George, (down under)
I would love to talk to you about hydrogen development. Please

send me

your new e-mail off newsletter. The rotary is the engine for H2

use, but

there are many

other potentials as well. Australia is a perfect area for

developing

the

technology as well.

Bill Jepson

Burning Hydrogen in any conventional thermal engine is "throwing

pearls

before swine"
or like using $100 bills to kindle your wood stove. Back when it

was

electricity
it cost a bundle but was still worth something. - Vance

Perhaps Vance,

You are right as to the efficiency issue.  Most ICU engines aren't

designed

to take advantage of pure hydrogen.  When comparing costs though I

am not

so
sure the argument holds up. Looking at the big picture of finding,
extracting, processing, transportation and marketing of other hydro

carbon

based fuels, the energy costs of making making pure hydrogen on

site is

starting to become to make more sense (cents) as well.

A this point in time rotaries running on ethanol seems more

appropriate

then
other fuels.  Perhaps then its like throwing corn before the swine

:)

Doug in Japan

Doug, other than electric methods are there bio methods of

extracting

hydrogen?
Since storage of hydrogen is volume intensive perhaps it is more

practical

for an airplane with a lot of unused volume in the aft fuselage as

compared

to
say a car. I think you might still have a range problem.

Paul Lamar

What were those numbers again for BTU of a pound of h2 vs. a pound of
gasoline?

--
-dave

Dave,

For numbers and comparisons of BTU valves of different fuels with

hydrogen

check out this site.  No endorsements H-Ion's  method, but many thanks

for

their information layout.

Doug in Japan

Liquid hydrogen can really only be handled in large volume tanks, with
a current tank truck representing the small end of the system, and constant
use rates, or you just let excess boil off till it is all gone. I was
involved
in a program  for a hydrogen fueled aircraft a long time ago . in the late
50's a program called the chemical bomber included a study of using
liquid hydrogen - as the fuel was used the massive refrigeration was
to be employed to make liquid oxygen stored on board for a rocket
powered dash over the target at extreme altitude. The numbers showed
 some promiss, but the task was boiled down into what became the
worlds first and only triple sonic bomber - the B70 Valkierie(sp) .

A cubic foot of liquid hydrogen is about 200,000 BTU's which
sounds good untill you check a cubic foot of gasoline at almost
a million .
Vance

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