Featured Mirai In Florida

LOL! We did that, too. Rather than blowing up balloons, though, we usually let the gas rise into an inverted one gallon bottle we held over it. They launched pretty high, but then our moms put a stop to us stealing their lye and aluminum foil.

 

Really its not that hard, it just is expensive. All you need is a good hydrogen compressor, hydrogen sensors, good ventilation, Lots of inspections, etc. People have been liquifying hydrogen and pressurizing hydrogen for a long time. California alone has spent $125M on fueling stations and pledges to spend $169M more, but today the network is unreliable even for the 12,500 hydrogen cars, suvs, trucks, and busses on the road there. This does not include the billions in federal money and state money to subsidize the vehicles, other fueling costs, and R&D.

Is California's 'Hydrogen Highway' a road to nowhere? - Los Angeles Times
https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/02/18/true-zero-confirms-first-h2-supply-shortage-for-2021-socal-fuel-cell-vehicles-cites-current-deep-freeze-as-cause/

 

Texas does support cng and lng in trucks. The same research arm of UT that investigated the phev hydrogen bus has done studies on natural gas and bevs. The ethanol lobby and hydrogen lobby have pretty much stopped implementation of methanol, but research has already been done. This hydrogen bus was first researched in south carolina, then made it to a project in california making it all the reasearch cost less than the california subsidies on 2 hydrogen fueling stations.

Not very many research bucks, and this is where research money should be spent. Cap metro just put in the biggest bev order, that is the city bus system that was part of the hydrogen experiment.

 

One of the times I almost lost my life on a submarine patrol was due to one of our (electrolytic) O2 generators.
We discharged waste H overboard under LOADS of pressure through a series of valves, a tank, and finally an overboard diffuser.
Well......H at XXXXpsi that escapes through a newly developed pinhole sized leak in an amazingly thick pipe doesn't take long to find an ignition source.

Two things saved our lives.
1. There was a sailor standing right by the correct isolation valve, (he got a rare Cold War era medal!) that somehow was not injured in the explosion and....
B. We were getting ready for "Saturday Morning Cartoons" - or ship's casualty drills, and there were folks, literally, standing next to all of the fire hoses and damage control lockers.

It was (reportedly) fairly funny to see the "drill monitors" looking at their note pads when the fun got started saying "That's not where the fire is supposed to be!"
We dumped enough water on it to change the trim of the ship, and the only really bad news was that afterwards when we were cleaning things up (including our skivies!) and had sent (my SECOND!) OPREP-3 message................we had to stay out on patrol!!..
Because.....Cold War (1.0)
Oh....and we had....another O2 generator.

No Hydrogen for me, thanks!

Saw that movie.

 

We could swap sea and Marine stories all day long and only you and I would understand. <grins>

Regardless, your's tops any Marine tale I might share. Marines tend to have individual stories.

Bob Wilson

 

Rugged individualists!

We submariners genuinely loved it when we had a Marine Detachment (MARDET) guarding us!
Marines tend to be VERY binary.....and that is a very desirable feature in a security force....

I was arrested once by Marines in GTMO with another CPO, and two (O5) Commanders while we were doing a site survey near the airport.
Our respective ranks afforded us no little amount of deference in that we were 'only' disarmed, hand-cuffed, 'gently placed' into the back of a HMMWV, and thrown into a cell until they sorted things out.

I thought it was pretty hilarious, but the two ossifers were less amused.


The difference between a 'sea story' and a fairy tale is that the latter always begins with....."once upon a time...."

 

About Marine guards:

• no bullets - assholes
• bullets - very polite

My best high school buddy was in the Navy communications school. The son of the base commander thought it was great fun to 'run' the gate. The bullet through his head changed everyone's attitude ... the guards were no longer allowed to have loaded magazines in their weapons ... belts, yes.

Bob Wilson

 

Back in the day, that's when you KNEW that the tubes were loaded.
M1911a1 .45's had magazines inserted.

Two stories that circulated widely involved a Navy Diver being shot for trying to 'cross over' the deck of a US submarine and none other then ADM Hymie Rickover being forced onto the (fortunately anechoic coated) deck of a US submarine at gunpoint after trying to bluster his way aboard without showing an ID...later promoting (or commending) the sailor on watch.
The story might be complete balloon juice but it is accurate to Hymie's style.......and a Marine Sentry WOULD NOT have been "blustered" by a mere Navy Admiral!

Marines were (usually!!) sensible enough not to carry unloaded weapons......with one notable exception:

"Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon..."

One brief that I got informed us (perhaps accurately) that the gate guard was forced to carry an unloaded weapon.
When the 5-ton Mercedes truck came barrelling through the gate, he did the only thing he COULD do.

