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Compressed Water

Mixing compressed hydrogen with oxygen in the air to make and transport water
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Is it possible to compress hydrogen into a cylinder and then devise a mixing nozzle that when you release the hydrogen it mixes with Oxygen from the surrounding air and pours out as water?

If possible it could mean that 'water' (as compressed hydrogen) could be transported cheaply and easily and then produce a much larger volume of water at the destination.

Or even a gadget that extracts these from the air and mixes them onsite? Could be used to fill dams and water tanks in arid areas, be attached to fire fighting helicopters and irrigate large areas from pop-up sprinklers fed by hydrogen tanks underground.

holbrains, Nov 06 2008

Some info... http://www.chemforl...hydrogen_rocket.htm
to quote: "By itself hydrogen will not explode. Even a mixture of hydrogen with air or pure oxygen gives no reaction." [4whom, Nov 06 2008]


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       //Is it possible to compress hydrogen into a cylinder and then devise a mixing nozzle that when you release the hydrogen it mixes with Oxygen from the surrounding air and pours out as water//
Yes, it is called "a flame". Or a very loud bang.
coprocephalous, Nov 06 2008
  

       //Yes, it is called "a flame".// - which would, you might argue, reduce the efficiency of this idea for fire-fighting.
hippo, Nov 06 2008
  

       Mixing Hydrogen with air produces Hydrogen rich air. In order to produce water you need the Hydrogen to react with the Oxygen. This does happen, but you have to wait for the reaction chamber to return to earth.
4whom, Nov 06 2008
  

       Wow, this must be the world's worst fire-fighting idea ever.
wagster, Nov 06 2008
  

       - but perhaps the only one David Bowie wrote a song about ("Cat People (Putting out fire with gasoline)") - well, it's close enough...
hippo, Nov 06 2008
  

       Didn't some hairy Welshman sing, "Fight Fire with Fire"?
4whom, Nov 06 2008
  

       This is similar to those guys (Friedrich Paneth and Kurt Peters) who first attempted low temp. fusion in the 1920's. They were trying to make helium for zeppelins, but they didn't take into account how much heat they'd have to dissipate.
ldischler, Nov 06 2008
  

       this is truly inspired.
conskeptical, Nov 06 2008
  

       While H2 takes up alot more room than H2O, it weighs much less... possibilities for transportation where weight is an issue but volume isn't; added bonus of energy production.
FlyingToaster, Nov 06 2008
  

      

//While H2 takes up alot more room than H2O, it weighs much less//
  

       Perhaps you could burn zeppelins over the area where you need the water?
ldischler, Nov 06 2008
  

       Welcome [holbrains] - you've just invented a variation of fire and brimstone. I suggest a slight rewrite, and renaming it as: "The Water Of Death", and moving it into the Mad Weapons category if there is one.
xenzag, Nov 06 2008
  

       I have no idea how to achieve this, but under extreme compression, hydrogen and oxygen both become solid metals. Could you possibly have two separate hunks of metal and get tiny bits of them to combine to make water? I am fully aware that you're talking the sort of pressures found at the centre of Jupiter, but a bit of Clarketech might do it, no?
nineteenthly, Nov 06 2008
  

       //Could you possibly have two separate hunks of metal and get tiny bits of them to combine to make water?// Depending on the solids, of course! You can even have two solids reacting to make, not liquid, but gas! In fact you can have two solids that make pure energy, and they can still remain solids (if the reaction is suitably contained)!
4whom, Nov 06 2008
  

       Probably short for 'hologram'. As in, his brains are really not there, but it kinda looks like it, dosen't it? Later on, all the late night talk shows will fill the airwaves with lame parody renditions of his brains, much to the delight of Anesthetized America. Headline news stations will cover both stories in one.   

       But, I'm not bitter. Gobama!   

       Oh, and I think a good name for this would be 'FireWater'.
daseva, Nov 06 2008
  

       [holbrains], we will fund your research on this. Will US$ 5000 be sufficent to get you started ?   

       We have a test site reserved for you in New Mexico. Can you make it there by the ned of next week ? We need a little time to set up all the video cameras, and finish filling all the sandbags for the bunkers.   

