Zinc economy
The zinc economy is a concept similar to the hydrogen economy, methanol economy, ethanol economy, lithium economy, vegetable oil economy or liquid nitrogen economy. The zinc economy is an alternative to or a route toward a hydrogen economy.
Description[edit]
Under the zinc economy, metallic elemental zinc would be used as an alternative to elemental hydrogen as an energy transfer medium (a fuel). The zinc would be either used in a zinc-air battery or used to generate hydrogen by electrolysis near the point of use.
A major disadvantage is that zinc is not liquid, and cannot be pumped as a fuel. But it may be pumped as pellets. Fuel cells using it (the zinc-air "battery" is considered a primary cell and is non-rechargeable) would have to empty the "spent" zinc and be refueled quickly. http://www.llnl.gov/str/10.95.html The spent zinc would be reduced at a local facility into zinc.
Hydrogen generated from zinc and water could be burned in conventional internal combustion engines, although this would provide a far less powerful engine than a hydrocarbon-powered engine; a better alternative would be the use of high efficiency electric motors to exploit the power produced by a zinc-air battery and drive the vehicle.
Zinc has a number of advantages over hydrogen as an energy-carrier. Zinc fuel cells (usually called zinc-air batteries) are already efficient enough for practical use in vehicles. Zinc is inexpensive, non-toxic, substantially easier to store than hydrogen, and can be processed by water-based electrochemistry. As an engineering material, zinc is conductive, resists corrosion (it's the coating used to galvanize steel), and is easy to fabricate (it is the most common material used in die castings). Some alloys are almost as strong as mild steel.
The single greatest problem with using zinc as a fuel is its price. Since India and China began rapidly industrializing at the end of 1990s the price of major metals such as nickel, copper, steel, aluminum and zinc has soared. As India and China continue to industrialize, the price of all major metals will rise considerably, and perhaps top the high of $50,000 USD / ton that nickel reached in May 2007.
External links[edit]
- Carbothermal - solar (or any heat) process for making zinc
- Zinc-air powered buses
- military uses of Zinc-Air Batteries