The main concern for hydrogen as a fuel now is the high pressures. If the pressure vessel is damaged it explodes due to mechanical forces. This is not impossible to work around. Consider, for example, that gas tanks can already be punctured and lead to fires; it takes a fair accounting of the risks to really rule out hydrogen as a fuel.
There are still dangers, but practically I'm not sure they are that much worse than a gasoline fire. There are also systems that reduce the pressures needed, like activated carbon beds. Research on them stalled mostly because there was no good way to generate H2.
You rarely by accident get a stoichiometric mix. With a slow leak into an enclosed container is usually how it happens. Otherwise there is too much fuel to O2 in the atmosphere.
People really need to stop trying to sound smart by thinking of imagined dangers. That is what stopped nuclear power, it's what's stopping hydrogen as a fuel, it's what's stopping gene therapy research, etc. Get over yourself.
> Get over yourself.
Right back atcha.
Good grief, "stoichiometric mixture" is not a reasonable person's danger threshold. The mechanical energy alone is terrifying, which was the point of bringing up COPVs.
While we're at it, let's put giant flywheels in chemical cars to do regenerative breaking. They'll probably have less mechanical energy than the titanic so they're probably no big deal, right? Right.
I'm doing as best I can. I happened to have a coworker who was involved in alternative fuels research, specifically the H2 cylinders that operated at lower pressures using a carbon substrate. But even if you don't use that you can still construct and secure the container so it splits instead of shatters and contains most or all of the debris. You can install a shield bulkhead into the car to deflect debris to the ground. You can do loads of things.
You are not original, you are not the first person to raise these concerns, and very competent people have been working on them.
They tested the incendiary paint hypothesis on the TV show Mythbusters.
The MythBusters concluded that the paint may have contributed to the disaster, but that it was not the sole reason for such rapid combustion.
I agree though, planes and H2 probably don’t mix. Jet fuel should not be a priority to replace with H2. Priority should be given to static applications before trying to apply it to moving vehicles.