Researchers have developed a new, sustainable method to produce hydrogen gas that uses easily accessible materials including aluminium soda cans, seawater and coffee grounds.

The team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, believe the process could be a good, low carbon way to produce hydrogen for use in vehicles.

The risk with powering vehicles with a tank full of hydrogen gas is that it is volatile and highly explosive, so the team looked for ways to use the fuel without having to transport it onboard.

They discovered that when aluminium comes into contact with water, it undergoes a straightforward chemical reaction that generates hydrogen and heat.

However, as soon as the aluminium is out the water and exposed to oxygen, the surface immediately forms a thin layer of aluminium oxide, blocking the pure aluminium from interacting with the oxygen.

Inspired by previous work in which aluminium’s shield could be pierced with an alloy made from gallium and indium. Unfortunately...