There was a fuel-cell car demonstration today and in order to keep the cars running, this trailer was acting as a makeshift filling station, there to fill the cars' fuel cells with compressed hydrogen gas. The "No smoking" and "No open flame" signs tell a story and reminded me of hydrogen's illustrious history in transport disasters: The Hindenburg (not using it as fuel but as a lift gas) and the Space Shuttle Challenger come to mind - both of which were destroyed by a combination of hydrogen and fire and both caught on film to spectacular effect. If you're not squeamish about such things you can watch this amazing newsreel footage of the former.Fuel-cell cars may also turn out to be a transport disaster, although probably not of the same type - this time it may prove to be an economic dead-end, but only time will tell. One of the interesting comments I overheard today was that this technology was helping towards 'energy independence for America' - I wonder what the mix of power stations that will will produce the electricity to generate the hydrogen is? Foreign oil at all I wonder? Nuclear maybe? At least the pollution-generation can be pushed out of sight - but it has not gone away unless cheap renewable electricity is available.
Scientific and technological innovation is something I am very interested in, but the reporting of it is so often either wildly optimistic or pessimistic. One moment nanotechnology is going to help us live forever, the next civilisation will dissolve in grey-goo. One moment the Large Hadron Collider is going to unlock the secrets of the Universe by uncovering the 'God particle', the next it's going to destroy the Universe. The truth? The Higgs boson may well be detected - but that won't change anything for most of us and nanotechnology may indeed change the world - but not dramatically overnight into grey-goo - but in lots of very very small steps.
The hummingbird? spotted at our nectar feeder when I was at work and there was no camera to hand. A real disaster!
Should this have been labelled Bad Taste Pun #1?
ReplyDeleteTalking of puns...I think we need somehelp with "Smart Rug" (Day 197).
...And don't think your friends in England didn't get the subliminal message on Day 193. "I am young and I am lost. I'm only happy when I move away".
Well done on Day 193 - what you didn't quote was "It saddens me to say...I'm only happy when I move away"
ReplyDeleteIf you're still having trouble with Day 197 and getting frightened at night, don't leave your door open, but get hold of some ghost nets or some honey, I find that works for my fragile daughter. Movie-watching can also help but watch out for mercury thermometers. You'll never find one that's been broken & mended.
What colour was that Aeroplane again? Was it perhaps a nice shade of Blue? Funnily enough we went to an Oyster bar the other week, they didn't have a Band on though. They had also run out of oysters.
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Actually it wasn't the hydrogen that caused the destruction of the Hindenberg - the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen was far too fuel rich to ignite without a major initiator - it was the combination of solar reflective aluminium paint on the outside of the doped canvas skin, and red iron oxide paint on the inside of the canvas (as a corrosion inhibitor). Now what happens when you have iron oxide and aluminium in close proximity and the whole thing gets struck by static discharge or lightning?...big thermite reaction - the kind used for welding railway tracks together. Watch the film again and you'll see the flame front races across the canvas and ignites the bags filled with hydrogen prgressively from the outside - the plume of flame above the wreck is hydrogen burning off later.
ReplyDeleteUK tax payers should be proud that students get to research this sort of crucially important issue...
Incidentally the Americans were much more inventive in the ways they destroyed their airships - the Shenandoah broke up in mid air and most of the crew survived by floating down on the buoyancy bags that were left - losing most of the world's stock of Helium at the time.