Re: Hydrogen [used in fuel cells]

[Jon@AppliedThought.com (Jon Hylands)]

There's some interesting new technology in the research labs right now
with respect to Hydrogen fuel storage.

There are a couple of articles of interest in the "Hydrogen & Fuel
Cell Letter", which you can access by following the following two
URLs:

http://www.ttcorp.com/nha/thl/feb97.htm
http://www.ttcorp.com/nha/thl/aug_97.htm

Basically, they've discovered a way to make a 25 litre (~6.5 gallons)
tank hold enough hydrogen to run a car for about 5000 miles. The tank
would weigh about 87 kg (~190 lbs).

They estimate they will be able to mass-produce hydrogen "canisters"
of this form for about $2/pound.

A tank that size in a sub, with a 12V fuel cell, pulling 100 amps
(1200 watts), could conceivably give a time-under of at least 100
hours, which then moves the time-limiting technology to the amount of
oxygen you can carry and the amount of CO2 you can remove.

I think (assuming this research pans out, which looks likely) this
bodes pretty well for the future of vehicles in general, and, in our
case, personal submarines specifically.

Later,
Jon