Text 27200, 41 rader
Skriven 2007-02-13 11:44:06 av Bob Ackley (1:2905/3)
  Kommentar till text 27122 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: Explosions
==================
Replying to a message of John Hull to Bob Ackley:

 BA>> There's some glop they can put in gasoline tanks to prevent
 BA>> explosions if the tank is ruptured; the gas will leak out and it
 BA>> will burn like h*ll but it won't explode.  Some if not most race
 BA>> cars use it, it's an expandable foam of some sort, and it doesn't
 BA>> reduce tank's capacity by much IIRC.  I suspect the reason it isn't
 BA>> in general use is that it's probably expen$ive. Can't do that with
 BA>> compressed hydrogen.

 BA>> A year or two ago a BNSF coal train derailed north of Plattsmouth,
 BA>> Nebraska. One of the derailed cars hit a 600 gallon propane tank
 BA>> used by a nearby house. The tank went up and took the house - about
 BA>> 50 feet away - with it. Fortunately the occupants were able to grab
 BA>> their kid and get out the front as the back of the house was
 BA>> disintegrating.  By the time the fire department got there nothing
 BA>> was left of the house, but about a dozen railcars full of coal
 BA>> (about 50 tons each) were still burning.  Eight hours after the fire
 BA>> was out the main line was reopened for traffic with a quarter to
 BA>> half mile of new rail and ties (brought in pre-assembled on flatbed
 BA>> trucks, just like model railroads' 'Snap Track' only bigger
 <g>>> ), the derailed
 BA>> coal hoppers had been shoved out of the way and were later sold for
 BA>> scrap (they're mostly aluminum and if they get bent up they can't be
 BA>> fixed for less than the cost of a new one).


 JH> That's all fine and dandy, but you aren't going to have hydrogen in
 JH> that quantity in a car, nor will it be compressed to that extent.  It
 JH> also won't be compressed in a tank like that, it will be in a fuel
 JH> cell.  In any case, if they can design a nuclear bomb so that it
 JH> survives an accidental drop from altitude without cracking the
 JH> containment, they can design a hydrogen 'gas'tank for a car that will
 JH> take a hell of a lot more than the average wreck to ignite.

No doubt.  But can they do it cheaply enough to be installed in mass production
automobiles?  Without driving the already astronomical prices of new vehicles
completely out of the solar system?

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:2905/3)