Robert Lynn <[email protected]> wrote: It will be safer as it carries a very small inventory of hydrogen. A small > high pressure electrolysis unit producing only enough to fill the 50mL > reactor to 20bar means perhaps 0.1grams total inventory - about 12kJ in > case of a fire or explosion - ie about the same as a 50 calibre machine gun > bullet.
You need a lot more than 50 ml of gas inside the reactor. Even if there is only 50 ml at a time inside your hydrogen generator, the cold fusion cells inside the reactor have a bigger inventory than that. You have to engineer the reactor not to explode if the cell breaks and vents the hot gas. Defkalion is working on that problem. As mentioned here, they have a scheme to contain all of the gas from a broken cell and tank inside the reactor. I do not see anything in Rossi's designs to deal with it it. I suppose if one of his cells breaks the hot hydrogen will vent into the air, and explode. I suppose you need a tank inside the reactor even if you have a hydrogen generator. To turn off the cell, I think you have to pump the hydrogen out of the cell and store it somewhere in the machine. I guess it would not be a good idea to simply vent it, even if it is cool. Small amounts of cool hydrogen in the air are not dangerous to breathe. After a few moments it disperses, and after that there is no chance of ignition, any more than there is if you vent some natural gas from a stove for a half minute without lighting it. According to "Tomorrow's Energy" the biggest danger from hydrogen is that you cannot see the flame in daylight, and the gas has no smell. This book says hydrogen is much less dangerous than most people think. Hydrogen got a bad reputation from things like the Hindenburg disaster. - Jed
