[Corvettaholic]

Being that I love to tinker with stuff, I was looking at the idea of hydrogen powered car. The trick is to get the hydrogen. Why not produce it onboard? So I did some googling, and I cobbled this together from various sources:

Take lye (sodium hydroxide).
How do I crack it to release the oxygen? Then I should have just sodium hydride.
Have fuel tank 1 with sodium hydride pellets, fuel tank 2 has water.
Mechanically chunk some pellets into the water, and the sodium hydride should grab the O from the water, right? Whats left? Hydrogen!
Have an "out" hole that goes to the engine with a pressure regulator in between.
Based on pressure, add pellets slower or faster.
Bingo-pressurized hydrogen fuel line, and pressure won't be too high so it won't be too dangerous!

Now back to reality... where are my flaws in this idea?

[hmx9123]

Burning the amount of hydrogen that comes off of a NaH/water reaction isn't worth the weight you're carrying.

I like the idea of a hydrogen powered car.  Particularly, not the fuel-cell idea.  I like the idea of combustion.  Even carrying liquid hydrogen around wouldn't be that bad if you had a crash cage surrounding the tank and a mechanical fail-closed valve.

[billnotgatez]

http://www.unitednuclear.com/h2.htm
These people seem to be doing it

[billnotgatez]

When I showed the previously mention site to someone – this was their comment
Quote
As I understand, the problem of making an efficient hydride storage means for hydrogen is currently exercising the best brains at Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes, etc., and it hasn't been solved, so I would regard the web site claims with skepticism.
End quote

[hmx9123]

Unitednuclear has a bad rap with the pyro community, too.  Their website used to have directions for making M-80s, cherry bombs, and a bunch of other crap on it.  They had a bad rap for not delivering chemicals and other products ordered.  I don't put much stock in what they say at all.

[billnotgatez]

They use PayPal so they must deliver

They do not discuss hydrogen embrittlement so I do not know about their hydrogen car idea.

[hmx9123]

"They use PayPal so they must deliver."

First, the site I saw was a while ago and I know that they underwent management change.  Even if all their stuff looks good, I have a general distrust of them.

Also, who says that PayPal makes them deliver?  Or what?  They get a crappy rap from PayPal?  What if they send you what you didn't order?  My point is that the way you put it, it makes it sound like PayPal forces them to deliver.  I submit that unless PayPal sends goons out to Nevada and threatens them with physical harm like a mob extortionist, there's no way they can force them to deliver.  Maybe they can get a refund and do horrible things, but they can't deliver what they don't have, even if they advertise it or a goon comes and breaks their legs.

I think it would be funny to see PayPal goons.

[xiankai]

i dont really know much about those complicated chemical stuff... but water is in short supply. especially pure water

[Donaldson Tan]

The gist of it all is alternative fuel. alternative fuel means alternative means to power up the engine. fuel cell (in my opinion) is preferred because you can prevent side reactions from occuring (unlike the combustion engine that produces oxides of nitrogen). There are other alternative fuel available such as methanol.

i have no idea why hydrogen is the preferred fuel for fuel cell. Theoretically, the reaction produces water which can be stored or discharged into the environment. Water vapour is actually a greenhouse gas. I think its greenhouse effect is worse than carbon dioxide when you compare 1g to 1g. Not only the emission of greenhouse gas should be reduced but also existent amount of CO2 in the atmosphere must be reduced. I wonder if the government will pay an industrial organistion to remove carbon dioxide via some effective chemical process.

Talking about existing technology, dissel engines can run on pure ethanol without much engine modification. Two things that dampen interest in this area is that the diesel engine is doesnt produce alot of power although it's pretty efficient. Diesel engines has a lower power ceiling than gasoline ones because of the engine design and diessel is a "heavy" fuel. Moreover, purhe ethanol is more of a explosive hazard than gasoline. I think ethanol can be mixed with a slightly heavier fuel to reduce its explosive nature.

[Mr. Pink]

I wonder if the government will pay an industrial organistion to remove carbon dioxide via some effective chemical process.

We could always put a lot of the world's oceans thru electrolysis to get NaOH, which absorbs CO2 like a sponge. that dangerous chemical can solve anything. Horray for sodium hydroxide!

[Mr. Pink]

I think it would be funny to see PayPal goons.

Ya, they would probably smack you in the knees with cash boxes and throw add machines at you.

[billnotgatez]

Let me rephrase

They must deliver
or
They must refund


otherwise PayPal drops them
If they do not have PayPal they lose business

PayPal does not need goons
They have the power of the $$$$

Are you disputing that PayPal is an effective way to insure that you are not ripped off?

[hmx9123]

There, I will agree with you.  No, I'm not disputing that PayPal is an effective way of not getting ripped off, only that they can't force Option #1 (delivery).  However, they can force option #2 (refund), or they get dropped from PayPal permanently, and I doubt that any company would be so dumb.  I guess theoretically, if a company REALLY wanted to screw you, they could take your money, then ignore you and PayPal, and thus get dropped from PayPal but still not pay you or them anything, or deliver.  It'd be a one-time deal, though.  I guess theoretically they could doctor up some documents to show that they shipped the item, and then blame it on the post office/UPS/whatever.  Anyway, this is way OT now.