       Please stand upright so that we get a clear view of the "jackass" logo on the T-shirt (enclosed).
8th of 7, Nov 06 2008
  

       //ned of next week// friend of Bob of the Future?
MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 08 2008
  

       Hmmm...I had the same idea years and years ago in elementary school. Before I had actually seen (and heard) what happens when you mix the two gases together with an ignition source.   

       Even if this 'little' chemical hurdle could be overcome, you probably would not save any weight or volume (Water is pretty dense).   

       Specific Gravity of Water: 1 Specific Gravity of Liquid Hydrogen: 0.0710 Specific Gravity of Liquid Oxygen: 1.14   

       Too lazy to do the stoichiometry :(   

       Perhaps you could carry the hydrogen, burn it for energy, and reclaim the water afterwards for a desert power station, saving yourself a bit of weight...
cowtamer, Nov 09 2008
  

       I think that ultimately, the problem is limiting the quantities that are combined at a time. If you could get tiny amounts of hydrogen and oxygen to separate from a reservoir at a time, then combine them in a well-insulated, very resilient metal chamber with a high melting point, there could maybe be a way of doing this, given a store. I know palladium can retain large volumes of hydrogen, but are they large enough? Then some kind of oxidising compound, i.e. something with loads of oxygens per molecule?
Basically, i'm just desperately trying to rescue this idea from the flames.
nineteenthly, Nov 09 2008
  

       //Specific Gravity of Liquid Hydrogen: 0.0710// Molecular weight of water : hydrogen is close to 9:1, so this is equivalent to water at a specific gravity of 0.0710 * 9 = 0.64. So liquid hydrogen takes up more volume than the water it produces, but is 1/9th the weight. Compressed hydrogen would of course take up more space than liquid.   

       Producing water would be fairly easy; just burn a hydrogen / air flame at one end of a long air-cooled tube and water would condense and run out the other end. The mass of the cylinder + hydrogen might still be greater than the mass of the water produced.
spidermother, Nov 10 2008
  

       The means of producing water has no bearing on it's specific gravity.
daseva, Nov 10 2008
  

       I'm not saying it does; it was just a (slightly clumsy) way of explaining why the hydrogen will take up more room than the water it produces, since water in fact has a specific gravity near 1, not 0.64 (which would give a 1:1 volume ratio).
spidermother, Nov 10 2008
  

       "Too lazy to do the stoichiometry " eh, cowtamer? That's soooooooo slack.   

       What's "stoichiometry "?
Murdoch, Nov 11 2008
  

       Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm ... Yes.   

       Prrrrrrrrobably.
Murdoch, Nov 11 2008
  

       Nahhh... it's the measurement of stuff while suppressing one's emotions and reaction to surprising results.
Jinbish, Nov 11 2008
  

       Stoichiometry (usually spelled "stoichiometri" when translated to english) is actually ground up beetle preserved in salt.   

       Gulag prisoners of the forties and fifties would collect the beetles from around the entrances of the salt mines, grind them between flat stones when the guards weren't looking, and drop them in their pockets along with a handful of salt. This could be eaten at night time and would provide vital extra protein to supplement the meagre (and often non-existent) rations and help the prisoner survive the winter.   

       After the Khrushchev amnesties of the late fifties, the millions of freed prisoners returning to the cities introduced stoichiometri to Russian society as something of a delicacy, and also a mark of status as a survivor.   

       It is usually eaten one teaspoon at a time and washed down with a shot of vodka to disguise the foul taste.
wagster, Nov 11 2008
  

       I'm going with the beetles, salt, starving, Gulag, delicacy explanation.   

       As Solzhenitsyn said:   

       "Good stoichiometri substitutes for an experience which we have not oursleves lived through."
Murdoch, Nov 11 2008
  

       Brown's gas is reputedly used to produce water, and some energy.   

       Calling all Browns
To come to the aid
Of the water party.
neelandan, Nov 11 2008
  

       What about cynicometry and epicureanometry?
nineteenthly, Nov 11 2008
  

       I fully expect to see this on the shelves of my local Emporio Boozarama in about two weeks.
Murdoch, Nov 12 2008
  


 

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