WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: How Hydrogen Fuel Works: Part One 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.319 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.160 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.599 and I love all things tech. It is time for 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.840 a classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally published 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.800 April twenty third, two thousand fourteen. It is titled How 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.919 Hydrogen Fuel Works, Part one. Yep, this was back when 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.480 we would say part one or part two in our episodes, 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:38.839 and I don't really do that anymore now. I give 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.000 each episode a different title. But yes, as the title reveals, 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:45.720 this is the first half of a two parter about 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.440 hydrogen fuel. Fascinating stuff. And you know, there were a 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.640 lot of people who were predicting a hydrogen fuel based 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:56.520 economy probably about two decades ago, and we're still not 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.600 there yet. So we're gonna learn more about this fuel 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:03.240 source and what it is and how it works and 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:08.440 why we don't actually have hydrogen fuel fueling everything these days. 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.320 So let's take a listen. We're going to describe everything 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:17.479 about hydrogen and how it's being used in multiple ways. Yeah, 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.479 because hydrogen is a really simple element with a huge 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.399 amount of potential. Simplest element in the universe one proton, 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.759 one electron. That is it, get yourself a proton, get 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.200 yourself electron and let them make friends. You've got a hydrogen. 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.000 So it's also the most abundant element in the universe. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.640 It's it's everywhere. This is the stuff that the Sun 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:42.000 fuses into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. Yeah, 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.000 we have had to put that in there. Uh yeah, 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.520 so so it's technically fueling well everything, I suppose once 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:50.720 you've got it working in the sun. Yeah. Yeah, pretty 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.640 much everything on Earth, life as we know it exists 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.760 because of hydrogen being built into helium in the sun. 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.800 There are some exceptions, like you could look at some 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:06.800 extreme of files in Earth where they're living off chemicals 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.480 that are being produced by the gases and things being 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.120 released in deep undersea fissures. But most of life, the 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.880 vast majority of it, depends at least in some part 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:21.560 on light. Yes, and hydrogen. Although we have only known 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.760 about its existence as an element for a relatively short 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.600 period of time, has has been kind of theorized about. Yeah, 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.680 there's been people who have worked with what they called 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.359 like they had various words for it, inflammable air, being 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.119 a popular one because they realized, hey, there's the stuff 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.400 that when you do things to other things happens. And 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.359 then if you put a fire near it, it blows up, right, 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.520 inflammable meaning inflammable meaning inflammable, Yes, exactly able to be 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.880 set fire to. Right, And in this case, it's not 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:56.400 just that it burns, it's exclusive. So the word hydrogen's 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:00.160 actually combination of two words from Greek hydro and genus, 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:05.080 which together mean water forming. And once you know about 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:07.959 hydrogen and you know what water is, it's H two O. 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.280 Makes perfect sense. You've gotta have hydrogen or you don't 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.080 have water. Of course, if you don't have oxygen, you 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:17.359 still don't have water. And while this hydrogen stuff is everywhere, 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.920 I mean, it's the most abundant element in the universe, 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.560 it isn't often found on it's lonesome. That's because it 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.760 makes friends really easily. Yeah, it's it's kind of like 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.480 the opposite of me. It actually gets real buddy buddy 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.720 really fast, and and and the buddies like it. See 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:39.400 I got half that equation. But anyway, hydrogen forms compounds readily, right, 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:41.720 you get compounds and all sorts of stuff. You get 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.960 water being a big example at hydrogen bonds with oxygen. 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:49.280 You have water, you have lots of hydrocarbons, you've got um. 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.960 You even have occlusion, which is molecular condensation inside igneous rocks. 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.520 The point is is that it's bound up with other stuff. 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.120 It's not just out there its own. So if we 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.200 want to harvest hydrogen to use as fuel, you gotta 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:07.480 think a little outside the box. You can't just go 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.760 to the hydrogen store by it. Yeah, it doesn't grow 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:12.720 on any hydrogen trees. Now you have to you have 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.240 to do something to something else generally in order to 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.080 get some of it exactly, which means you've got to 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.080 expend energy in order to get this fuel. And that's 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.040 one of the things that's really important about any sort 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.640 of fuel. It's not just hydrogen. We're talking about any 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:27.880 kind of fuel where you're planning on getting energy out. 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.400 If it requires you to put more energy into it 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.359 to get the fuel, then you're getting as a benefit 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.200 of the fuel. Is a losing proposition, right. Although there 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.400 are lots of different ways to to produce hydrogen um. 