CPH2’s destroyed electrolyzer is a useful warning: hydrogen startups sell the breakthrough component, but customers buy the industrial system around it.
I'm not a chemist, but did take chemistry courses in the past. Even I know that 2H2+O2 tends to go to 2H2O+energy. All it needs is a nudge (and may not even need that). If I were looking at CPH2's design, one of my first questions (which I would have a chemical engineer look at to confirm the answer is correct) is how do they prevent that from happening in their mixed output. Not "minimize the risk", but prevent, make not possible.
Jeff, I am a chemical engineer with 30 years of industrial experience, and as a young engineer, a plant modification I was involved with caused a major explosion and destroyed the plant. The subsequent lengthy investigation was a formative life lesson. Mercifully, nobody was killed or seriously injured.
This is a very well-written article explaining the complexity of hydrogen production systems. In the green hydrogen space, there is a proliferation of projects that lack the required expertise to design and operate them.
I'm not a chemist, but did take chemistry courses in the past. Even I know that 2H2+O2 tends to go to 2H2O+energy. All it needs is a nudge (and may not even need that). If I were looking at CPH2's design, one of my first questions (which I would have a chemical engineer look at to confirm the answer is correct) is how do they prevent that from happening in their mixed output. Not "minimize the risk", but prevent, make not possible.
Jeff, I am a chemical engineer with 30 years of industrial experience, and as a young engineer, a plant modification I was involved with caused a major explosion and destroyed the plant. The subsequent lengthy investigation was a formative life lesson. Mercifully, nobody was killed or seriously injured.
This is a very well-written article explaining the complexity of hydrogen production systems. In the green hydrogen space, there is a proliferation of projects that lack the required expertise to design and operate them.