Yell a warning, and run like hell.

HE survived, and received not the least bit of cirticism for the sensible actions he took.
(I'm not being a sexist or LGBTQIA+ insensitive......., they were ALL biological males back then)


Note!!
Beginning with the transition to the M9 (Beretta 9mm) ALL MILITARY members thusly armed should be considered to have a safe, Condition 1 weapon, meaning magazine loaded, inserted, and a live round chambered.

I expect that it will be the same with the new Tupperware Guns that replace the Beretta.


....juuuust so you know!

 

These stories above are all wild and fun to read, but nothing is as funny as the OP story title: "Mirai in Florida." That alone could become the best post of 2022.

 

A test drive might be fun.

Bob Wilson

 

just as long as you keep it under 9 miles

 

BYOH

 

Head straight to the nearest welding or gas supply store. Maybe you can put another 50 miles into the tank.

 

Source: Hydrogen Education

Calculation:
1. Compressed hydrogen cylinder – 200 cu.ft. of hydrogen (NTP) or 5667.37 Liters.
2. Cost of hydrogen cylinder is $100 + $14/month (rental) +$20 (delivery).
3. 1kW fuel cell system with a hydrogen consumption rate of 13 Standard Liter/min.
4. Number of hours of operation at 1kW = 5667.37/13 = 7.26 hours.

Costs: Example 1
The cost of operating a 1kW fuel cell for 7.26 hours when only one cylinder is purchased per month is $134. This is equivalent to $18.40 per hour to operate at one kilowatt.

Costs: Example 2
When the number of hydrogen cylinders used is increased, then the cost is reduced. Assuming that 5 cylinders of hydrogen are consumed in one month, this gives 7.26 x 5 = 36.33 hours of operation. The cost of the cylinders is (5 x $100) + (5 x $14) + $20 = $590. This is equivalent to $16.24 per hour to operate at one kilowatt.​

Bob Wilson

 

I worked intimately with H2 my whole career lab and commercial all around me, pipes everywhere. High pressure, high temperature.
Used safely, I recall very few safety incidents related to H2 special qualities. Do not really recall anything to be honest. I wish I could join with my old colleagues at a retiree meeting and ask them if we ever had safety problem related specifically to the special qualities of H2. Now then fueling cars is a new thing and I am aware a few vendors who seemed to make some mistakes. Lots of new ideas and new technology for compressing etc (that are interesting) and new hardware configs.

 

Isn't the Purity of industrial-grade hydrogen not necessarily as pure as what needs to get used by the fuel stack / hydrogen car?
.

 

Depends on what you mean by industrial grade. For oil refineries that make it on site, it doesn't have to be that pure. The key contaminants - hydrogen sulfide, formic acid and formaldihyde - that can poison a PEM fuel cell must be lower, but in refining hydrogen is used to remove sulfur, so it will be created during use, so many refineries don't care. Depending on the industry other contaminates may need to be much lower. China which is one of the worlds biggest hydrogen producers have 5 grades of industrial hydrogen, with 2 more pure than the one needed for pem fuel cells.

 

I once saw an after incident report involving an anaerobic incubator. These can use small amounts of hydrogen to scavenge any free oxygen. It was a small explosion, no walls were blown out, but the lab looked like it went through a rough earthquake.

But such hydrogen tanks aren't at the pressures that FCEVs hold the gas at. In addition to hydrogen's special qualities becoming more of a concern, the pressure alone is dangerous. A liquid nitrogen tank with defeated safety valve can blow out concrete walls.

I've read ultra high purity is needed. That's what we have for instruments in the lab. Less pure will run the fuel cell. It is just that contaminants will poison a PEM one. Add CO to the list @austingreen posted.

 

Even in lab work we always used electrolytic grade because we wanted 100% purity.
Mirai may be that way now, but I do not know if SMR (nat gas ) grade can be used in the future, presumably with extra steps to purify.
That might be an advantage for ICE H2 that would be more forgiving.

PSA unit (Pressure Swing Adsorption) very commonly used to purify lower purity H2...

 

Purity is less of an issue with solid oxide fuel cells, and contaminates should be less in green hydrogen to begin with. Less pure hydrogen means cheaper fuel, but higher price to an already expensive vehicle. Like emissions, it is probably cheaper to do the purifying at central stations than on thousands of moving cars.

Impurities shouldn't matter much to running the engine itself. Depending on what they are, it might actually help a three way cat out in performance. The concern would be material compatibility of the car's components. CNG Civics that were home filled had their fuel systems rot away because the home supplied NG was too dirty and/or wet.