ZeroAvia's Val Miftakhov makes a compelling case for hydrogen aviation

Dear Jim,

I was hoping you might have some input on this.

My comments in-line below:


On Tue, 23 Jun 2020 17:37:38 -0000, wrote:

Larry Dighera wrote:

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That's because current fuel-cell automobiles use dirty gaseous H2 fuel
derived from petroleum. Liquid H2 liberated from water by hydrolysis
has the potential to power aircraft efficiently and cleanly either
burned in your (300-hp) Continental IO-520-K or (300-hp) Lycoming
IO-540-K1E5.

Hydrogen is hydrogen.


It's difficult to argue with that sagacious logic. However,
electrolysis produces hydrogen from water without producing CO2 or
other pollutants.


About 90% of hydrogen production comes from steam reforming of natural gas,
which involves the removal of hydrogen from hydrocarbons at very high
temperatures.


https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b06197
"Conventional hydrogen production via steam methane reforming (SMR) is
energy intensive, coproduces carbon dioxide, and emits air
pollutants."

https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcell...-gas-reforming
https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcell...ologies-office
"Hydrogen can be produced using a number of different processes.
Thermochemical processes use heat and chemical reactions to release
hydrogen from organic materials such as fossil fuels and biomass.
Water (H2O) can be split into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) using
electrolysis or solar energy. Microorganisms such as bacteria and
algae can produce hydrogen through biological processes."

https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcell...-gas-reforming
"Today, 95% of the hydrogen produced in the United States is made by
natural gas reforming in large central plants."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_reforming
"Steam methane reforming is a method for producing syngas (hydrogen
and carbon monoxide) by reaction of hydrocarbons with water. Commonly
natural gas is the feedstock.

For every tonne of hydrogen produced this way, 9 tonnes of CO2 are
also produced." [Source:
https://ing.dk/artikel/vinder-videns...gifraas-230864
https://translate.google.com/transla...gifraas-230864
] (Since Trump's attack on the EPA has removed publicly available
pollution data, it was necessary to seek pollution information from a
foreign source.)

So loosely speaking, the steam methane reforming process produces
"dirty" H2 that pollutes our environment. Of course it's the process
that's dirty, not the H2. (Actually, the H2 from electrolysis is
about as chemically pure as it is possible to produce) I apologize
for my less than accurate statement, but the damage to the environment
caused by reforming is still the same.


Burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine produces huge
amounts of oxides of nitrogen, i.e. smog, far in execess of
anybodys pollution laws, assuming the engine can withstand
the much higher flame temperature of hydrogen.


Yeah, I wasn't really serious about burning H2 in IC engines. I put a
:-) in my statement, but apparently it was lost during editing.


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"Your analysis fails to consider liquid H2's ~3X better energy
density compared to gasoline. Further, cryo-coolers are able to
condense liquid H2 at atmospheric pressure with very modest power
requirements (~100W). Liquid H2 overcomes the high-pressure
storage requirement for H2 gas.

Most airports don't even offer MOGAS and you think they are going
to install huge solar arrays and cryo-coolers to produce liquid
hydrogen?


Perhaps.

To be totally candid, I envision photo-voltaic powered liquid H2
production through electrolysis employing cryo-cooling technology for
use in fuel-cell electric generation to power electric motors, be they
attached to wheels on the road, or propellers in the air. I'm
certainly no engineer, but the limited research I've done appears to
support this being feasible, with the possibility of 6Li use for
longer term H2 storage.


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6Li is used to store hydrogen safely and efficiently. It is also
one of the key components in making a thermal-nuclear weapon, but
by itself is not dangerous. Because of crony capitalism and
ignorant politicians, the US government has banned 6Li and the
buying and selling of it. However, the making of 6Li H yourself
with your own particle accelerator IS NOT!

Right, airports that won't sell MOGAS are going to install particle
accelerators to produce a key component for nuclear weapons?


If you had watched the video, you'd be aware that it is the legal
system that necessitates the use of a particle accelerator to produce
6Li, as its sale is currently prohibited because it can be a
constituent of fission technology. If that law were to be rescinded,
an on-site accelerator wouldn't be necessary to create 6Li.


Utter fantasy.


Agreed, it's a fantastic idea. I would have said the same of Musk's
chances of success at making electric automobiles wildly popular
worldwide, or his putting men in space at a cost far below the
historical price, or the chances of millions of people throughout the
world simultaneously protesting against police killing, instead of
protecting, the citizens they have sworn to protect and serve.

So, I'm firmly on the side of the dreamers to lead us into the future.

I would dearly love to see your engineering analysis of the vision I
candidly provided above, with references to the sources of your
supporting data and the underling mathematics. I realize this would
be a lot of pro-bono labor, but you appear to poses the requisite
interest. (And you're of the same nationality of Galileo who once
nearly lost his life during the inquisition for publicly espousing the
truths he had discovered.)


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