Comment on China tests world's first megawatt-class flying wind turbine

• oyzmo@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Yes, but I think hydrogen likes to go bang 😆

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  • bus_factor@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    No worries, that only happens if there’s a spark, like for instance some static electricity. Shouldn’t be a problem here, surely this thing won’t generate any of that.

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    • kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Wouldn’t this still need to be tethered to the ground? Would that likely have grounding cables?

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      • bus_factor@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        That helps against sparks jumping between the balloon and the ground, but things could still get zappy between the individual components of the balloon.

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  • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Image

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    • porcoesphino@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      “Skytanic” was a great episode of Archer. For anyone that hasn’t seen it, the running gag is that Archer thinks the non-flammable helium is going to explode leading to things like this slap

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      • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        “What part of this you’re not getting?”

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      • ClownStatue@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        “M” as in “Mancy!” 

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• GreenShimada@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Not necessarily. It’s not about the boom factor alone - hydrogen is a small atom, and so under pressure, most commonly used materials are permeable to it. It leaks through every material. It really takes something as solid as steel pipes for hydrogen atoms to not work their way through and escape. So while hydrogen would be cheaper to produce at scale, it’s also constantly leaking out of any container.

  For wind turbines, static electricity and storms would be huge risks as well, so the application of a floating wind turbine would not be ideal.

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  • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Even with steel pipes you get problems with hydrogen embrittlement because hydrogen diffuses into the steel and can cause it to crack.

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  • wewbull@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Helium does a pretty good job of that too.

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  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    If you’re producing electricity in it, you can always bring some water up and use some of that electricity to extract hydrogen from the water to make up for any leaks.

    It really depends how bad the leaking is since that dictates how much weight of water is needed to be brought up and electricity must be used for hydrolysis.

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• ramenshaman@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Yeah, that’s what the folks who designed the Hindenburg thought as well.

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  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    For an autonomous platform with some sort of safety mechanisms for jettisoning the air bag if a catastrophic failure occurs, hydrogen does in fact sound like a way better and less scarce lifting gas.

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  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Wasn’t the way the Hindenburg burned due to both the Hidrogen AND the alumium oxide paint covering it?

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  • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Nah, it’s perfect!

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