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.839 You can use light to split water molecules, you can 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.760 gasify biomass waste, you can even just kind of let 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:48.479 a bunch of microbes do the work for you as 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.279 part of their normal metabolism. Um. But one of the 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.280 most popular ones right now anyway, what accounts for about 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.640 of the hydrogen in the United States is something called performing, 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.440 in which a carbon based fuels like natural gas typically methane, 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.720 are reacted with steam at high pressures and temperatures. That 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.080 produces hydrogen, a little bit of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:11.800 that last of which is then reacted to produce more 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.520 hydrogen and carbon dioxide. UM. You will note that that 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.000 both of these do produce greenhouse gases, so it's a 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.960 little bit less friendly than something like electrolysis, although you 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.120 have to pump a whole lot of energy into electrolysis. 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.799 We'll talk a little bit more about that later. Overall, 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:31.080 reforming does have the potential to overall reduce our carbon 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:33.880 footprint if it could provide the hydrogen for like a 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.920 whole fleet of fuel cell vehicles. Right That's one of 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.640 the big things about hydrogen. We'll talk about that in 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.680 just a second, about how it does not give off 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.800 greenhouse gases in ideal cases. Uh, keep in mind we're 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.800 talking ideal cases because it all depends on how you're 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.240 using the hydrogen. So, uh yeah. I also read that 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.080 there have been some studies of algae that give off hydrogen, which, 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.119 you know, if we were ever able to make an 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.440 algae farm that was efficient enough, that would be a 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.120 great way. But there are a lot of people who 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.000 question whether or that that's practical. It may not ever 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.880 be something that generates enough hydrogen for it to be 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.000 worth the amount of effort it would take. Again that 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:17.200 sort of energy losing proposition night. So some other things 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.080 about hydrogen. It has a low ignition energy. That means 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:22.800 you don't have to apply a lot of energy to 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.520 it to get it to ignite. That makes sense, you know, 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.600 it doesn't take much to set it on fire, essentially, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.280 is what we're talking about here. It actually requires an 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.640 order of magnitude less energy to ignite hydrogen than it 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.680 does to ignite gasoline. Yeah, so that means that gasoline 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.400 is pretty pretty flammable, pretty or inflammable. Yeah. Kids, let's 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.159 not play with the stuff at home, shall we, or 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.680 anywhere else for that matter. Let's treat it like serious business. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:50.880 But it's both a good and bad thing, right because 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.520 the hydrogen stance it's easy to ignite, means that you 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:57.400 can easily implement that in an engine. Uh does it 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.400 very efficiently. You don't have to spend a lot of 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:01.720 energy to make it do what you wanted to do. 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.000 On the other hand, because it has such a low 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.880 ignition point, it's also a challenge engineering wise, because if 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.360 your engine gets hot enough, the engine itself could cause 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.560 the hydrogen to ignite prematurely before it gets into the 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.800 operative fits right, and then it could make everything inoperative. 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.400 You would get an operative right quick. So that's you 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.120 know that there's a there's a good and bad side 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.720 of this. If you can engineer your way around it, 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.120 it can eventually be a benefit. Oh sure, it technically 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.040 has the highest energy output by weight of any fuel 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.440 um though it is the lightest elements, so that's kind 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:38.559 of yeah. You kind of have to get a lot 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.560 of it together too. So it's because it's it's not dense, 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.440 you know, which is something else will chat about. So 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.960 one of the reasons why we're even talking about hydrogen, 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.560 one of the big ones, it's what we alluded to earlier, 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.280 is the fact that the combustion is really clean, particularly 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.800 if you're using hydrogen and pure oxygen as the mixture 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.880 that goes into your engine, right, because then your output 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.240 is going to be just energy and water. Yep. You 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:07.280 get energy in the form of the power that you 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.760 generate and some heat because of course we don't have 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.320 any perfect systems where we don't lose some energy in 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.560 the form of heat. But yeah, the only other thing 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:16.920 you get is water. You don't get anything else. And 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.680 this is when I when I talk about mixtures. We'll 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.560 talk about combustion engines a little later too. This is 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.160 a typical thing where you mix together some fuel and 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.040 some air to go into a combustion engine. Same sort 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.160 of thing with hydrogen. You're not putting just pure hydrogen 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.440 and you're mixing it with some form of air, in 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:38.719 this case oxygen. However, that being said, most hydrogen combustion 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.400 engines are not using pure oxygen to mix together to 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:47.360 make the combustible mixture. They're using air. So air has 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:51.199 stuff in it besides oxygen. In fact, the primary component 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:55.000 of our atmosphere is not