Re: Introduction

[Dave Everett <deverett@idx.com.au>]

At 08:22 PM 10-05-98 PDT, you wrote:
>and one of the then 
>projected features of his sub was something called an Aluminum Oxygen 
>battery (ALOx). He was going to mount a pair of these under the wings. 
>The article describes them as aluminum plates doused in seawater, scaled 
>up from units that power emergency-buoy beacans. I have been unable to 
>find any info on how these really work. does anybody have any ideas?
>
Here is a page I found with some info about aluminium oxygen batteries.

http://itri.loyola.edu/subsea/c3_s2.htm

These don't seem to be immmersed in seawater though, using oxygen as the
activator.

It's possible the battery you are thinking of is more like the
proton-exchange battery that uses one aluminium and one magnesium
sacrificial rods. Filling the cell with water, fresh or sea, causes a
chemical reaction to occur which causes electrons to flow.

Of course the aluminium and magnesium rods are consumed and are not easily
reprocessed so it's not a cheap option.

Dave Everett