CNET news reports that Purdue University professor Jerry Woodall has discovered a way to create hydrogen out of a reaction of water and an alloy of aluminum and gallium.

Despite current skepticism about using hydrogen as a fuel source, mainly due to the fact that it is quite difficult to do and costly to obtain, others have noted that perhaps research like this along with other hydrogen developments could help dispel the prevailing criticism against using hydrogen for fuel.

Such is the criticism against looking into hydrogen as a source of energy that during the Clean Energy Venture Summit, James Woolsey, former director of the CIA and an alternate energy advocate, said that for now, looking into hydrogen is a distraction, and he notes that he favors other solutions like plug-in hybrids or clean diesel. Woolsey received a standing ovation.

Woodall, however, estimates that the technique he's developed can produce fuel that can compete with gas at 3 dollars a gallon. The actual hydrogen fuel will be more expensive than gasoline, but in turn is more efficient, and will dissipate the costs in the long run.

Here's how the good professor made his discovery:

I was cleaning a crucible containing liquid alloys of gallium and aluminum. When I added water to this alloy--talk about a discovery--there was a violent poof. I went to my office and worked out the reaction in a couple of hours to figure out what had happened. When aluminum atoms in the liquid alloy come into contact with water, they react, splitting the water and producing hydrogen and aluminum oxide.