Re: hydrogen cyrogenic engine

From: G. R. L. Cowan (gcowan_at_eagle.ca)
Date: 11/18/04 

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 15:12:55 -0500

O18-C-O16 wrote:
>
> Mike <niche@iinet.net.au> wrote in message news:<41987457.C4139D47@iinet.net.au>...
> > Bill Ward wrote:
> >
> > > >Doesnt sound right, many people who dont commute regularly might leave their
> > > >car for several days, where is the hydrogen vented to.
> > > >
> > > >If its a 'fuel cell' then doesnt it need a load, if there is no load then what is done
> > > >with the heat generated ?
> > > >
> > > >Mike
> > >
> > > The fuel cell would indeed need a load. It could be anything
> > > from a simple resistor to a current indicator which could
> > > display the boiloff rate. With a tank pressure sensor, you
> > > could have a good estimate of the time remaining before
> > > you'd start losing H2.
> > >
> > > The time constant of the tank depends on the heat capacity
> > > of the contents and the heat flow leaking in from outside.
> >
> > One more reason not to use hydrogen, or two more actually,
> > waste the fuel and generate heat you need to get rid of.
> >
> > It would be nice to find a medium which could be 'recharged' with
> > waste heat from various industrial processes, which doesnt explode
> > and which can be 'activated' so it releases energy for transport applications.
>
> Graham Cowan had a signature mentioning boron as an energy carrier,
> maybe his thinking about building a boron based fuel cell or something
> similar.

No. Burn it in high-pressure oxygen.
Getting that oxygen from ambient air is a difficulty,
but one I think can be overcome.

> Cannot imagine such an cell recharging on waste heat.

No. Central power stations would take in B2O3 and ship out B
instead of electricity.

> But it
> could possibly suck up hydrygen gas from boiling liquid hydrogen

Forget hydrogen.

--- Graham Cowan
http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/Paper_for_11th_CHC.doc --
how individual mobility gains nuclear cachet

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