Cars that run on Hydrogen can we say Hindenburg or how safe are they?

Question

Hydrogen bombs and the Hindenburg, do you know what they had in common.........i'll tell you Hydrogen and Hydrogen is very dangerous stuff.

Answer 1

not at all the same.  The Hindenburg was a zeplin filled with Hydrogen that had people walking around in the infostructure with felt shoes on.  Stupid.   A Hydrogen Bomb isn't what you're asserting it is.  It's a bomb that works on Nuclear Fission with Hydrogen, much like the sun does.  It's not a bomb filled with hydrogen and these cars will not be using any kind of weapons grade radio active material

Hydrogen has been used for years as fuel for Space Shuttles, Rockets, and Torpedos.  In the cars however, they plan to make it even safer using a double insulated fuel cell that protects the hydrogen from outside sparks or damage.  The amount of hydrogen will be substantially less than is in a space shuttle or the Hindenburg.  The hydrogen cars will be just as safe as the gasoline cars we're using today.

Answer 2

Say Challenger.  The Challenger explosion is a good example of what happens when compressed hydrogen fuel comes in contact with fire.

And if we remember how many times the shuttle was delayed because of hydrogen leaks, we should know that there are better alternitives.

Answer 3

Hydrogen did not cause the Hindenburg to burn.  The coating of the Hindenburg airship was treated with two major components of rocket fuel, aluminum and iron oxide. When the airship was docking in 1937, an electrical discharge ignited the skin, and the fire raced over the surface of the airship.

Since any fuel we use is flammable, it is inherently dangerous.  However, the end assessment is that when hydrogen is handled with care appropriate to any gaseous fuel, it is safer than fuels in standard use.

Answer 4

The Hinderburg was a rush job..plus germany could not get her hands on helium which what airships run on a safer mode..america refused to sell helium to germany one reason why the ww2 got under way..but judging from today LPG tanks on cars most are made from light whiegt aluminum..they dont pass a test if they fail the xray test plus on regual basis every 3 to 5 years they need to go throught the same xray test to deem safe for the public so yes althought the hydrogen is dangerous its safe these days if the tank passes the xray test...

Answer 5

Gasolinne is pretty dangerous stuff too.  They don't have methanol fuel race cars becasue they go faster, they have them because the fires are less horific.

Answer 6

you cant compare the Hindenburg disaster and hydrogen powered cars being similar. the Hindenburg had a fabric dope that when heated created a compound called thermite. now while the components were separated by layers of dope, when the hydrogen started burning, the dope melted away and thermite was created and burned fiercely. hydrogen powered cars these days are fuel cell cars that create electricity that power an electric motor, and thus dont have any where near the issues of the Hindenburg. and even if you were to use hydrogen gas to power an internal combustion engine, if that gas escaped and found an ignition source, the gas would light of and burn up in one large quick fireball and then be gone, assuming it didnt dissipate before an ignition source was found. gasoline on the other hand would pool on the ground, and when the fumes found an ignition source it would burn until the fuel was gone. the unfortunate thing about that is the car would also burn up.

Answer 7

The hydrogen fueled vehicles are designed to be far safer than the Hindenburg ever could have thought to been. The real problem with hydrogen as a fuel is that to make hydrogen, we would need to burn up as much petrolium based fuels as we now do in our cars so the potential as an alternative energy source lies only in that it is a different fuel not that it would ever reduce the amount of oil we use