oxygen, it's nitrogen. So one 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.920 of the byproducts you get with using a hydrogen combustion 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:02.160 engine that uses air is that you get some nitrous oxides, 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.040 nitrogen oxides, I should say, not nitrous oxides, which would 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:10.319 be hilarious until you suffocated, but nitrogen oxides. Uh, that's 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.320 a that's a pollutant. You don't want that. Um. And 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.600 you can also get carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide if 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:21.679 you get some oil seeping into the combustion chambers, because uh, 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.800 oxygen does. Our atmosphere doesn't have like tons of carbon 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.440 in it, but oil does. So there are chances of 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:32.280 having a hydrogen combustion engine this kind of pollutants. You 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:33.920 can get around that if you wanted to go with 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.400 fuel cells, and we'll talk about those two. We'll be 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:40.800 back with more discussion about hydrogen fuel in just a second, 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:51.560 but first let's take a quick break. So the amount 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.960 of power that hydrogen engine can generate is dependent upon 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.480 a few different things. It depends upon the mix of 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.960 air and fuel and how that fuel is injected into 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:07.079 those combustion chambers in your engine. So, theoretically, the maximum 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.439 output of a hydrogen based combustion engine using a pre 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:15.199 mixed method. This is where you have like a carburetor 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.840 type situation that is mixing air and fuel together and 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.120 then it goes into the combustion chamber. Uh. If you're 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.079 using that method, theoretically your maximum output is about eight 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.680 of the power generated in a comparable gasoline engine, So 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.520 not as powerful, right, But if you were to take 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:37.040 a direct injection approach, which mixes the fuel and air 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:41.360 after the intake valve in the combustion chamber closes, then 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:45.800 the hydrogen based engine can theoretically produce fift more power 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.240 than a gasoline engine. So you kind of have a 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:53.960 less in one way or pent more the other way. Um, However, 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.400 this is all based upon the idea that you're using 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.000 exactly the amount of air you need to complete combustion, 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.360 so you're using just the right mixture of air and 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:07.000 just the right mixture of hydrogen. But the downside of 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:11.720 that is that you also produce more pollutants that way. Right. 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.959 Although okay, so, so this is a complicated issue and 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:16.960 the numbers on it are always going to be rough. 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.840 But when you're talking about fuel efficiency, you you need 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.400 to use more gasoline in order to make an engine 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.360 do the same amount of work than you would hydrogen. Yeah, exactly, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.120 Like you have this note about gasoline vehicles operating at 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:38.320 around efficiency. What that means is that of all the 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.040 energy that's being generated is actually going to doing the 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.800 thing you needed to do. The other is being lost 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.319 in some way or another. Sure, you usually due to 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.280 heat loss. That's the big one, especially with engines. I mean, 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.760 engines generate lots and lots of heat. The the ideal 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.960 of a fuel cell vehicle using hydrogen, it's closer to 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:00.360 six efficiency. For for the record, electric cars may manage 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.839 somewhere between twenty five and sixty fuel efficiency depending on 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.040 where you get the electricity to recharge that battery. Right, 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.840 and and if you want to be really technical, a 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.880 fuel cell vehicle is kind of a subset of electric vehicles. 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:15.920 It's just that it's an electric vehicle that you are 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:22.480 refueling with hydrogen rather than a closed battery system exactly. So, yeah, 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:24.240 it's a great point. And that's another thing that we 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.760 have to take into consideration. Now. Typically, if if we're 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:29.959 talking about you know, I just mentioned about having just 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.400 enough air and fuel to complete combustion, and you get 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.479 that that crazy hundred and fifteen percent of a gasoline 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.880 power engine, but you produce more more pollutants as well. 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.720 Usually we're not using exactly the amount of air because 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.400 we want to cut back on those pollutants. One of 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.520 the big reasons we want to use hydrogen is to 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:52.559 cut back on pollutants. So if we're producing more pollutants 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.000 by making it really efficient, then we're like, well, we 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.000 just kind of traded off. That was a lot of 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.400 money to not do any better exactly. So what we 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.360 tend to see our engines that use about twice as 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:07.360 much air as is actually required to complete combustion. Now, 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.640 this reduces pollution, but it also reduces the output of 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:16.040 the engine. Yeah, sad trombone. Okay, so these are just tradeoffs. 