World's first hydrogen fuel cell passenger train begins service in Germany

Are these the same people who built the Hindenberg which used hydrogen?

What could go wrong?

NASA has been using hydrogen fuel to power its rockets for decades.

fuel cells by definition are constructed so there is no combustion air available for ignition.

race cars have been using fuel cells for decades.

The Hindenburg also contained 7,062,000 cubic feet of hydrogen in very large gas cells.

I suspect these trains carry a little bit less in something a tad more rigid.

Rusty

Disparaging humor about an application of a PROVEN and SAFE technology really serves no one. 

Rusty Traque posted:

The Hindenburg also contained 7,062,000 cubic feet of hydrogen in very large gas cells.

I suspect these trains carry a little bit less in something a tad more rigid.

Rusty

Let's not forget that the Hindenburg was using 90 year old technology. Comparing the Hindenburg to anything operating today is silly.

Incidentally, the Hindenburg is what many remember, but other fatal airship crashes didn't involve German airships. These included the British R38 in 1921, the US airship Roma in 1922, the French Dixmude in 1923, the British R101 in 1930, and the US Akron in 1933. More than twice as many people died in the U.S.-made Akron accident than died on the Hindenburg. 

Those days are long gone. The Titanic didn't have radar, either.

Not to mention that hydrogen is by a pretty significant factor less explosive then gasoline, the Hindenburg makes for all kinds of great theater, but while flammable, the gasoline vapor that is contained in a partially full gas tank is a lot more explosive (don't believe me? In an episode of the Nova program many years ago, they fired a tracer bullet into a gas can containing hydrogen gas versus a can of gasoline vapor; the gasoline can exploded violently, the hydrogen burned). I also will add that in the time since, investigators have concluded the big reason the Hindenburg burned so violently, why it caught fire and exploded, was the coating they used on the skin of the aircraft, it was basically a derivative of butylene dope, and experiments have show that if it simply were a hydrogen gas leak, that it would not have burned or exploded that quickly, that it would have burned a lot slower and would likely have allowed people to have survived it. 

The biggest issue with hydrogen fuel cells or any hydrogen technology is producing the hydrogen cheaply enough in bulk (electrolysis is expensive, costing more energy than the hydrogen it produces) and distribution of the hydrogen (if talking as a fuel for cars and trucks). They are getting close, artificial photosynthesis or genetically modified algae and bacteria are showing some promising signs, which could make it cost effective, and distribution in theory they could use existing natural gas distribution (no reason hydrogen couldn't be used in the home, again it is not any more explosive then natural gas) to get it to where it needs to go. Hydrogen of course has a big advantage, especially if it can be created biologically or chemically, in that it creates only water on burning, and if fossil fuels are not needed to power the process (as it would today with electrolysis), it would have little to no CO2 generation anywhere in its lifecycle.  

Sean007 posted:

Just saw this on the news: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/W...rmany/6731537155535/

 

 

Butt-ugly too. What was their inspiration, a Cyclops?