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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pgerassi who wrote (124072)	9/17/2000 1:13:46 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572250

Pete, what is the energy density (per lb) of a Liquid Hydrogen system, on a scale that would fit in a motor vehicle? Not just the liquid H2 itself, but the kind of tank that would be necessary to consider driving around with it safely? Aside from the interesting idea of pulling up at the local filling station for a refill of 18K fluid. An amusing aside on a vaguely related topic. You can use a mix of propane and butane as a drop-in replacement for R12 in older automotive air conditioners. It's dirt cheap, and I think it might actually be a more efficient refrigerant. However, the idea of having a couple pounds of LP gas equivalent circulating in the front of the car strikes terror, even though it would be pretty difficult to make a combustible mixture out of it. Do you think driving around with a tank of LiH would be more acceptable? Cheers, Dan.

To: pgerassi who wrote (124072)	9/17/2000 2:15:14 PM
From: DRBES	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572250

re: "You have to heat the hydrides to release the hydrogen but density is about 1/3 (I think) of LiH." That is not a problem, you can use exhaust heat from the engine to provide the heat. If you actively pump the hydrogen out of the hydride it can provide air conditioning for the vehicle. During the late seventies Mercedes Benz was very active in this area. The engineering, practicality, and practicability problems associated with metal hydrides are profound. They are expensive (not all of them, just the one that you would want to use), they shrink and expand and mechanically and some chemically degenerate on cycling, and they are mostly so massive per unit of hydrogen storage that they can seem to make battery powered cars light. BTW, I have three or four US patents and one European patent (owned by a very large oil company) in this once fertile (now seen as futile) area. Patient Regards, DARBES