Comment on New fuel cell could enable electric aviation
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 3 days ago1200 Wh / kg of sodium
That is about the H2 energy release from sodium reacting with water (perhaps just humidity in air).
however gasoline is a whole 3800 Wh / kg
H2 has 33000wh/kg, and so if you were starting with sodium, might as well pour water on it on the ground, and fill the plane up with automatic high pressure H2.
There are no emissions other than water vapour from the sodium process because the reaction leaves solid byproducts other than H2.
xthexder@l.sw0.com 3 days ago
From what the article says, this fuel cell produces sodium oxide by reacting sodium with oxygen. There’s no hydrogen gas being produced in the fuel cell.
The emissions are sodium hydroxide, or sodium carbonate after it reacts with carbon in the air.
(Also now I’m not sure where I got 1200Wh/kg from. The article says both 1000 and 1500 Wh/kg)
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Article says whole system is 1000wh/kg (including support machinery). There are 5 (including intermediate step) reactions of air and sodium. I’d guess they are using 100% humidity air. H2 is part of the reaction with humidity, and is a much more rapid and “exothermic” reaction than transformation to SaO.