Hydrogen fuel cells may sound futuristic but they’ve actually been around for a long time – conceptually, hydrogen cells have been kicked around by physicists since the 1800s (yes, seriously) and functionally, the past decade has seen various auto manufactures create concept cars for this fuel type. The problem has always stemmed from overall efficiency of fuel cells, making it a fairly nascent (and unprofitable) industry.

That may change, as aluminum is opening the door to practical innovations that may revolutionize the hydrogen cell industry. A Japanese research team has found that a new aluminum alloy works more effectively than previous alloys based on magnesium, sodium, and boron. From Science News:

Lightweight interstitial hydrides — compounds in which hydrogen atoms occupy the interstices (spaces) between metal atoms — have been proposed as a safe and efficient means for storing hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. Hydrides using magnesium, sodium and boron have been manufactured, but so far, none have proven practical as a hydrogen repository. An aluminum-based alloy hydride offers a more viable candidate because it has the desired traits of light weight, no toxicity to plants and animals, and absence of volatile gas products except for hydrogen. Until now, however, only complex aluminum hydrides — unsuitable for use as a hydrogen storage system — have been created.

In a recent paper in the AIP Publishing journal APL Materials, a joint research group with members from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (Hyogo, Japan) and Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) announced that it had achieved the long-sought goal of a simple-structured, aluminum-based interstitial alloy. Their compound, Al2CuHx, was synthesized by hydrogenating Al2Cu at an extreme pressure of 10 gigapascals (1.5 million pounds per square inch) and a high temperature of 800 degrees Celsius (1,500 degrees Fahrenheit).

Aluminum is already a key component in increasing fuel efficiency because of its lightweight and strong material properties. However, this is the first time that aluminum has been discussed as a component of changing the fuel mechanism itself. The impact of this research probably won’t be felt for several years, but the possibilities of more effective hydrogen-based power (where water vapor is the only emission) is good news from a global economic and environmental standpoint.

Aluminum is already one of the greenest metals around, from its high recycling efficiency to its manufacturing usage as a means of increasing car MPG. Here’s another feather in aluminum’s environmentally friendly cap: now it’s a groundbreaking way for solar panels to become more efficient and consumer friendly — and it all comes down to nanometers of aluminum cylinders. From Scientific American:

A problem with solar panels is that most of the light energy that hits a solar panel is not absorbed.

But by trapping light in a solar panel, researchers found they can increase the overall efficiency of a panel by up to 22%. These results are published in the October issue of Scientific Reports by researchers from Imperial College of London, Belgium, China, and Japan.

Dr. Hylton and his colleagues attached rows of aluminum cylinders just 100 nanometers across to the top of the solar panel – giving them a Lego®-like appearance – where they interact with passing light, causing individual light rays to change course. More energy is extracted from the light as the rays become trapped inside the solar panel and travel for longer distances through its absorbing layer.

Looks like aluminum’s won this race — but who were its competitors?

Previous attempts have used silver and gold studs because those materials have strong interactions with light, but researchers found that they interact too well with light by absorbing the light before it enters the solar panel.

“The key to understanding these new results is in the way the internal structures of these metals interact with light. Gold and silver both have a strong effect on passing light rays, which can penetrate into the tiny studs and be absorbed, whereas aluminum has a different interaction and merely bends and scatters light as it travels past them into the solar cells.”

Gold and silver may be prettier to the eye, but in this case, aluminum’s the smarter material choice. At this rate, could aluminum jewelry be far behind?

Florida business owner Bruce Hicks spends most of his time refitting flower and bread trucks into modernized food trucks. However, one of Hicks’ recent projects has gotten people’s attention — and it has nothing to do with selling Asian/Mexican fushion wraps out of a truck. From the Florida Sun Sentinel:

From the outside, it looks like a giant silver freezer. It’s 4 feet wide, 8 feet long and 5 feet high, big enough to house a narrow bed, a small sink and a toilet.

