be fed to produce electricity and with that electricity to drive an electric motor.

The people of the Fraunhofer Institute have been working on this project for a few years, and the product is already in the stage of starting to produce operational prototypes to adjust and lower the cost of the processes, and at the same time verify the repeatability of the results and possible improvements.

A video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVn4qJwtNX8

Apparently in the explanatory video they still have work to do, but the idea is good and it seems more than promising.

They plan to set up the first “pasta” production factory in 2021 and manufacture 4 tons of material per year for the first tests with a certain variety of vehicles.

They have not defined what it would cost to move a vehicle with this type of paste although they indicated that it was cheap, but they did not define it precisely. So they still have some work to do.