[Land-speed] Fw: Ford's Hydrogen 999 racer shooting for fuel cell land speed record > Hybrid News

[drmayf]

well, Ed, you woul dbe wrong about the really big bang part. Back in 
Apollo days there was a free hydrogen explosion at the Rocketdyne 
facility in Santa Susana. They detanked stage 2 from the Saturn rocket 
system which used Hydrogen as the fuel. The hydrogen was allowed to boil 
off into the atmosphere.  Something set it off. For just about a mile 
around the complex, every window was blown inward trailer complex was 
crushed, cars were mashed and windows blown in, eardrums were ruptured.
And as I recall, the upper and lower explosive limits for h2 are 2% and 
98% in air. So inside a closed race car it can get concentrated enough 
to explode, not burn. Explode.

mayf
Ed Weldon wrote:

>Forwarded with edits
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Ed Weldon" <23.weldon at comcast.net>
>To: <webmaster at landracing.com>; <drmayf at mayfco.com>
>Cc: "LSR List" <land-speed at autox.team.net>
>Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 9:35 PM
>Subject: Re: [Land-speed] Ford's Hydrogen 999 racer shooting for fuel cell
>land speed record > Hybrid News
>
>
>  
>
>>Jon-- I'm pretty much with you on this subject.  But we still don't have a
>>lot of experience with compressed hydrogen fuel in everyday transportation
>>use.  I think erring on the side of caution is a good idea until we're
>>    
>>
>well
>  
>
>>past the possibility of the "Gawd, I wouldn't have imagined that anything
>>like that would happen" stage.  I think a lot of us have been cowed by the
>>pictures of the Hindenburg disaster.  Recent research and learned analyses
>>of that incident have shown that the process or burning of the airship was
>>    
>>
>a
>  
>
>>lot more complicated than we thought.
>>
>>Hydrogen has the useful property of diffusing extremely rapidly making the
>>maintenance of an explosive mix with oxygen in the atmosphere a very
>>transient condition.  The net result of this is IMHO the maintenance of a
>>substantial volume mixture of explosive potential fairly difficult; i.e.
>>    
>>
>not
>  
>
>>a good bet for really big "bangs".  In this statement I'll readily defer
>>    
>>
>to
>  
>
>>the wisdom of guys like Roy Creel or people with real world experience.
>>
>>I think if gasoline powered automobiles had just been invented there would
>>be an incredible outcry about the hazards of carrying around 10 or 15
>>gallons of the stuff in human controlled vehicles that travel at 70 mph
>>    
>>
>and
>  
>
>>can crash under conditions of improper operation.  So I'm a bit hesitant
>>about jumping on the fear bandwagon with respect to hydrogen fuels.
>>
>>All of this notwithstanding I remain very skeptical about the
>>    
>>
>practicallity
>  
>
>>of compressed gaseous hydrogen as a motor fuel for consumer
>>    
>>
>transportation.
>  
>
>>Still I'd encourage Ford to go forward with their research and prove me
>>wrong.  This is something we have to explore even if it ultimately fails
>>    
>>
>to
>  
>
>>prove to be a great commercial success.
>>Ed Weldon
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- 
>>From: "Jon Amo" <webmaster at landracing.com>
>>To: <drmayf at mayfco.com>
>>Cc: "LSR List" <land-speed at autox.team.net>
>>Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 9:01 PM
>>Subject: Re: [Land-speed] Ford's Hydrogen 999 racer shooting for fuel cell
>>land speed record > Hybrid News
>>    
>>
>>>Im not sure why you are so scared of the Hydrogen projects and im not
>>>      
>>>
>sure
>  
>
>>>why the SCTA is taking special precautions for the vehicle..........
>>>Jon
>>>      
>>>
>_______________________________________________
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>
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