Gas stations are dangerous!

[SByer]

And that's just with gasoline, which is flammable but not explosive. Compressed hydrogen would be another beast altogether...

[Alfred]

And that's just with gasoline, which is flammable but not explosive. Compressed hydrogen would be another beast altogether...

Gasoline and Hydrogen are very different. Both can be ignited when mixed with air (gasoline vapours), but Hydrogen needs less energy for the reaction to be triggered than gasoline vapours do. Gasoline vapours explode only in a fairly narrow range of air admixture, whereas hydrogen goes off across a much wider range (as does alcohol). Hydrogen is of course very difficult to contain and leaks easily (goes through glass e.g.). To build hydrogen tight assemblies for a car rattled across cobblestones is not a trivial exercise. Be careful with alcohol and your barbecue, the bottle can already go off when you open it (static spark will do).

[vfx]

Hydrogen Stations are Dangerous!
(worth a new thread)

With as few stations and cars as there are now, I wonder what the accident rate is in relation? One explosion per every "...16,000 hydrogen fill ups by over 800 drivers." does not sound that good to me. I that all hydrogen stations and all cars?
How does that compare with gasoline and electric power station explosions?

[mpt]

goes through glass

Don't mean to derail the thread but... wow! That to me sounds like the sort of quote that would really hit home just how impractical hydrogen is; it's the sort of thing that makes sense to the common man.

I plan to use that if you don't mind.

[vfx]

That line struck me too. I will also use it.

[eledille]

A couple more facts:

The H2 molecule brownian motion is faster than the Earth's escape velocity, so our gravity field can't contain it. When released into the atmosphere, it eventually escapes into space. Talk about hard to trap!

A hydrogen fire is almost invisible in daylight. Earlier, NASA trained its firefighters to wave a broom about in front of them if they suspected a hydrogen fire - the broom would then catch fire first, so the firefighter could avoid walking right into it. http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff1997/ps1.html. Quote NASA: "Indeed, hydrogen fires are a significant risk". This goes for alcohol too, by the way.

[Cobos]

Yes I can gladly attest to this. Having used a hydrogen flame as a blowtorch the flame is pretty scary. When you purposefully turn it on and use it the heat distorts the gasses around the flame so you can actually see it. Though the effect is pretty subtle and at one point I almost put my hand through the flame as I thought the burner was off. It does make for a nice indoor flame though since there is no carbongas buildup

Cobos

[tdelta1000]

WOW!!!!!!!!! Thanks goodness there was no fire.

[PopSmith]

Fort Myere, FL gas line rupture w/fire

[dpeilow]

Sort of counterpoint...

Neil Young warehouse fire started in car

A fire at a warehouse owned by Neil Young started in a 1959 Lincoln Continental car he had converted into a hybrid vehicle, authorities have said.