very ingenious..can,t wait for scale-up news of success.

Of course this totally ignores the huge amounts of energy required to refine aluminum. Approximately 1 kg of aluminum uses 15 kilowatt-hours of electricity. And that doesn\'t even include the amount of energy required to extract the aluminum from the ore. Using aluminum as an energy carrier is very very inefficient. Recycling aluminum is a far better use, since it requires 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than to mine and refine it. Yes, this is a fine science experiment, but I don\'t want to see it scaled up because it\'s very wasteful.

Acorn, it said WASTE ALUMINUM. Are you going to argue that ALL aluminum is recycled? I think not.

@Eletruk - We're anxiously awaiting your better design! Not sure where you get the idea they plan to mine and refine aluminum from this... you do see the old can tabs right? Or you could also simply read the article before posting comments. This is a great idea, using RECYCLED aluminum to power a vehicle.
Cool concept, clever name, looking forward to the cleaner future!

Pure academic dilettantism.
The future is the use of electricity directly.

@Eletruk Do you know if there\'s anywhere online to read about the recycle process for aluminium please? Ian Colley.

What I think of when I read \"soda can rings\" are the plastic things which hold a 6-pack together. The opener tabs haven\'t been ring-shaped for 25~30 years, ever since the type which is made to stay with the can was invented.

Why not use solar electricity to split Urea H4co to H & use this, spliting voltage is .39 volts. U also get double the amount of H. U can even pee into the cell & it works!!?. No recycling required. Cheers John M

Sodium Hydroxide is a catalyst? Sodium Hydroxide is a reactant, it is also known as Lye and caustic soda although not very dangerous it can burn your skin just like an acid. If you have waste zinc, i.e. old battery case then you can use Hydrochloric acid, Muriatic acid to do the same thing i.e. generate Hydrogen.

while it\'s easy to criticize, I think it shows great talent! We need these kind of ideas to help us find new sources of energy. And, Mr. J. Bell did a great job on that video. Pehaps he\'ll move on to a major movie someday....