Oh, BOY DO I....

In high school I had a science fair project explode.....we were making hydrogen out of lye and nickel in a fish tank full of water, all to fill a balloon. The project was awesome and it really did work, but I can't say that I fully understand where it went wrong. It started to smoke and we turned it off, but then without us knowing someone [who will go unnamed] turned the experiment back on and....minutes later !!!BAM!!! waaa waaa waaaw waaaaww [that's the sound I heard, as I was sitting next to the tank, and everything around me was moving in slow motion]

So I realize first hand that hydrogen can be dangerous [well I realize this now]. But I've read somethings that really interested me and my friend Claire brought up a few good points that I wanted to research. But, I am at work so my research is limited by time and limited access to reliable resources.

Like I said I don't know much about all the scientific stuff so bear with me.

They are still finding better ways to make things work everyday and that goes for hydrogen, research on hydrogen fuel cells is ongoing, and improvements will continue to be discovered. For example I read that to prove the safety of its hydrogen vehicles, BMW tested its hydrogen tanks in a series of accident simulations that included collision, fire and tank ruptures. In all cases, the hydrogen cars fared as well as conventional gasoline vehicles. And hydrogen-fueled cars are designed to preclude the possibility of leaked hydrogen collecting within the vehicle.

Also this has NOTHING to do with hydrogen fuel cells in cars, but.....did you know that hydrogen does not pool or soak into things like gasoline does...... Apparently hydrogen is SO light, that when leaked it disperses and floats skyward.

There was a college of engineering in Miami that wanted to test hydrogen and how it would burn once leaked. They let 3000 cubic feet per minute of hydrogen leak from a vehicle and set on fire. They put temperature sensors inside the vehicle to monitor the temp. During the blaze the sensors inside the vehicle did not measure an increase of more than 1 or 2 degrees centigrade anywhere inside. The temp on the outside of the vehicle did not go any higher then that of a vehicle sitting in sunlight! CRAZY isn't it!? Almost unbelievable. I guess that when a carbon-based fuel such as gasoline burns, glowing hot soot particles transfer the heat to what ever it lands on. But hydrogen contains no carbon, it burns clean with out any soot residue, it infact produces little radiant energy and in order to get burned from a hydrogen fire you would have to be practically in the flame.

Whew, I don't mean to be so long winded! I'm just fascinated that's all.

I've read that hydrogen may be friendlier to our environment but definitely not friendly to our pocket books, that's partly why it hasn't caught on everywhere yet. I guess they already have hydrogen fueling stations around the world, because some places actually are using hydrogen power. I think Iceland was one of those places. I also heard that the "Gov-a-nator" wants a hydrogen highway in the near future with hydrogen fueling stations and what not.

As for my mentioning Stanford Ovshinsky yesterday, it was mainly to note his many patents and how smart he is. He and his wife have been able to do something with their intelligence, when they have an idea they do something about it! I admire that completely!

I can only dream of being as smart as that man and his wife.