But can this boxy pod help South Florida’s homeless? Two local businessmen think so.

Bruce Hicks, owner of Food Truck Heaven in Davie, has constructed a prototype for a mini-shelter on wheels that could be used to provide short-term housing for people who suddenly find themselves homeless or as relief for crowded shelters.

He asked Hicks — who’s known for transforming former flower and bread trucks into bustling food trucks — if he could design something similar: a micro-home-on-wheels.

Hicks accepted the challenge and spent a week in August building it out of aluminum.

The immediate service for these aluminum pods may be for a community’s local homeless population, but some big-picture thinking shows how they could be adapted for disaster-relief situations.

Now Norton and Hicks are developing plans to present the contraption to local shelters and see how these pods can be used. They think such units could also help people who lose their homes after a natural disaster, such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

“It can give you a little hope to carry you a week or another month,” said Norton. “What we have is a potential solution, a low-cost solution for temporary housing for somebody in crisis.

Thanks to aluminum’s combination of strength and lightweight properties, temporary shelters like this can be made available. With the prototype now ready, the next step will be to see if the market is ready for such an innovation.

It may be one of the more obscure Guinness World Records out there, but it’s been broken. Just a few days ago — September 21st to be exact — a group in Japan shattered the record for “an object fashioned with aluminum cans.” Hey, if you’re going to break an obscure world record, you might as well go the distance and obliterate it, right?

From The Asahi Shimbun:

Guinness World Records on Sept. 21 certified that the newly constructed “castle” is now the world record holder for an object fashioned with the largest number of aluminum cans, 104,840.

The Toyohashi Junior Chamber had been engaged in the project since June to show the importance of recyclable materials at Toyohashi Park, located on the site of historic Yoshida Castle.

The artwork draws its design from the reconstructed corner tower of Yoshida Castle. The landmark structure was destroyed in a fire during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) and reconstructed shortly after the end of World War II.

The artwork, which was built in a plaza in front of the tower and measures 6.6 meters in width, 5.5 meters in length and 5 meters in height, is entirely constructed with aluminum cans. The cans were affixed with an adhesive agent.

In the certification ceremony held in the plaza, members of the junior chamber cried “banzai” when an official Guinness record adjudicator certified the structure as the new record holder.

The previous record was held by an object built in Saudi Arabia in May, which used 66,400 cans.

If you’re curious, 104,840 aluminum cans translates to about 3083.5 pounds of aluminum. And with the going rate of about 40 cents per pound of recycled aluminum, that structure would earn you about $1,233. However, getting in the Guinness Book Of World Records is probably priceless.

Jaguar is tossing their hat (presumably a British bowler hat) into the aluminum ring. At the recent Frankfurt auto show, the luxury auto manufacturer announced its plans to compete with mid-size BMW and Merecedes-Benz sedans. A big part of the conceptual design will be the industry’s first aluminum unibody for the segment. From autonews.com:

Jaguar claims the sedan will be the first aluminum unibody vehicle in the C and D segments.

The sedan and other variants off the platform will use a new-generation Jaguar Land Rover-developed four-cylinder engine. Jaguar plans gasoline and diesel versions of the high-output, fuel-efficient engines.

The small-displacement engines will be made in a new $776 million factory in Wolverhampton, England.

One of Jaguar’s major stumbling blocks in the United States has been its lack of smaller, fuel-efficient powerplants. A Ford-based, 2.0-liter 240-hp, turbocharged four-cylinder engine was made available in the XF sedan only last fall.

The new modular and scalable architecture, Jaguar said, is made of high-strength, lightweight aluminum that is extremely stiff and will enable high-volume production.

It also will allow for “competitive interior packaging,” a growing concern for luxury brands as they scale down vehicle size and weight to meet consumer preferences and fuel efficiency standards.

This comes on the heels of the company’s investment in a new British manufacturing plant as it ramps up production. However, it still doesn’t explain why its (fictional) early 1960s models failed to start at crucial times.