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:17.600 This is the way the real world works. We have 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:19.520 to sit there and say, Okay, there's not a magic 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.040 solution that is going to solve all the problems equally, 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.320 we have to start making tradeoffs. This is a pretty 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.560 good one because you can you can enlarge the engine 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.280 size and make up for a lot of it. Right, 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:32.960 So if you make the hydrogen based engine larger than 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.600 a gasoline based engine, you can kind of make up 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:37.520 this this loss. Now that does, of course, mean you 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.200 have to redesign vehicles around a larger engine. So I 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.319 mean it's you know, it's those domino effects, right. You 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.719 could also include what's called a turbo charger or supercharger, 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.079 and you might wonder, hey, how did those work. We'll 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.200 do another episode because it's already going to be a 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:53.120 long one for this one. So we can't. We can't 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:55.600 sit there and uh and jump into that and hope 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:57.880 to make it out alive, because no will kill us. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.839 The protective barrier is only so strong. Okay. So, like 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:05.520 we said, hydrogen not very dense. When you've got one 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:08.320 proton and one electron, you don't expect it to be Nope, 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.400 So it's uh room temperature is a gas. Getting enough 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:14.680 hydrogen together in one place to be useful as a 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:16.680 fuel takes a lot of work, and some of the 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.880 easiest ways of storing it, like in extremely cold liquid form, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.080 aren't really practical for toting around in a consumer motor 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.240 vehicle that might not want to incorporate a complex cooling 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:30.720 system due to you know, cost and weight and space issues. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:32.640 So usually we end up having to figure out a 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:36.840 way of pressure rizing it under intense amounts of pressure. Now, 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.720 that of course creates another safety issue. Anytime you have 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.160 a compressed gas, it's under a lot of pressure. If 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:46.040 you rupture that containment unit in some way. Yeah. You 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.280 that's and then at on top of that that the 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.800 gas itself is inflammable, and you've got the potential for really, 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.440 really a bad day, Which is why a lot of 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.040 companies that have looked into using hydrogen as a fuel 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.920 in one way or another, whether as a bustin engine 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.120 fuel or whether as a fuel sell fuel, have put 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.280 in a lot of research and development in safety for 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.560 these hydrogen canisters or you know else. They will never 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:12.440 be able to market it because it would just be 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.119 too dangerous. Although some people argue that, I mean, gasoline 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.960 tanks being driven around are also that's a it's a 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.040 good point. It's a fair point. I mean, we're we've 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:25.080 been relying on a technology that has a an inflammable 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.080 fuel for more than a century. And you know, although 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.320 it's not quite as dangerous as movies make it out 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:32.600 to be. I mean, it's not that. Yeah where where 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:35.760 you you your car your car sways a bed and 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.200 then explodes. Y. Yeah, so if Michael Bay made cars, 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.440 no one would ever get in them. But fortunately, as 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.160 far as I know, he has not made one. Uh so, 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.440 uh yeah, We've we've been making use of this hydrogen 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.720 for a long time, and in fact, we, like Lauren said, 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:53.560 we were kind of playing with this stuff before we 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.680 even had any idea of what it was. We didn't 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:01.080 really know about elements or even gas is. So we're 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:03.760 gonna take you on a historical journey, and along this 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.480 journey will be explaining how some of this stuff works, 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.640 because we figured we'd kind of incorporate both the history 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:14.800 and the technical stuff altogether. It's an experiment. Now before 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.320 we jump into the way back machine, because I know 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.800 all you guys have been missing it, Laurence looking at 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.160 me terrified. Yeah, Lauren, that's what that big thing is 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.320 in the corner that we haven't been using. It's all 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.640 dusty and stuff. Turns out it wasn't in Mongolia. It 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.040 was just in a supply closet. Alright. Well, our our 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.360 fuel gauge is not on empty yet. We still got 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.680 a bit more to go, but first let's take another 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:45.240 quick break. Okay, So we're back and we're ready to 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.520 get into the way Back Machine, which I know is 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.800 going to sound absolutely amazing. I can't believe all the 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.120 bells and whistles that indicate to you that we've actually 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.040 traveled back in time. Because in truth, it's silent. But 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.600 we have to give you some you know, way of 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.040 knowing that that's what's happened. Otherwise it's not it's not 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.840 fun radio trauma exactly. So let's let's just go ahead 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.280 and get in now. Over here, we've got the dial 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.320 which I'm going to set back to uh early seventeenth century. 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.679 You know, I don't know how it knows where I 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.879 wanted to go. It just does. But when is really tricky. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:24.800 All right, let's just hit the button. Here here we are. 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.800 It's a glorious and smelly So I want to introduce 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.600 you to Johann Baptista van Helmont, who is the first 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.680 person to describe hydrogen as a gas, and not only that, 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.679 he's the first person to come up with the word 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.879 gas to describe substances that have the qualities of a gas. 