Originally Posted by
redfirepearlgt
^^^ H2's byproduct when being burned is H2O. Back in the early 80's scientists were fooling around with seeing if they could find a way to split H20, burn the H2, capture the water vapor, then split again in a form of perpetual motion. It was called Hydrolysis if I recall correctly. Big article on it I read in the very first year of DISCOVER magazine. But as with many things like this, the cost and energy top split the H20 molecule took more energy than it produced when rebonded back into water vapor when the H2 was burned. Great idea, just not practical. I always hoped that other ideas of working with H2 after that would have caught on. Sadly people were so convinced that H2 was too dangerous to work with because of the Hindenburg incident. What they weren't aware is that H2 was not the big issue in that incident. It was early on in too high a concentration level to explode. It did burn but the accelerant that caused the airship to burn so quickly was the aluminum powder in the paint on the material covering the frame in which the H2 was held. All combustible gases have a high and low concentration level in which they will ignite with air. Some ranges are smaller than others. Below that range it will not ignite at all, above the range it may burn but will nor explode. High enough concentration level and it may not even burn. H2 has an LEL of 5% by volume and a UEL of 17%.
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