Ray,I've been in a few places that supply batteries and service them. They usually have a bunch of batteries on charge and I could always smell a pungent odor there. I assumed it was the escaping hydrogen but I guess it could be acid vapors in the air. Any thoughts?
Dan H.----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Keefer" <psubs2001@yahoo.com>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org> Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 3:54 PM Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Hydrogen Build-up
Hi, "whiff of hydrogen"? I had always assumed you couldn't smell hydrogen. Does anyone know one way or the other? Thanks, Ray --- "Dan H." <jmachine@adelphia.net> wrote:Steve, I'm not a battery expert and wasn't going to respond to this thread but since your life may hang in the balance, I'll respond. :-) Most of the hydrogen produced from batteries is produced on charging. Some is produced on discharging, but not much. No matter whether charging or discharging, there is always hydrogen present at the top of each cell within the battery and it oozes out. It's best to keep the batteries away from anything that could possible ignite it, or in a safe place incase they do go off. That's one advantage of having them in a separate pod. The other advantage is the room it frees up in the hull. The disadvantages are, some method of venting while charging has to be provided for and a battery in a pod isn't as easily gotten to for service. Also there are weight factors and the expense of a separate pressure pod etc. etc. There are Hydrocaps available which absorb the hydrogen, and convert it to water I believe, but they have their flaws too. I don't know of a scrubber for a battery pod, but it sounds plausible. My batteries are in pods, and don't have Hydrocaps but I have pod vent caps I open while charging. The vents vent into the hull so I can charge while in the water but I must leave the sub hatch opened. While in use, the vents are capped off with heavy pipe caps. The end of each battery pod on my sub are made so an explosion will blow the pod end off, and hopefully not impact the hull. One thing I've noticed is, I don't get a whiff of hydrogen when I open my pod vents after use and before charging. So I assume what I was told about most of the hydrogen being produced during charging, and not while in use, is true. Damn I'm long winded, but hey, if it could save a life, I'll talk! ;-) Take care, Dan H.----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen PearceTo: personal_submersibles@psubs.org Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 4:51 AM Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Hydrogen Build-up G-day all From the material I have been reading and what I remember Hydrogen gas is formed in lead acid batteries when charging and dischrgeing. My understanding is that if you ventilate the battery compartment with the atmosphere when running on the surface and the air in the pressure hull when submerged this can stop a BIG BANG! Can anyone suggest the amount of Hydrogen as a % of the Subs atmosphere is required for an explosion to occour? Is there such a thing as a Hydrogen Scrubber? Is hydrogen produced more readerly when charging or discharging the batteries. By contributing to this string the life you save could be mine<J Regards Steve P__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages from our organization. If you want to be removed from this mailing list simply click on the link below or send a blank email message to: removeme-personal_submersibles@psubs.org Removal of your email address from this mailing list occurs by an automated process and should be complete within five minutes of our server receiving your request. PSUBS.ORG PO Box 311 Weare, NH 03281 603-529-1100 ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************
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