Combustion synthesis of alumina with possible CO-GENERATION of power

Aluminum-water combustion method has been advocated to produce hydrogen and synthesize ceramic materials with high purity. In the present study, aluminum-water combustion was employed to synthesize alumina, along with possible co-generation of power. The exhaust gases from aluminum-water combustion comprises of 70% (by mole basis) of hydrogen. This hydrogen gas was burnt with excess air, around an A/F ratio of 16:1 to produce large mass flow rate of gases at temperatures around 1873 K. These gases could be further used to run a turbine for generating power. The possible power generation for this method was estimated to be 6.37 MW per kg of aluminum. The purity and the fraction of alumina in the residue of aluminum-water combustion was mainly influenced by oxidizer to fuel (O/F) ratio. The stoichiometric O/F ratio of 1 resulted in 94% pure α-alumina at all pressures, which was confirmed by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis.