Talk of the need for a renewable, clean energy source is everywhere these days, but until now, aluminum hasn't really been a player in the discussion. Why not? Josiah Nelson asked the same question when a mistake in the lab led him to observe an unexpected reaction between water and aluminum that'd been stripped of its outermost layer. The result? An intense bubbling created by the oxidation of water, leaving nothing behind but hydrogen and aluminum oxide.

He soon realized he'd stumbled upon something that could change the world: a 100% renewable way to make hydrogen and electricity with efficiencies comparable to fossil fuels at about one-fifth of the cost of non-renewable and unclean hydrogen-generating processes. That's not all: this process of hydrogen generation is scalable and reliable enough for industrial manufacturing.

It didn't take long for him to join forces with Tirthak Saha in the founding of Trolysis, a company devoted to bringing this technology to market and ultimately powering the world. With the demand for hydrogen hovering somewhere around 90 billion metric tons per year in the US alone, Nelson's claim to have found the holy grail for renewable energy enthusiasts might just be legitimate. Both Nelson and Saha offer an exciting and engaging discussion about the Trolysis technology, the underlying chemistry at play, and the three main problems with other methods of hydrogen regeneration. Hit play and learn more at trolysis.com.