Toyota wants hydrogen to succeed so bad it’s paying people to buy the Mirai::Toyota is offering some amazing deals for its hydrogen fuel cell-powered Mirai. That is, if customers can find the hydrogen to power it.

    • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      Not really. Hindenburg had hydrogen at air pressure.

      Pressurised hydrogen tends to fail in a much safer way (or just not fail). A regular fossil fuel car fire is much worse.

      The thing is you’re not just burning hydrogen (or gas). You’re also burning oxygen in the atmosphere and how bad the fire is depends how the gas mixes with the oxygen. The mix has to be just right or it won’t burn at all (Hindenburg was just right).

      Gasoline tends to burn quite slowly which is particularly catastrophic as it generates heat over a long time which causes everything else in the car to also catch fire, while still burning fast enough that you might not be able to escape the car before it the fire gets dangerous.

      • shortwavesurfer
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        10 months ago

        I don’t know enough about hydrogen to know how big of a bang that would even make.

        • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          I’ve edited my comment - it has been tested extensively and they’re not very bad at all.

          • shortwavesurfer
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            10 months ago

            Thanks, that’s actually really comforting to know. It’s not something I’ve had reason to read into. So I’m glad somebody has

            • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              10 months ago

              As someone who works in the hydrogen space, this is something we’re always considering too. We’re very aware that hydrogen explodes, and it’s a core facet of our safety analyses.

        • Municipal0379@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          10 months ago

          I think we should make a show about our various theories about a big bang. I propose we call it The Big Bang Theory.

          I’ll see myself out.

          • shortwavesurfer
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            Please do, and don’t let the door hit you on the way. LOL.

      • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        10 months ago

        I read somewhere that with the Hindinburg, the hydrogen pretty much just went straight up, while most of the deaths and burns were caused by the fuel for the engines.

      • shortwavesurfer
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        10 months ago

        That’s true. Or at least when you set too much of it on fire at once. Because obviously, engines set it on fire, but in a controlled manner.