Thread: Electrolisis?????

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Yes indeed I have read about the aluminized coating on the Hindenberg fabric, but the part about it being as bad with He might not be true since He might have quenched/smothered the fire somewhat rather than just burning like hydrogen. I guess what I am worried about is that a lot of progressive folks will sell the idea of liquid hydrogen as a fuel and everything will be great as long as the parts are new and everyone is careful at first, but then after about 5 years as parts wear and folks get careless some major explosions may occur in domestic situations such as home storage tanks. Yes in fact gasoline has more explosive potential on a weight basis but the real problem nobody is emphasizing is that hydrogen is one of the smallest molecules and can leak like crazy through any tiny hole, so the danger is mainly from leaking gaskets or bad fittings; more so than from a propane or butane tank where the molecules are much bigger. Well even if BMW and others can show a seemingly practical way for fillups I think the leakage problem is the main ignored hazard. Of course we probably have all seen some folks get away with even filling a gas tank while smoking (not advised) and getting away with it, but with hydrogen the danger will be greater. The bottom line is that maybe I just saw that film on the Hindenberg too many times and maybe (??) with care liquid hydrogen will become "practical" but I will wait to see how it goes before I switch to liquid hydrogen.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Hey this got me thinking so in edit mode let me try to clarify my position. I would not recommend doing a large scale hydrolysis in a closed garage, but probably with the garage door open and one other window open for air flow there should be no problem. Here is an example worth thinking about. Fill a child's balloon with pure hydrogen and then half fill another with hydrogen and the other half with air (20% oxygen). If you now touch a candle to the balloon with only hydrogen it will pop with a minor "pffft" but when you ignite the balloon that has oxygen as well as hydrogen, you will get a "BAAWHOOOOM!" that will shake your walls! The point is that the Hindenberg burned some material and mostly pure hydrogen but a leak source of hydrogen mixed with the oxygen in the air is potentially a highly explosive mixture so small leaks of hydrogen into an air/oxygen environment is far more hazardous than burning pure hydrogen.