Re:The Hydrogen Myth
by jws on Sunday July 05, 2009 @11:24PM
(#689076)
hydrogen refinery would look same when on fire as when not. - except for the heat wave distortion, plumes of smoke from burning paint, drooping steel gangways, showers of electrical sparks from the shorting electrical system, and workers leaping from the upper levels.
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Re:The Hydrogen Myth
by potatolicious on Monday July 06, 2009 @03:16AM
(#689278)
And if the fuel in a hydrogen car decided to burn, everyone in its vicinity will find out in a real hurry - a fire that looks different is still a fire.
Though his point is valid - hydrogen will burn extremely quickly, we used to do these as demonstrations in school. Where a pool of gasoline will burn over a period of time, a tank full of hydrogen will burn almost instantaneously to disastrous effect - forget about rescue, the only sort of "rescue" will be body retrieval of whatever is left.
However, hydrogen will not pool like gasoline. If it doesn't ignite, it will just fly off into space. This mitigates some of the risk (i.e. if there is an accident, a fuel leak will either kill you quickly, or it won't)