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.440 He was thinking of stuff that is heavier than air, 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:50.719 or misty, or he was just trying to come up 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.600 with like a collective noun to call this stuff. He 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.720 proposed gas, and it's stuck. So he goes on to 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:01.280 make some more observation which in a few decades get 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.800 picked up by another person of philosopher, A natural philosopher, 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:06.919 and we'll chat about him. His name is Robert Boyle. 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:11.560 So between Robert Boyle and Johan we have in sixteen 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:15.719 fifty Serteodor Turk with the men May yearn which I 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.880 know I've absolutely butchered based Swiss, so so I'm sure 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.840 he's fine with it. Yeah, They the Swiss have a 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:28.280 beautiful way with words that escapes the physical contortions my 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.800 mouth can go through. So, but he produced hydrogen and 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:37.240 he called it inflammable air by combining iron with sulfuric acid. Now, 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.000 hydrogen is found in a lot of different compounds, including 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.840 all the acids, So if you are able to combine 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.720 it with other stuff, usually that that reaction you get 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:52.320 by introducing an element into acid will release the hydrogen exactly. Now, 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.439 sixteen seventy one we get to that Irish philosopher I 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:59.800 had mentioned, Robert Boyle. Now he experimented with producing hydrogen 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.439 as well, and he was of the New philosophy movement. 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.720 This was a really interesting movement. It combined observations and 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.480 experimentation with logical thinking to understand the world around him. 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.560 So this is sort of a proto scientist movement. It's 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.960 before we really had the formal sciences. We this is 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:22.560 when alchemy was starting to transform into chemistry. Right. We 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.680 had people who had made observations and calculations on things 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.600 like physics, but it's now starting to actually take form 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.439 into the sciences as we know them today. So he 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.800 produced hydrogen by combining iron and various assets, and that's 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.800 how he started to take a look at this hydrogen gas. 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.200 And he was he was pretty pretty intelligent. He noticed 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:48.560 that a gas volume varies inversely with pressure, hence Boil's law. Yeah, 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:52.000 we named it after after him. He also believed in 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.280 alchemy and transmutation, so he didn't get everything right. You know, 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:58.520 lots of people today still believe in alchemy and transmutation, 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.879 so well, will leave that for now. But yes, Boil, 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.000 he did a lot of work, and a lot of 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:07.840 his work inspired other people. So over the next several decades, 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.840 lots of different philosophers and then later chemists and scientists 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:17.280 began to experiment with hydrogen gas. They didn't really give 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.720 it a name yet, but they knew that the stuff 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.760 would blow up if you exposed it to flame, so 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.400 they began to really study it further until we get 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.480 to seventeen sixty six, and now we get to go 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.760 to England, because that's where Henry Cavendish was and he 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:35.960 was the first to recognize hydrogen as a distinct substance. 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:38.720 And he was also the first to describe the composition 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.840 of water. You know, before that, everyone just said it's wet, 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.159 and if it gets cold, it gets hard. That's that 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:48.280 was pretty much it. If it gets really hot, it 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.480 gets cloudy, that's you know, just that's where we were 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:55.280 with science until Cavendish came along. I might be exaggerating 0:20:55.280 --> 0:21:00.000 a little, but he absolutely loved learning for learning, saying 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:03.160 he wasn't actually a scientist per se though as he no, 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.280 not really, I mean he was. He was more like 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:09.560 just obsessed. He was one of the wealthiest men in 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:13.439 all of Europe. He had inherited a crazy sum of money, 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.320 and he chose to live very frugally in London. He 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:21.120 wasn't interested in the trappings of wealth. He wasn't interested 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.000 in ostentation. He was actually, according to one thing I read, 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:27.720 the only reason we even have a sketch of him 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.879 is because an artist surreptitiously drew one while at a gathering, 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:35.040 a small private gathering at his house because he didn't. 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.600 He didn't you know, want he didn't. He didn't sit 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.840 for a portrait. He was introvert, super introvert, and he 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:44.119 didn't really publish most of his work. He published some 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:45.800 of it, but not all of it, because he wasn't 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:47.359 really interested in that. He know, he just wanted to 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.320 know how the world works. He was just fascinated with learning. 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.320 He wasn't not necessarily as fascinated with teaching, but he 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:55.959 was definitely fascinated with learning. I want someone to make 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:58.840 a awkward action here a movie about this guy. Yeah. 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.280 I have a feeling that we have to invent a 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.399 lot of of facts about his life, which makes it 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.720 even better. Yeah, that's what movies generally do. Anyway, I'd 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:10.159 be less offended if I knew less about the history 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.960 of the actual guy. So yeah, I think Henry Cavendish 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.720 Supervillain would be an awesome movie. So I'll get to 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:17.440 work on that. Yes, all right, then we moved to 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:21.240