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Norway island stores wind power for still days | 30 comments (30 topical, 0 editorial)
Re: Norway island stores wind power for still days (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by Sundog on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 12:02:20 PM MST
(User Info)

Hydrogen is bugger-all hard to store.  

The molecule is itty-bitty, and tends to leak through "solid" materials such as steel and aluminum like water through cheesecloth.   Brown's Gas is viciously nasty stuff.  Very energetic, burns very fast, and burns very hot!   Don't even imagine playing with it unless you want your only remaining body hair to be on your nether regions!  

One of the first applications of Oxyhydrogen (the real name for Brown's gas) was lighting by heating a chunk of chalk or lime to incandescence. That's where "limelight" comes from.  Another was a torch that was used to melt "exotic" metals (platinum, titanium, etc) before the advent of arc furnaces and induction heating.  

Producing oxyhydrogen in a closed, pressurized container is simply begging for an explosion to level your workshop.  I've worked with it exactly 3 times.  The first time it self-ignited due to static electricity.  Thankfully, it wasn't under much pressure and simply made a small torch that singed my workbench and scared the poo out of me.  
The second time, I produced it and used a "squirt" of it from the low-pressure vessel to run a lawn mower (crappily, I may add) for about 4 seconds.  The third time the production vessel sparked internally (oops) and fire-based hilarity ensued, including but not limited to :
 Profanity
 Burnt hair
 scorched notes (paper)
 A badly abraded backside (my dad whipped my butt good!)
 And a complete disinterest in it after that

  I can't tell you NOT to play with the stuff.   But I can tell you that you're much, much better off not playing with the stuff.  

Just my $.08 worth.  (experience and a very clear memory involving my dad's belt and my backside increases the value of this advice)

Shad H.




Re: Norway island stores wind power for still days (3.00 / 0) (#15)
by DamonHD (d@hd.org) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:27:13 PM MST
(User Info) http://www.earth.org.uk/

I agree that I would not play with it: a school chemistry teacher nearly killed all of us demonstrating how H2 will spontaneously combust on a platinum catalyst (in plain air I think, never mind pure O2).


Don't even imagine playing with it unless you want your only remaining body hair to be on your nether regions!

It does hair transplants too?  B^>

Rgds

Damon

[ Parent ]



Re: Norway island stores wind power for still days (3.00 / 0) (#16)
by Tritium on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:54:37 PM MST
(User Info)

I would certainly NEVER store the 2 gases in a common area (one container) as they are a perfect mix to burn (explode). Pure hydrogen can be stored safely at low pressures (3 to 10" of water pressure) which is what most appliances that burn gas need anyway after the regulator. I would rather turn the O2 loose into the atmosphere to offset CO2 produced by other processes on my ranch. I worked with the stuff in the semiconductor industry and it simply requires knowledge of the characteristics of the gas, common sense and basic gas safety practices to avoid an accident.

Thurmond

[ Parent ]



Norway island stores wind power for still days | 30 comments (30 topical, 0 editorial)

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