Hi My names Darren Cronin. In my opinion it’s time we started looking at ides like this. If it works you could use the existing infrastructure to supply the volumes of liquid required.
The main problem with a hydrogen powered jet is the fuel hydrogen, would have to be stored in a large pressurised or cryogenic tank inside the aircraft utilising the space required for passengers where as traditional aircraft store jet fuel in their wings. My proposal is a radical idea that traditionalists might scoff at but hear me out. We have to come up with an alternative to jet fuel, the environmental costs are building.
Fumes can last for hundreds of years in the atmosphere this current slowdown is just a blip on the chart!
Hydrogen is the obvious choice as it burns even more efficiently then jet fuel producing more power when ignited and all you get is water vapour, not C02 as a byproduct. So how can we get over the storage problem?
My solution is radical, and when I tell you you might think it’s mad but some of the best ideas are at first thought of that way, but in my opinion the simpler the solution the better.
My idea would radically change the infrastructure supplying liquid to airports.
The large storage tanks occasionally blow up I’m sighting Buncefield near London as just one of many examples, 10 years ago it was the biggest explosion in Europe since WW2. (google it it was enormous)
My proposed idea would be a fraction of the cost of these facilities. A fact everyone would benefit from.
It would turn an aircraft from what is essentially a flying bomb into a much safer mode of transportation.
Instead of loading the hydrogen onto the aeroplane in a central tank, why not load it into the wings as demineralise water! With a percentage of antifreeze!
You will then need an electric reaction known as electrolysis to separates the hydrogen from the oxygen that would have to be at lest equal to the power you want the engines to produce.
Even the most modern batteries at this point in time are not capable of storing that kind of power but remember hydrogen is more efficient then jet fuel so all you need to do is store a fraction of the electricity required, in pre-charged on board batteries.
This is the clever bit… if you then Wrap a dynamo around the internal workings of the jet engine to recharge the batteries and get the process going with an initial power surge from the battery’s should be more then enough electricity to keep the process going.
The real clever adaptation would be Hundreds of small individual tubes with swaged ends and a small rods passing a current through the water from positive to negative where the bubbles of the hydrogen and oxygen form as well as collecting the hydrogen and oxygen at source placed in the lower shoulder of the wing so they are always submerged, would collect the gas with a small storage tank for the initial take off.
It may be possible to develop a fast form of water spray being exposed to an electric arch in which hydrogen is separated from oxygen at a much greater rate, the oxygen then being reintroduced after the hydrogen is ignited would be one challenge, but one I’m sure is solvable.
Even if you could find a way to fly using hydrogen stored in tanks on board a plane most of the hydrogen produced at this time is derived from oil!!!
My idea would be far safer and better for the environment.
Ps: I’m under no illusion about the complications involved in this idea, having an idea is easy, bringing it to fruition is the hard part. But if there is even a one percent chance this could work I think we can all recognise the importance, not for the planet, the planet will survive us! It’s good for millions of years to come, its humanity and the current ecosystem that needs rescuing so we need to explore every possibility.
Sincerely Darren Cronin 2020