Clean energy claim: Aluminum in your car tank

Prof claims hydrogen breakthrough, but says Energy Dept. 'egos' in the way

IMAGE: PROFESSOR, RESEARCHERS SHOW HYDROGEN

Purdue professor Jerry Woodall, center, and researchers Charles Allen and Jeffrey Zeibarth display hydrogen gas created by adding water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium.

A Purdue University engineer and National Medal of Technology winner says he's ready and able to start a revolution in clean energy.

Professor Jerry Woodall and students have invented a way to use an aluminum alloy to extract hydrogen from water — a process that he thinks could replace gasoline as well as its pollutants and emissions tied to global warming.

But Woodall says there's one big hitch: "Egos" at the U.S. Department of Energy, a key funding source for energy research, "are holding up the revolution."

Woodall says the method makes it unnecessary to store or transport hydrogen — two major challenges in creating a hydrogen economy.