Just thought I would share this. Cleaned out the water table on my pro today after cutting up an entire 4’ X 8’ sheet of 3/16" 6061 aluminum. I will be honest, the water was in need of changing before starting the job. After the cutting was complete, I drained the water from the table and scooped the debris from the table and loaded it into a bucket. Later in the day, I noticed the debris and liquid in the bucket had started to bubble like it was fermenting. Now the bucket is almost boiling with activity and the bucket is HOT! I would estimate 120 degrees F. What would cause this. I believe aluminum oxides kill bacteria. Would this be a mass bacteria execution causing violent bubbling or bacteria feeding on the aluminum debris? I will be adding some plasma cutting fluid when I refill the table as I am sure it is related to some type of organism. Anyone else witness this type of reaction?
Pictures or Video?
Sounds interesting
I went out and took a video of it. I am unable to email it due to file size. I even went back out and took a 3 second video but still no luck, still says it is too large to email. Once I figure out how to get a video on here I will post it. Pretty fascinating reaction. Bucket-O-Sludge is bubbling and steaming. Took an infrared thermo reading and it is at 137 degrees F.
make a quick youtube chanel and post it there
Reaction of Aluminium (Al) Metal with Water
Aluminium does not react with hot and cold water. Steam, though, causes it to react. Al reacts with steam to produce aluminium oxide (Al2O3).
But…
Aluminium oxide and iron are produced when iron(III) oxide reacts with aluminium. A significant amount of heat is released, which is sufficient to “melt” oxygen and aluminium. Aluminum has a higher reactivity than iron, and it can displace iron from iron(III) oxide .
Perhaps something like this is happening. Not sure what they are implying with "melt"ing oxygen. This was from a google search.