How much Hydrogen Gas Evolved from

Aluminum, Magnesium, and Zinc when

Reacting with Acid





Walter Betz

CEM 153
Section 2
October 30, 2013


Introduction
The use of hydrogen gas as a power source in our companies aerospace and aircraft technology
is essential as it powers rockets and life support systems
(1)
.finding a more efficient way to produce the
gas would be very useful, as the company has come across a large amount of magnesium and aluminum.
A team of chemists and I have been assigned to observe if using either of these two metals would be
more efficient than using zinc, the metal the company already uses to produce hydrogen gas. The
equation for the reactions of the metals with acid are as follows
2Al (s) + HCl (aq) 3H
2
(g) + AlCl (aq) (1)
Mg (s) + HCl (aq) H
2
+ MgCl (aq) (2)
Zn (s) +