The risk would also increase with the rate that the tank was pressurized.
Think diesel engine, no spark needed.  With this near perfect ratio of
fuel/oxygen the compression rate wouldn't have to be too high to see a nice
mushroom cloud.

Tony




-----Original Message-----
From: Sean H. Breheny [mailto:shb7@CORNELL.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 4:42 PM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: Re: +AFs-OT+AF0-: Hydrogen - making,storage,burning


Isn't there a spontaneous combustion risk? You have all these H2 and O2
molecules shooting around, some tiny number of them will have sufficient
energy to combine and produce H20, releasing a tiny amount of energy and
increasing the local temperature, thereby increasing the probability of
another such event, etc. in a cycle until the whole thing explodes. It is
rare because several infrequent events need to occur close together (both
in space and time), but it seems to me as though it could happen, and
depending on the temp and pressure, with a possibly significant probability
(significant enough that a few of these tanks would explode).

Sean

At 04:31 PM 1/24/01 -0600, Lawrence Lile wrote:
>Here's what a non-piclister friend of mine said about storing
>hydrogen/oxygen mix:
>
>
>+AD4-       Storing compressed hydrogen and oxygen together in a tank is
>really
>+AD4- really stupid.It's true this guy has never had an explosion. If he
>had he
>+AD4- would be dead and unable to write his articles.It would probably be
safe
>if
>+AD4- there were nothing that could create a spark or catalyze the
>reaction but
>+AD4- same could be said of nitroglycerin or nuclear bombs. The idea of
>make it
>as
>+AD4- you go hydrogen sounds good though.
>+AD4-  Jim Smith
>
>Yup, a nuclear bomb or a tank of H2 +- O2 is really really safe if you
don't
>detonate it.  So is Ebola virus if you don't eat it or breathe it or get it
>on your skin.
>
>-- Lawrence Lile

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